Inquiry: Identity Markers

This week’s email is about the inquiry topic for this month (and next) … IDENTITY. Specifically, we have been looking from the angle of identity markers.  We are framing identity markers as those things by which we are known to others and ultimately ourselves. One we all have in common is woman. 

Most of us received this marker when you came into the world as a girl and then became a woman.  Depending on what culture or geographical locations you grew up in (more identity markers), you adapted (and rejected) all kinds of traits, habits, emotional responses, roles and even educational and vocational choices, based on this and other identity markers. 

The world around you knew you as a girl, so you became a girl/woman. Ever heard the saying... if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it is a duck?  Well, then any quaking like sounds makes you a duck!  Could you become anything other than a duck? Likely not, and if you try you face enormous hurdles and even scary and harmful blowback from those around you.  Just look at what happens to our transgendered friends when they challenge the identity marker of boy/girl and all that goes with those markers. 

So, what can we do to break the molds we have been shaped in? More importantly how do we open up the discourse and meaning around these markers so that no human is limited by the identity markers society uses to manage resources, services and all manner of things? 

We want to be clear, identity markers are not wrong, however they do get misused and even abused when not understood or acknowledged as what they are … meanings made up in language. In other words they aren’t a reality, they are a way of talking about reality. 

As with all things we wish to change or new possibilities we want to make real, we must start with the current condition (aka how it is now). To evolve or change something you must first educate and inform yourself about how the phenomena you wish to impact is operating now. You must look both inside and outside your personal experience. 

This is why we thought the backdrop of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March) would make a great time for this inquiry. 

We started this inquiry on last Friday's Goddess Talk with a simple exploration of what our own identity markers are and how those markers have and do impact us.  Impact us in how we operate in the world and how the world around us relates to us. Asked in another way,  how do the people around you know you? What advantages and Disadvantages does that create for you? 

We continued the dialog at our monthly Saturday Goddess Living Community members meeting.  Here are access to the recordings. 

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