Social identities

pp. 69-86

in: William Wilkerson, Ambiguity and sexuality, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

Abstract

The previous chapters have focused mostly on desire, while in this chapter and the next we move toward discussing identity in greater detail. Of course, identity has already been in play throughout the discussion, because reflection on experience shows that the possible adoption of an identity conditions the meaning of desire, as much as desire influences the adoption of a possible identity. Now that I have explained how desire takes on socially based meanings, I can begin to clarify this distinction between desire and identity.