ABSTRACT
In the last quarter of the twentieth century contributions from feminist and gay theorists have become central to the academic debate on identity. Likewise the concept of ‘identity’ has been central to the writing and theories of feminism and gay studies. Not all those writing within these disciplines are going to agree on what they mean by ‘identity’ or on the role it might play within their theories. Some of the writing is dense, convoluted and highly complex. Underlying much of this writing, however, is the fundamental assumption that identity is a function of the self; it is something that needs to be claimed by the individual over and against the social. In both feminist and gay writings the given identity of society, whether seen in patriarchal or homophobic structures, or seen in terms of stereotypes and media representations, is understood to be intrinsically negative and detrimental to the individual. It is the role of feminist or gay theory to oppose these societal identities (the identities for the most part given by middle-class straight men) and to claim identities that have been created by women or gays for themselves. Exactly on what basis these new reclaimed identities are to be constructed is, of course, open to debate.
