Identity as a Spectrum

The failure of dichotomy

We as humans are used to checking into boxes. Pick a gender: female or male. But then we realized that not everyone fits into those categories. So we added “other” as an option. Next question. Pick sexuality: straight or gay. But again, not everyone falls into those either so we added bisexual, pansexual, asexual, and kept going. Ok, race: black or white. Well, this just got way more complicated. Because identity is not just checking into boxes, it is an entire spectrum. 

However, it was a long way to go until humanity realized that there were other options for these boxes. In a postcolonial world, where the phenomenon of globalisation is constantly mentioned, the idea that every individual has to fit into a specific category is slowly declining. After several cultural encounters, mergers and even redefinitions it wouldn’t be possible to check only one box. This fluidity, however, was not created by globalisation. Yet, the freedom to share the ideas about it emerged thanks to it. These beliefs were already in individuals’ minds but couldn’t actually reach others. Thus, through the means created by globalisation, the concept that sexuality, race, and any identity could be a spectrum was able to be spread across the globe. There’s no need to check only one box, or create more boxes. We can just get rid of the checking boxes system. 

Why is everybody so gay?

“I have a question, and I don’t know where else I can ask it. My granddaughter is now my grandson, and my niece went to homecoming with a boy last year, and this year she’s going with a girl. And now you’re gay. I don’t mean any offense at all. I just came here tonight to ask, why is everybody so gay all of a sudden?” (Doyle, 2020) An old lady asked this question to the writer Glennon Doyle during a conference and it highly reflects on the idea of how the spectrum of sexuality has been spread. Initially, we were used to checking into only one box and staying with it until we die, but as it is something fluid we don’t have to hold it so tight. 

In order to answer the lady’s question, the writer used glasses as a metaphor for checking boxes. “What I think will happen eventually is we won’t keep adding glasses,” Glennon said. “We’ll remove the glasses system. I think everyone is scared that gayness is contagious. I don’t think gayness is contagious. But I’m absolutely positive that freedom is contagious.” (Doyle, 2020) 

Globalisation didn’t “make everyone gay” it just created the space for individuals to share their own identities. It facilitated the spread of these ideas. Thus, by using these means, it was possible to create the concept of fluidity regarding sexuality that we have today. 

Race: Four Is Too Little 

There are only four major races recognized worldwide: Caucasian/White, Mongoloid/Asian, Negroid/Black, and Australoid. (Staff Writer, 2020). It is important to understand that the meaning of race is directly related to physical characteristics such as skin color, facial features, and stature. (Smedley, 1998) However, with all the different population encounters, mergers, migration, there are not only four types of skin color, facial features, and stature as can be concluded just from looking around in any public space.

 Even though people might want to attribute the concept of race to biology, it has become a social construction, having no real definition of what each race is but rather being what and how people think it is. (Berger & Luckmann, 1963) As we dive into this new globalised world we encounter these issues where we try to fit people with multiratial backgrounds into one box. Where people are not black enough, or not asian enough, or not white enough. They can’t fit themselves into only one box. However, these issues are not new, they are just spoken more loudly now due to globalisation. During the time of slavery in the American South, people accused of having black ancestries would go to court in order to prove they were white to avoid senslavement. (Staples, 1998)

Conclusion

Taking into consideration the spectrum of different identities we have today, either gender expression, sexuality, race, or any identity matter, it is no longer possible to make every individual check into one single box and conform into a few options. It is not possible to standardize a personal identity into three to six options for more than seven billion people. 

A person’s individuality has always been a spectrum across the globe. Through the different cultural encounters, mergers and migration, ideas and characteristics were exchanged, annihilated, created, and modified. Moreover, the globalisation phenomenon just created the freedom for these characteristics to be discussed out loud, for similar individuals to find likeminds across the globe, and gave the means for all of these ideas to be spread. 

Thus, the current system itself of identities, of checking into boxes is no longer working. We can’t create a box for each of the seven billion individuals, but we also can’t fit all of them into three to six options. Yet, with globalisation, there is hope that humanity will understand the concept that identity is a spectrum and there is no need to fit yourself or anyone else into one single box. 

References

Untamed by Glennon Doyle. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2021, from untamedbook.com website: https://untamedbook.com/

Theory in a Digital Age: The Gender Spectrum. (2016). Retrieved November 3, 2021, from Theory in a Digital Age: A Project of English 483 Students, Coastal Carolina University website: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/index-2/media/the-gender-spectrum.meta?versions=1

BCNN1. (2019, April 19). Here We Go: Female Christian Author Glennon Doyle, Who Is Married to a Woman, Promotes “Wide Spectrum” of Sexuality at Conservative Megachurch. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from BCNN1 - Black Christian News Network website: https://blackchristiannews.com/2019/04/here-we-go-female-christian-author-glennon-doyle-who-is-married-to-a-woman-promotes-wide-spectrum-of-sexuality-at-conservative-megachurch/

Staff Writer. (2020, May 27). How Many Races Are There in the World? Retrieved November 3, 2021, from Reference.com website: https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-races-world-bb7c1ea95ddd1c57

Staples, B. (1998, November 13). The shifting meanings of “black” and “white,” The New York Times, p. WK14.

Smedley, A. (1998). “Race” and the construction of human identity. American Anthropologist, 100, 690–702.

Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. (1963). The social construction of reality. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Author removed at request of original publisher. (2016, April 8). 10.2 The Meaning of Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from Umn.edu website: https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/10-2-the-meaning-of-race-and-ethnicity/

Olbert, M. (2019, December 26). Rethinking Gender & Identity In The Age Of Fluidity. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from Medium website: https://martinaolbert.medium.com/rethinking-gender-identity-in-the-age-of-fluidity-3ea1073820bd

Anyang Agbor, S. (2015). Globalization and Multiculturalism: Defining the New Universalism in Selected Texts of Samuel Selvon, V. S. Naipaul and Anita Desai. ATHENS JOURNAL of PHILOLOGY, 2(3), 171–184. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajp.2-3-3

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