January 29, 2019
Kenji Yoshino defines covering as “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream,”. Yoshino covers himself as he is a gay civil right lawyer. He believes that he needs to hide that his sexuality because of his job. Everyone covers no matter their circumstances. Yoshino gives examples of what people cover, they are: covering ethnicity when changing the name, your sexuality, covering disabilities, etc. From what I have read, I have conducted my own definition of covering. Covering when a person hides something about them from the community to avoid harmful judgments and comments. One example that I can relate to covering is if someone was transgender. They would hide it from everyone around them. Yoshino and my definition of covering are different and the same. He connects covering to fit into the mainstream. I connect it to fitting into the community. Those two are connected in many ways.
In the article D.W. Winnicott, explains what True and False Self is. He talks about how they are connected in many ways. True Self is the self that gives an individual the feeling of being real and False Self is the self that gives an individual the feeling of being unreal. One positive function of the false self is that one who is false to self is aware of their boundaries. Winnicott explains how “in the healthy individual, the False Self is reduced to a “polite and mannered social attitude,” a tool available to the fully realized True Self.”
