Would you feel more imposture syndrome having a different race or gender than the group you are included in?

[Vneila21]

I've been chewing on this nugget for quite some time as a person of color in a predominantly white university. I do not feel heaps of impostor syndrome; the campus keeps diversity pretty well. I have usually felt like an outcast, but that's a different story. Whenever I sit with a group of guys, I feel like I need to act differently or "blend in" so they don't see me as a piece of meat. Do other girls or guys feel that way? If you don't think impostor syndrome exists, it's real to me.

[Maybe_Maybe_not]

I don't think impostor syndrome exists, that's right lol, thanks for pointing that out, accidentally. As I think it's a cheap term coming from popular press (or corporate imagination) and the likes, I think it is used to simplify, poorly, something quite intricate:

Instead I believe in the sensation of belonging and its counterpart, the sensation of exclusion. I also believe in this need to "blend in" you describe, as I experienced it, and I think everyone experiences it. I believe it's an urge to conform to a social image or a self-image, with complex causes and consequences. Because it is coming from within you, psychologically, and also from around you, sociologically.

On top of that, I believe that we're all, unequivocally, impostors 24/7. Wearing masks, more or less elaborated, at work, in the streets, at school, in any place where people are. Except in those rare occasions, with good friends and lovers we trust. Aaaaand except in the case of specific mental illness, making people not registering their self-image, or their social image.

[Vneila21]

Thanks for your opinion! I have learned about this presented-self concept in communications class.

[Anonymous]

Different age but not race or gender

[Vneila21]

Oh yeah, I see that! Older people have to watch their actions and how they talk around children. Good answer. :)

[Opinion Owner]

Yep thanks