Maurice has worked in this field for the
last 9 years:

• Managing clinical services & staff
• PCT
• Health promotion
• Training
• Service development
• Written articles:

AFRICAN HIV POLICY NETWORK
Human rights: Gender & HIV

Which Way To My Identity
Maurice Cunningham.

The Attention and consumerism of young people is ever more sought after through mass media: innumerable television channels, internet and advertising. In addition to these, schools, parents, peer pressure, music, pop culture are all significant contributory factors in shaping the identities of young people. Navigating all of these can be like trying to find your way through crowded streets in an infamiliar city - long, a bit of a headache, but ultimately you find your way in the end. As simplistic as it sounds, this isn't too dissimilar from how young people are forming their identity today. As with the city streets, some may follow directions, some will follow signs, some will follow others, some may prefer to find their own way unassisted, passing vaguely familiar places for a second or third time or coming to a dead end before opting for a different strategy. Some will take longer to find their way than others, taking a number of wrong turns, but ultimately, they find their way.

Navigating the many sources from which young people receive messages and information about identity is made more complicated by the various and sometimes conflicting messages available.

So how are young people dealing with all this? Pretty much in the same way as the rest of us, by trial and error, a process of elimination and experimentation, much of which will be lead by peer pressure along with the other powerful influences mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, many of the messages regarding such issues as gender roles, sexuality or parenthood conveyed by the most influential factor in a young person's life are often negative: the one dimensional criteria for manhood as typically being strong, assertive, heterosexual, in-charge and devoid of affection or at least public displays of it except in the eternal pursuit of female sexual conquests; women as baby-dropping, ass shaking second-class citizens, predominantly revered as objects of beauty that reinforces the male ego. This generalization might be somewhat cynical, but the relentless saturation of these messages throughout society, including the home, makes them very effective, with some of the results being the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe, high rates of STI's among young people, higher divorce or separation rates than ever before.. In response, teenage pregnancy strategies, sexual health strategies, PCT's, and a host of voluntary sector organizations, collectively spend millions each year trying to counteract these messages and their effects on young people's identity.

Young people have little choice but to endure the barrage of mechanisms competing to deliberately or inadvertently influence their ideas on how, what and when to be. The results of this on forming their identity cannot be conclusive at this stage of their lives. However, with young people now exposed to so many different perspectives on life, they are forced to exercise their liberty to make up their own minds on what these messages mean and which are right for them.