Heya David

I can relate to you having very little to do and being bored and not being motivated to finish your thesis.

Us human beings are funny things, aren't we? When we are really busy, we seem to fit more things into our schedules than possible, and when we have little to do, we don't feel motivated to do anything at all!

But I'm sure that something will happen to fire you up again, so you can finish your work.

new theory called "personal trajectory," which is a bit different from the old "Social Constructionism" and "Essentialism" theories that were the main focus of gay studies only a decade ago

David, I'm not as clever or as decorative as some people around here but I was wondering if you can explain what 'personal trajectory', 'social constructionism' and 'essentialism' means?

Cheers

Bev

Heya David

 

I can relate to you having very little to do and being bored and not being motivated to finish your thesis.

 

Us human beings are funny things, aren't we? When we are really busy, we seem to fit more things into our schedules than possible, and when we have little to do, we don't feel motivated to do anything at all!

 

But I'm sure that something will happen to fire you up again, so you can finish your work.

David, I'm not as clever or as decorative as some people around here but I was wondering if you can explain what 'personal trajectory', 'social constructionism' and 'essentialism' means?

 

Cheers

Bev

[sarcasm]

social constructivism: society made me do it

essentialism: nature made me do it

personal trajectory: I did it but so what it don't make me queer

missed out in the original...

performativity theory: drag queens made me do it

[/sarcasm]

Social constructivism: identities are constructed in the context of and by means of social interactions. They have no foundation other than social context. (In extreme versions it's not even all social interaction, just "discourse" - don't ask)

Essentialism: identities exist and are formed independantly of social context. They constitute part of us as natural beings. What we are determines what we do and become.

Personal trajectory: who the hell knows!

I don't want to be cynical but it's really a reflection of the lack of wider coherence in both politics and sociology as a discipline. Lacking the ideological foundation to assert either constructivist or essentialist accounts of identity, researchers pursue specificity to the point of impressionistic empiricism (note to self: should that be empiricist impressionism? Remember to ask Aunt Julia K next time you see her). Since the only validity there is is individual authenticity (there are no grandes narratives to oppress us anymore) if teenagers say "I'm not gay I just have sex with guys" then we all nod approvingly rather than pointing out that having sex with members of the same sex is more or less the definition of homosexuality! It's almost like a reaction to labelling - "don't pigeon hole me!". It sounds plausible until you notice that teenagers have always looked for ways to dilute their queer identity - I'm not gay I'm bi, etc.

So pretty much you are saying that it is all about putting labels on people.

'You are gay because...' or people removing the labels and replacing them with an alternate 'I am not gay because...'

I think as a society, we have a tendancy to put people in boxes. And we do that to ourselves. Even when we try to rebel against 'society' by jumping out of a box, we end up putting ourselves in another box.

Is this right?

Bev