ABSTRACT
In this concluding chapter, Furedi argues that anti-border activism is facilitated by the relatively weak cultural opposition to its project. He suggests that transgression alters its meaning when, as now, it has gone mainstream. This point is overlooked by present-day commentaries, which fail to distinguish between the classical notion of transgression and its contemporary caricature.
In a context where limits lack clear markers, transgressive behaviour does not involve the violation of powerful socially sanctioned moral and social boundaries. In the domain of sexual identity in the Western world, with the possible exception of paedophilia, transgression has become emptied of meaning. Individuals can brag about their transgressive sexual identities without incurring stigma. In all but name this performance of transgression is culturally sanctioned by a society that has become estranged from its symbolic boundaries.
