On identity

What is "identity"?

We all have things that we identify ourselves as and hope we project. Sometimes more successfully than others. Sometimes people will accept them readily; sometimes they won't. And the reasons will sometimes be straightforward and sometimes complicated. Other times we project things that we have no control over. We might even reject them but we can't change them.

For instance, I am yt. I'm yt whether I like it or not. It's my "identity" even if I don't want it. It's not "bigotry" to say so. It's readily apparent what I am.

I also identify as Cornish. But actually, you could dispute this. I wasn't born in Cornwall. When I was a child, other boys would tease each other for being "foreign". They didn't tease me because I had a Cornish accent but if they had, I would have been hurt. So people rejecting your identity can be painful.

What does it even mean? To be Cornish. Nothing. It means what you make it mean, I suppose. For some, it's birth. For others, it's your father and your father's father and whatever. But it's interesting to me that I found out I have Cornish ancestors (they moved away). But they are in the E haplogroup. So not Celts originally.

I also identify as English. It's part of me in ways that I couldn't really explain. It's not a matter of patriotism. I'm not "proud" of it. Why would I be? I have nothing to do with any big achievement or whatever and like most leftists, I'm not "proud" of my country's imperial past or current wealth. Still, there's meaning in it.

Some might identify me as Australian. After all, this is an immigrant nation. Most Aussies are either immigrants or children of immigrants. My own children, who are definitely Australian, are the children of an immigrant father, and in Miggins' case, two immigrants. I'm a citizen and I call Australia home, even if sometimes a bit regretfully. But I wouldn't identify as Australian, even when the cricket is on. Is it offensive to me if people *do* identify me as an Aussie? No, of course not.

I am not here seeking to make some argument about identifying as Chinese. That would be patently absurd for me and you would possibly consider me in search of a marble or two. I certainly am not trying to claim that matters of gender are anything like that. Like a lot of human life, they're complicated and can't be dismissed with airy waves of the hand.

I was thinking about this when a person said that "you can't have an opinion about identity". Well, of course you can. You can clearly have a view on whether I count as Cornish. Or Aussie. Or English even. Usually, what we actually disagree on is what identity *means*. What does being yt mean? What does being a man mean? What elements of that identity must you have to belong to it and which elements adhere to you if you have the identity?

Fundamentally, this person was making a claim that identity is something you generate from within yourself, that is inherent in you and should be recognised. This isn't really coherent with our experience of the world.

Many of the ways we are recognised have nothing to do with how we present ourselves or how we feel about it. For instance, I don't necessarily do anything "yt". I just have yt skin. I might do some of the things yt people typically do and certainly I had advantages that some POC might not have. Things might have been apportioned to me because of it. Now that is generated from within myself in the sense I'm aiming at. My genes built my yt skin. But they didn't build being an Australian. They didn't build being a kind man. They didn't build being a leftist. They didn't build being a father. These are things I identify as and hope others recognise but of course people may see them in different ways. Some people might never have experienced any kindness from me. Some people might think I'm too liberal to be a "real" leftist. My ex might see "father" as something entirely different from what I do.

The last is something I think is crucial. Not only are identities not always things that we can readily recognise. They are also things that people understand in different ways. And change with time.

posted by Dr Zen @ 8:16 am 10 comments