The Movie Made Me Change My Mind

Whether you are watching mighty Leonidas lead his army into battle in the movie “300” or laughing hysterically at the hilarious Will Farrell in “Anchorman,” movies allow us to escape. They provide us an opportunity to safely go on adventures, experience the pitfalls of relationships, or pursue victory in battle. However, all movies are not created equal and all movies don’t reveal equality.

Studies show that Black, Asian, Latin, and elderly actors are vastly underrepresented on the big screen. That lack of representation on the big screen poses a threat to self-esteem for those within the marginalized groups. Nicole Martins of Indiana University said, “There’s this body of research and a term known as ‘symbolic annihilation,’ which is the idea that if you don’t see people like you in the media you consume, you must somehow be unimportant.”

Our identity is integral to our ability to successfully fulfill our purpose. This means that we need to be careful how our self-image is guided and shaped. This process begins at a young age. Joshua Lane wrote, “I would say that that they [movies] certainly can affect self-image. Especially when you are a child. Children don’t have a fully formed self-image, so they can often compare themselves or even identify themselves with movie characters, and start to build their self-image according to that.”

At some point many of us have allowed movies to help build our self-image. However, are they the best format for constructing our identity? Can we trust the purpose that lies within us to such a fluid and often-faulty medium such as cinema? If not, then what source can provide a better avenue for identity formulation?

IDENTITY FROM A MOVIE

Sara Boboltz and Kimberly Yam wrote, “Stories affect how we live our lives, how we see other people, how we think about ourselves. That sentiment was common among the researchers we spoke to, although all of them noted that the sociology of representation is a topic infrequently covered specifically.” I won’t make an attempt to cover that topic here either. However, I will cover the effects of what happens when we allow a lack of cinematic representation to shape our identity.

Movies are the result of the minds of many different people coming together to tell or make a story for the purpose of entertainment. Regardless of the level of representation you do or don’t see based on your ethnicity, age, or background, the movie makers can’t provide you an accurate measuring stick through which you can form your identity because they didn’t create you or give you purpose. Knowing who you are is the most important starting point because who you are will guide what you do. It will keep you from becoming someone you were never meant to become.

Purpose is defined as the original intent for why something exists. When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable. This means if you don’t know the purpose for why you were created you will end up abusing your own life. You will abuse your position. You will abuse those who follow you. Or you will misuse or abuse the days of your life. Your identity is who you are. Who you are is not determined by what you do in life but it should govern who you are when you do whatever you do in life.

IDENTITY FROM A MAKER

A healthy self-image and a well-formed identity are the result of a proper understanding of our value. Only two people can determine the value of a product: the purchaser or the creator. The product never determines its own value.

Some don’t know their value because they don’t know the One who has assigned value to everyone. A company selling shoes assigns a value to the shoes and shoppers decide if they agree with that value. A ten-dollar bill has its value assigned by the U.S. government. The question then is, Who assigns value to humans? To know your value you can look at the price that was paid for your life. “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). A God of infinite wealth chose to pay for your life with His life. That act proved that our value is enormously great and that our lives must have meaning. And to top it off He’s not just the purchaser, but the Creator too.

If our lives are precious we should take care to value the purpose for which we have life. We were created in His image, which relinquishes us from the arduous task of trying to foster a self-image that doesn’t provide us with peace, perspective or pleasure. The hard work of image creation has already been done and an unchanging standard bearer has done it. Our identity is found in Him. Let’s make sure that our identity and self-image are sourced from our Maker and not the movies.