Identity

I don't know if I have an identity. I try my best to be as open minded and kind as possible though and I don't think I'd be me otherwise.

 

This is something that I've considered on-and-off and in various ways for some time, yet I still couldn't come up with a concrete answer [in part because I'm still trying to understand my overall identity.] In short, I think any significant aspect of myself, if either it didn't exist or did in a different manner, could have meant my turning out to be a different person. Though it's difficult for me to say how, I consider things like the areas I take interest in, my ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, depressive tendencies, introverted personality, nationality, etc. to contribute to the whole of myself [even if I've yet to, if I ever can, appreciate just how each does so.]

In short, I would say all such aspects of myself are equally crucial in this regard.

 

I'm forced to say "everything". I just can't single something out and say that without it I'd be a different person. It's really the sum of everything that has shaped me the way I am today: a cynical nihilistic individual with trust issues. I'm the life of the parties. /sarcasm

 

Growing up in a violent turbulent household - developed my low tolerance for people and their bullshit.

Dropping out of high-school - made me love knowledge and loathe those who try dominate others with it.

Not being interested in sexual intimacy.

Being mentally/emotionally tormented by someone I loved.

I would definitely not have evolved into the person I am without these transgressions. I would have a drastically different identity.

 

I can appreciate what you mean, though I should clarify that I identify with my nationality in probably a less traditional way. Not in the sense of patriotism, but more relating to whatever innate connection I have with where I'm from and exposure to the culture(s) that inhabit it, both past and present.

 

-My feminist philosophies
-My involvement in spoken word poetry
-My taste in and enthusiasm for music
-My being into chubby guys (it has definitely made life very different for me)
-My sex-positivity (you could probably lump this in under feminism, but it's a big enough part of me that I'm comfortable giving it its own mention)
-My gender identity/presentation

 

What a fascinating question!

There was a reference to this, in the context of a discussion on narcissism, in the book Living Without a Goal by James Ogilvy. He quotes Norman Mailer who is writing about another literary giant: Henry Miller:

"He comes to discover all these modern themes which revolve around the discovery of oneself. Soon he will dive into the pit of recognizing that there may not be a geological fundament in the psyche one can call identity."

Ogilvy goes on to quote Mailer:

"What Miller has bogged into...is the uncharted negotiations of the psyche when two narcissists take the vow of love."

Ogilvy continues: "Here we find not a self in search of a singular identity but whole casts of characters in search of an audience rather than an author. ' The narcissist is not self-absorbed so much as one self is absorbed in studying the other. The narcissist is scientist and experiment in one. Other people exist for their ability to excite one presence or another in oneself'"

What does this all mean? Miller said "one cannot grasp the core..." of anyone, including one's own self. Ogilvy's point is that we are like onions, peeled layer by layer, it is obvious that there are only layers, and no "geological fundament" to any of us.

Meaning? Ogilvy again: "When you follow narcissism degree zero toward the insubstantiality of self, you see that self-love must finally spread itself across the social pattern of reflections that constitute the self. When privacy goes public you see the self as a pattern of relations of mutual recognition. The celebration of self becomes a song for the ears of the other...for the benefit of shared acts of mutual self-creation."

Our LGBT community is in many ways a self-created one, as an artist would create a work of art, we celebrate the paradox of our being different yet together in that difference! Identity is not something given, hence our freedom to live as we are in an artful way. We just need to understand that it is all a performance...take a bow!

 

At the core of my being, I consider myself a warrior. That comes from caring.

 

My identity...

As far as I can remember, I was always a girly boy. High pitch voice, finicky posture and rather emotional for a boy. (I used to cry a lot cause I would get bullied) So I often heard the expression "Men don't cry" But I was honest, friendly and most of my friends sticked by me then. Then came problems at home. Mainly my parents fighting and getting a divorce twice.

So I closed myself off. It didn't help that my brother and sisters we're all older then me and in their late 20. So I was always a lonely child and kept myself entertained with toys, video games and t.v.

I always felt fascinated by fictional characters, and often tried to adopt their characteristics. I didn't like how I was back then and searched for a better "ego"

I've always fell in love with motherly types and often tried to pursue this. Being kind, understanding and forgiving. I also liked heroes for their bravery, courage and strength.
I kinda also gave in to witty anti-heroes and also tried being sarcastic, cold and cynical.

Hmmm I guess I'm just a fake person role playing fantasies in real life...

So for now I identify myself as a (!)

 

I wouldn't describe my own feelings as nationalistic, due to the connotations of that term and which I usually find such attitudes distasteful [to say the least.] It's not a matter of whether I consider it "better" than other cultures anymore than I would consider my other identities as such to their alternatives. And, I am not necessarily speaking to simply the culture I have been exposed to naturally, but also that which I have had to seek out of my own accord. Both in learning the history of the country, as well as examples of music, literature, painting, cinema and so on. Since I consider myself a part of the culture these things represent, they resonate with me more than the expressions of others which I may deeply admire but will always be an outsider to.

 

This just made my day, good sir. ^^

As for me identifying as anything, I'm me and that's all I need to be.

 

I guess I am being identified by where I came from and boyish ways.

 

My identity is as follows...not in any order:
-Agnostic atheist
-Social democrat
-Bisexual/Queer
-Transhumanist
-Person with learning disabilities
-Secularist
-Human
-Republican (not in the American sense)
-Male (not very masculine though)
-Canadian

 

I really don't know. A lot of who I am has actually come from realizing what I'm not. So I generally know what I'm not, not actually what I am. It drives me crazy.

 

My identities (In no particular order)
- Genderqueer
- Ambigender
- Queer
- Bisexual
- Pansexual
- Atheist
- Writer
- Poet
- Curly haired (Seems small but it's been a big part of my life)
- Mixed race
- Racially ambiguous
- Female assigned at birth (I understand other Trans* people may want to distance themselves from this but as I'll probably be read for most of my life as "female" this is an important part of my identity also
- Raised by a single parent
- Londoner
- British/English

 

I am who I am, what you see is what you get I don't really develop my identity from anything. You can't mold me into what you want. I'm me and that is just fine and dandy!