I was originally thinking that I would be interested in studying Nature as a big word, but for some reason couldn’t find a way to connect with it in the way that I wanted. After a little bit of thinking, I realized there was a way for me to connect with it, and a lot of other things that I have been thinking about recently, in a more roundabout way. Something that I have been thinking about a lot recently is identity and the ways that it is self-given, or society-given.
My first thoughts are that the theory of identity can be split into two: self versus society. In a lot of ways these interconnect, but sometimes they just really don’t match. Self identity is very fluid and can change from life-events, feelings, emotions, etc. Identities put on by society are often associated with a long history of definitions and use. In particular, societal identities are often put on based upon looks, and if you look like you fit into an identity category. This in particular becomes an issue with sexual or gender orientation.
Identity within environmentalism can be as simple as if you do or do not consider yourself an environmentalists, or if society does. It can also be how the other identifiers in your life (race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, place, traumatic events, etc) can and have affected your relationship or identity with environmentalism. I still am not sure where further to go with this, but am definitely interested in looking at our past readings, and future research, to see what sort of connections I can make and what not.