1 :: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The debate over postmodern identities, which focused largely on the eclipse of
modernist forms of identity, took place as mentioned during the 1990s and into the
early 2000s. During this period, social and cultural analysts of identity drew from the
modernity/postmodernity debate to consider afresh major transformations in
personal and social life. In social theory and cultural studies in particular, much
valuable work was done on the intersections between subjectivity and personal
identity on the one hand, and new forms of popular and media culture on the other.
In general, this was a period of consolidation for the development of identity studies
in the humanities and social sciences. That said, the 1990s, or at least the latter half
of them, were a time of mounting criticism of the notion of postmodernity, and by
association the critique of postmodern identities. For one thing, the unduly negative
side of postmodernity became increasingly palpable and frustrating to many critics.
The postmodern culture of ‘anything goes’ may have seemed liberating and
intoxicating to some, but for others it was merely another narrative about ‘endings’,
with little of value to say about the novelty of identity transformations in the current
age. For another, it was increasingly evident to any casual observer of politics and
society that modernity was far from over, and that modernist solids, traditions and
customary ways of organizing identities continued to inform our social practices.
FEMINISM AND IDENTITY
There are many different approaches that feminists have adopted in exploring the
themes of identity and gender. Some feminists have offered perspectives on the social
role of women from the viewpoint of our patriarchal society, in which women are the
targets of sexual oppression, abuse, harassment and denigration. Other feminists have
concentrated on, say, the regimes of beautification or modes of self-presentation to
which women submit in adopting ‘masks of femininity’, in order to function as objects
of men’s sexual desire. Still other feminists have examined the broader influences of
economics and public policy in the reduction of women’s sexuality to the tasks of child
rearing and household duties. In these contrasting approaches, the issues of sexual
difference, gender hierarchy, social marginalization and the politics of identity achieve
different levels of prominence. For the purposes of this brief discussion here, I will
explore the crucial links between identity and gender practices as elaborated in
contemporary feminist thought, cultural analysis and psychoanalysis.
The interlocking of identity, gender and society were powerfully theorized in the late
1970s by the American feminist sociologist Nancy Chodorow. In The Reproduction of
Mothering (1978), which is now considered a classic feminist statement on sexuality
and gender, Chodorow combines sociological and psychoanalytic approaches to study