Opinion: Identity politics

In race politics (those concerning different skin color), the dominant trend is to make your race the most important thing about you. The problem with this is that race is actually a tool of oppression. In other words, when one identifies with a particular race, that becomes the most important thing about them. We all know about stereotypes, and my opinion is based upon the idea of stereotypes. That we conform to the stereotypes about us and we act accordingly.

Concerning gay identity, politics can easily be described as politics that is completely based in your idea of your sexual orientation. The problem with this view is that it often emphasizes a particular type of “gayness”. That to be gay then one must be skinny, effeminate and fashionable. This is the approach by the gay marriage movement. That in order to publicize our issue or to get it to more people we need to “normalize” it.The problem with thinking that one needs to be “normal” is that you necessarily exclude all other ways of being normal. If you say a normal person is such and such then it gives you ability to say that those who don’t follow that creed are less than and can be dealt with that way.The question you really need to ask people to figure out this perspective is: Is gay marriage the most important issue concerning gay people? If all visible forms of hatred of women disappear, then is women’s oppression gone? It’s just to understand whether you want to stick people with labels, the idea that they need to fit this, or whether the actions are tendencies of their nature and can’t be labeled specifically as right or wrong?