this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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Why are people so interested in defining themselves along sexual identity and orientation in relatively recent western culture?
Why now? Why is it so different from most of human existence?
Because we are no longer facing famine. The Green Revolution has made our relationship with food so secure we no longer define ourselves in relation to it.
Throughout most of history people are farmers or ranchers or shepherds or bakers or butchers or millers.
So, we climb the Biological hierarchy of needs looking for our next characteristic that needs fulfillment.
not even. 1950s we had this idealized version that everyone was heterosexual, owned a home and had strict gender roles.
That shit is now all blown apart. And for most folks the complexities of it all are beyond understanding.
And it cuts both ways. I don't care about other people's genders and identities, but boy they care about mine. Gotten plenty of sexist slurs from queer/trans people based on my gender and lots of shitty assumptions. I'm bi, but I 'present' as a heterosexual dudebro, and it makes non-gender conforming people angry at me for some reason, also many insecure straight men and women. Only people who don't seem to care are people who are bi, or secure in their sexuality. Way too many people feel the need to do that though.
I'd just like to say that I'm not defining myself at any point, I'm describing myself.
A trivial point, maybe, but there's still plenty of bigots around and the ones around me use phrases like "defining yourself" to minimize and erase lbgtq+ people's experiences.
Identifying might be the best word to use, given the psychology literature all tends to use that, but thank you for your critique.
And I'd just like to add: you're right, this is the way the literature talks about it. You'd think the term being used clinically - with a clear, concise, and well-defined meaning - would mean it couldn't be targeted and attacked the way it is by the religious right. You'd think, you'd hope, and you'd be wrong. And that sucks.
Also heavily under fire, though the arguments are usually paper thin. They dismiss self-identification under the pretense that it's not about identity, that your identity can't be that you're trans or whatever. Just a fiat argument.