*Real* Identities

A lot of discussions about online identities seem to make distinctions between real identities (generally meaning those offline or in rl) and those that are created online. What we should take away from discussions about the fuilidty of identity and postmodern identities is that there is no fixed or essential identity. This fixation on authenticity doesn't feel particularly useful once we recognize that all identities are socially constructed. I think that intersex(http://www.isna.org/faq/what_is_intersex) provides a really good explanation of how identity is socially constructed. The reality is that there are more than two sexes but due to a fetish for nice little binaries, it can be seen as socially acceptable to simply assign sex to a baby so that it fits. Judith Butler (http://rhetoric.berkeley.edu/faculty_bios/judith_butler.html) is often quoted as saying that gender is not something you are but something you do; this is true of all identity. There isn't some identity that is inherent to each of us rather we each do identity. We often assume that online identities are more felxible but this is probably only because we have more control over the markers of identity. All of the identity categories are artificial - talking about one ingredient of identity ignores intersectionality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality). The category of woman is wholy incomplete because women intersects with race, class, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. etc.