So today I get into work and find the new issue of The Advocate. I don't normally read it because it's pretty male-oriented but I figure I should now, for professional reasons
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-Hope you dont mind I added you. I was starting to feel too old for LJ.-
I think its insecurity. they're the same people infatuated with "coming out" and all sorts of labeling. Personally, drives me nuts. I used to consider myself a "lesbian" (though if Peter Fonda showed up at my door on his motorcycle I wouldn't make him wait outside, ha ha) but I don't really care for the "scene." Makes me feel old, like a chaperone at a junior high dance. Makes me think, oh, who cares?
These days if anyone asks (which is never) I say Im a sexual independent. Its like political parties; sure I mostly agree with democrats, but I don't like politics, theyre a farce, and I dont always agree with them, so why would I represent myself as so? So politically, Im an Independent. Being part of a group like that makes me feel boxed in and caged (I know, how 60s of me). So yeah, sexual independent.
But I don't want to dismiss the need, at the time, for labels. They are vital for moving the group from below the level of political recognition into a legitimate political force.
I know that labels are exclusionary by nature but they do also define and make visible segments of the population that were being 'invisibiled' by assumptions of uniformity of ...whatever - race, class, gender, etc.
I think labels have a life cycle. They don't exist, then they become vital for the survival of certain groups. Pejorative labels are bestowed by 'outsiders,' get reclaimed and recontextualized by those in-group, then eventually become burdensome for the formally externalized group when they achieve a certain level of political legitimacy.
Just my twenty-five cents!
(And thanks for the add! I have friends how, how cool is that? And, FWIW, I spelled 'dismiss' as 'dimiss' and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it!)
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I think its insecurity. they're the same people infatuated with "coming out" and all sorts of labeling. Personally, drives me nuts. I used to consider myself a "lesbian" (though if Peter Fonda showed up at my door on his motorcycle I wouldn't make him wait outside, ha ha) but I don't really care for the "scene." Makes me feel old, like a chaperone at a junior high dance. Makes me think, oh, who cares?
These days if anyone asks (which is never) I say Im a sexual independent. Its like political parties; sure I mostly agree with democrats, but I don't like politics, theyre a farce, and I dont always agree with them, so why would I represent myself as so? So politically, Im an Independent. Being part of a group like that makes me feel boxed in and caged (I know, how 60s of me). So yeah, sexual independent.
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But I don't want to dismiss the need, at the time, for labels. They are vital for moving the group from below the level of political recognition into a legitimate political force.
I know that labels are exclusionary by nature but they do also define and make visible segments of the population that were being 'invisibiled' by assumptions of uniformity of ...whatever - race, class, gender, etc.
I think labels have a life cycle. They don't exist, then they become vital for the survival of certain groups. Pejorative labels are bestowed by 'outsiders,' get reclaimed and recontextualized by those in-group, then eventually become burdensome for the formally externalized group when they achieve a certain level of political legitimacy.
Just my twenty-five cents!
(And thanks for the add! I have friends how, how cool is that? And, FWIW, I spelled 'dismiss' as 'dimiss' and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it!)
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