ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an account of some reasons why there has been a proliferation of gender and sexual identity categories. It begins by addressing how digital media networking and interactivity have enabled new forms of engagement with gender and sexuality topics. Digital media facilitates but is not, however, the cause of the new taxonomy. Rather, this chapter provides five explanatory frameworks for the emergence of new gender/sexual discourses: sexual citizenship; continuing social demands for identity authenticity; the liberal need for inclusivity; a backlash against fluid approaches to identity; and populist sensibilities that disavow both destabilitory and exclusionary ‘expert’ knowledge.
