What all of this suggests is that we need a more complex understanding
of identities. If we identify on the basis of race, class, sexuality, or
gender alone we cannot make sense of the ways these identifications
combine and change over time. The used-to-be-working class now
professional woman, the woman of mixed racial parentage who appears
white, the divorced mother who is now a lesbian, the former lesbian who
is now straight, or the former lesbian who is now a man. Identities are
always in motion; they are mobile (Ferguson, 1993). This is particularly
the case for those who have been placed in identity categories that do not
quite seem to fit; it is also true of many more of us, in varied ways. Just
ask our current President, whose own origin story, of which he has spoken
and written eloquently, is exceedingly complex. We need, I believe, a
conception of identities that embraces this complexity, that takes into
account temporality and also specificity.
— Arlene Stein
#sexuality #sociology #change
