In ‘An Account of Oneself,’ by Judith Butler in the first chapter she talks about the ways in which one can give an account of oneself. According to Judith Butler you can give an account of one’s self by taking into consideration many things. Those things are, the way in which the Other is involved in the account of your identity, the manner in which social norms circumscribe your telling, the way in which the norms help or hinder your account, the way in which your account is always necessarily incomplete and how this is part of the ethical structure of a life.
So, in order to speak yourself you need to take into an account social norms and what people deem acceptable. So, when people question Social Norms, they are also questioning themselves, making things very confusing.
So, taking everything into account when the question of “who am I?” is asked the answer must come out in a way that the general population can understand and interpret. The account of myself must be given with the social norms or I risk not being recognized. I must fit into a box that people can put a label on in order to be recognized.
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Therefor who I am in everyone else’s eyes is sort of determined by the other considers normal, because I can’t go out of what they consider is normal. If I begin to think outside the box and go outside the norms, or if I begin to question the norms than I will begin to question myself. Because if the other doesn’t recognize me then who am I. I am constrained by these norms.
To give an account of myself, I would need to consider the social norms and identities that are recognized. I am an African American Women. I am a college student who is 18. These are recognizable by the other. Based on social norms the other would (because I’m a women) define me as emotional or weak because that’s just how it goes.
Yet Social norms don’t exactly define you. This is where Social Norm hinder your identity. If you are a woman, your automatically associated with everything weak. When in fact you could be the exact opposite. Or Because I’m Black to some people I could possibly be a criminal.
So, in the end social norms determine what other people think of you but they don’t necessarily determine who you are. You could be the exact opposite of what the other sees you as.
