Arash wrote:
>I think it's wrong to go so far in embracing an identity that you forget
>your common humanity, but don't people have a right to see themselves in
>terms of an identity if it speaks to their experience?
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That's a little general...abstract, but ....
The problem with identities is that, by definition, it circumscribes and creates a mode of action that follows the logic of an idea rather than fanning out to meet life, the whole of reality.
Consider for example what happens when people get married. Perhaps they were geniunely in love and open to one another before marriage. Then they get married and they start to say things like "Well, you're the husband, husbands are supposed to do a, b, c..." and then pretty soon, they stop having an actual relationship with one another because their relationship to their roles/identities in the marriage becomes more important.
Or consider the very odd position one finds oneself in when one of the multiple identities we adopt conflict with one another: how does one negotiate browness, with Americanness, with feminism, with ....
An identity might speak to your experience -- for example, feminism might speak to a good deal of my experience, but it also leaves a lot out. And then, you know, experience is changing, shifting. You interpret it in a certain way at twenty, in another way at forty -- is there not a contradiction in forging a fixed identity to represent an every changing experience?
It seems to me that an identity is a kind of short cut or form of mental and emotional lazyness. It gives you an instant code of conduct and set of beliefs -- an aspirin for life. The more interesting question is why do we need this identity so much. It's not just a phenomenon that emerges in Capitalist societies -- although it is exacerbated in this society because we are so stripped of our essence that the need to be some kind of somebody is especially acute.
An identity might be a helpful thing to bounce against: I am an immigrant -- therefore I am likely to relate to people in a certain way, I may always feel like an outsider, the notion of home may always be a difficult one for me, I may have a fear of travel, etc. I should be aware of how my experience shapes and conditions me, but I should have that awareness not in order to step into the straightjacket of identity, but in order to take it off, in order to recognize its conditioned character.
Joanna
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