Beyond Identity, Towards affiliation

What are the circumstances that shape ones identity? Richard Meyer states that in its "contemporary usage the term "identity" suggests that individuals recognize themselves through a shared condition or quality, be it race, reliogion, gender, sexuality, or cultural orgin." This defintion implies a sense of fixity and giveness, suggesting that identity is "simply acheived." It is true that there are a set of historical conditions that we are born with that attempt to ground our identity, however they do not shape who or what we are. In "Postethnic America," David A. Hollinger, states" the term identity is more psychological than social, and hides the extent to which the acheivment of identity is a social process by which a person becomes affiliated with one or more acculturating cohorts." The idea of affiliation suggests a greater measure of flexibilty and is performative, while the term identity is something that is. Therefore a postethnic perspective favors voluntary over involuntary affiliations. Judith Butler writes, "the body is a set of possibilites that are not predetermined by some manner of interior essence, and suggests that identity/gender is performative rather than natural. "Gender is an act," and it is real only to the extent that it is performed." I beleive that identity is not fixed, and is always changing as we play out our lives.