Deanna Stovall

If you imagined yourself walking down the street, how would you illustrate your appearance and identity? Would you start with how your hair looks? Your presence when you see yourself approach someone? Or perhaps you would look at the style of clothing you have on? It’s been said that a persons outer identity determines whether or not another person would approach them; but what about your inner self? I see identity as the events and your surroundings that caused you to carry yourself in the fashion that you do. Identity is what makes a person function and survive in the area that they seem to reside in. When building our identity, we come across the identities and images of our peers. We begin to emulate and find similar traits that could possibly make you and your peer compatible. Above all, we even begin to rely on the stars in film and music to determine who we might be in life. As for myself, my identity is complicated. I involuntarily carry so many different identities in one mind. For starters, I'm Black and true Native American; meaning that people love to touch my hair and tell me how soft it is and what I'm mixed with. I'm next a female filmmaker, which is very difficult in a constant male dominant industry. Next, I'm an artist; which means that I'm strange and forever might still be strange, but I can't complain. Lastly, I'm a lesbian. Yes, I said it, Lesbian. This means that I could never be treated like a real woman, and be out of the closet at the same time. This is not necessarily how I perceive myself personally, but it is what it is and it might take a while to change the worlds mind set. As a very open lesbian, the people who are on the outside looking in have given their opinions about who they believe that a lesbian (or even a gay man) is on the inside. For example, I've hear from many people that it’s been believed that I have multiple women inside and outside the building I live in that I have been with. NEVER! It’s actually the opposite. When it comes to the same sex, I get nervous and not know how to approach them, but that not how the outside sees it. Its the first seven seconds in contact that a person gives a solid opinion about a future peer. Sometimes its for the good and sometimes it aggravating. However, who are we to say we haven't done it ourselves, eh?