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Cultural Interview: Alan

JJ Oden

Kansas State University

EDCEP 951: Multicultural Counseling

Dr. Alexander Becnel

July 21, 2022

Cultural Interview: Alan

One of the key aspects of becoming a competent school counselor is the understanding of

cultures different from one’s own. To gather more insight into what those with cultural identities

from myself experience, I conducted an interview of someone with a different cultural lens that

mine. For the purposes of keeping this individual anonymous, we will refer to the subject of this

interview as “Alan” throughout this paper. It should also be noted that each section of this paper

will be labeled as the interview question that was asked and will immediately be followed with

as accurate a response from Alan as possible, before a potential analysis of that answer before

moving to the next section.

What cultural identities are part of your identity and worldview?

“I feel my Christian religious beliefs make up a lot of my identity. I am also a cisgender

male and confident about it. My sexual identity as a pansexual allows for me to be more

supportive of more left leaning political views.” -Alan

Although this initial question for the interview seemed somewhat straightforward to me,

Alan had some difficulty answering at first. He asked me what I meant by cultural identity, to

which I informed him of the different aspects of cultural identities that we have discussed in this

class, such as race/ethnicity, gender/sexual identity, sexual orientation, age, religious or spiritual

beliefs, and disability status. Once he felt he had a firm grasp of the question, Alan answered

with the above statement.

Once part of this response that I feel is worth drawing attention to is the fact that Alan did

not answer the question in terms of the order in which I mentioned the aspects of cultural

identity. Instead, he answered based off what were the most salient aspects about himself first,

with his religious beliefs taking the first portion of his answer due to his convictions, followed by
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defining himself based off of his gender and sexual attributes that may clash more with the

Central Kansas town he is from. Another concept of note from this response is also what is not

mentioned. Alan did not mention his race/ethnicity (White), age (early adulthood), or disability

status (healthy). Likely, this is because those aspects of his identity do not create any dissonance

for him. In multiple theories discussed in the text, the first status of beginning to understand

other cultures when you are a member of the majority culture is awareness. As a member of the

majority culture in these respects (White, young, and able), Alan experiences privilege that has

possibly blinded him to these aspects of his identity and how they intersect with his other identity

aspects as well as the rest of society.

How would you define the cultural groups to which you belong?

“I feel like cisgendered male culture usually has a boyish, silly attitude. As a pansexual, I

have more sexual, flirty jokes at whoever, regardless of gender. Christian culture changes how I

present myself and how I act because it is the way you should, treating people with love and

grace while at work and in public.” – Alan

Here we can see why Alan claims to have the cultural identities he does, or rather,

explanations for why his behavior aligns with those cultural identities. He feels that he has a

lighthearted, silly attitude like cisgendered males, he feels that he can flirt with anyone like many

pansexuals, and he feels that he is called to treat others with love and grace because it is the right

thing to do as a Christian. While these attributes are not universal to all members of these

cultural identities, they are aspects of those cultures with which Alan exhibits in his actions and

behaviors.

How do your identities intersect in your life experience? To what extent do you

consider yourself different than others with these identities? To what extent do you
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consider yourself influenced by cultural norms?

“I feel my pansexuality and gender have caused me to have more questions about

identifying as a he/him, rather than a they/them or she/her. I feel Christian males are more

outgoing, and I am pretty outgoing. Christianity and pansexuality have led me to more questions

about how I express those identities. For instance, I could be attracted to a presenting male, but

not really desiring a romantic relationship because of my religious beliefs. I feel like I am

different from most people with my identities because it seems like a unique combination of

identities. I don’t think there are many Christian males that identify as pansexual rather than

heterosexual. I also don’t feel influenced by cultural norms much because I have always done

my own thing. Maybe identifying as pansexual has opened me up to more left-leaning ideologies,

and my religious beliefs have a strong impact on my interactions with others, but that is about it

as far as cultural influence goes.” – Alan

For this question, we had to break it down into the three separate questions asked

individually so Alan felt he had time to form an answer. I felt that he did an excellent job of

analyzing how his different salient identities intersected with each other. Perhaps his best

analysis of his identities was the comparison of his sexual orientation and religious beliefs, since

the Christian faith tends to be against same-sex attraction, despite that being a possibility for

Alan.

Although his analysis of his cultural intersections seemed strong, I felt his analysis of his

uniqueness was a little lacking. While it is possibly true that his individual cultural identity is

unique, I would have preferred that he give a more substantial answer about how he is different

from others that share his identities outside of the unique combination of identities itself. Perhaps

this was simply the only response he could come up with to a somewhat difficult question.
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I also thought it was interesting that Alan initially stated that he felt as if cultural norms

had not influenced him, and then proceeded to list several ways that they had. During our

conversation, it seemed like the longer he sat and thought about that question, the more he came

up with answers to it that were not initially prevalent. One influence from “normative” culture

that I feel like is present in his life just from this interview is the fact that he does not desire

same-sex romantic relationships because of his faith. This is an interaction that he stated himself

earlier in the interview and would likely be the cause of a cultural norm that influenced how he

views those of the same gender as himself when it comes to his desire to not be attracted to them

romantically.

What aspects of your attitudes, beliefs, understandings, and acculturative experiences have

emerged as a result of the intersections of your identity?

“I was very homophobic in high school and made a lot of poor choices. However, I am

much more tolerant of things now due to my recent identification as pansexual. My idea of what

it means to be strong and dependable as a man has also changed as I experienced new cultural

thoughts and spent more time in prayer while emerging into adulthood.” – Alan

I feel that this analysis of Alan’s changing beliefs and behaviors due to the intersections

of his cultural identities is strong here. While he may have been somewhat homophobic in high

school, it could have been because of his own emerging feelings about pansexuality that he

wanted to suppress due to living in a highly Christian community that would not have been

supportive of him. So, rather than allowing himself to express his identity in a healthy manner,

he squashed much of it to maintain a necessary level of safety in a community that was otherwise

hostile toward non-heterosexual individuals.

How have discrimination and oppression, such as racism, sexism, power, privilege,
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marginalization, and stereotypes, impacted your own life and career?

“Nothing major has impacted me. At all. I sometimes feel that I am judged for being a

boy, and that people assume I am stupid because I am a guy, but I don’t feel oppressed. I just

notice their remarks.” – Alan

It is not shocking to me that Alan has not experienced much oppression in his life. Since

many of his cultural identities line up with the cultural majority, it is likely that he has not had

many issues with oppression in his life. However, as I noted before, one area that he may have

been oppressed was his sexual expression when he was younger due to being in the sexual

minority in the community in which he grew up.

As a counselor, what cultural issues/dimensions should remain paramount as I

grow/develop?

“Remember to treat people with empathy. Keep in mind how much poverty can impact

the development of kids too. Knowing your kid’s history should inform how you interact with

them and especially how you evaluate their mental health.” – Alan

This was some useful advice from Alan. I agree with him as well. It is critical that I

remember to treat my students with empathy when working with them. I may be an adult, but it

does not mean that I am above them or more valuable than them. I also think that knowing the

impacts of poverty on a student and their development and mental health will be vital to my

success as a school counselor, and I am extremely glad that is one of the topics we have

discussed in this class.

Conclusion

Initially, I was a little nervous about asking Alan some of these questions. While I knew

him prior to the interview, we have spent very little time discussing some of these issues with
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each other. Overall, this was an eye-opening experience for me. While many of the cultural

identities of Alan align similarly to mine, it was interesting to see how he viewed the world

differently from me. Learning how the different aspects of his cultural identity influence his

decisions and behaviors, as well as how they influence the interactions between each other,

provided me with insight into cultures other than my own, primarily the culture of a pansexual

man. It also gave me a chance to apply some of the concepts I have been learning in this course

the analysis of Alan’s answers to these questions, such as areas of analysis that I felt were

lacking or needed more details. Despite the early nerves that I experienced, I am glad that I was

given this opportunity and would happily complete a task like this again to gain more knowledge

about other cultures.