Weary of all these -isms popping out everywhere - essentialisms, constructionisms, feminisms, lesbianisms, whatever - I wonder if they don't just constitute extreme and more sophisticated versions of that most tragic tendency of ours. The simplifying, psychologically comforting tendency to be fixated on abstractions, concepts, images, genders, sexual orientations, identities, stereotypes - instead of dealing with real, unique, imperfect persons, a much more difficult enterprise, for sure.Unwittingly compelled by narcissistic desires and lacks, we chase abstract ideas of 'masculinity' or 'femininity', and neglect the concrete realities in front of our eyes, realities that hardly ever conform to our expectations and ideals. In fact, more often than not they confound these expectations and ideals, and seem thus so much scarier and baffling in their unpredictability, in their uncontainability under familiar categories. And hence we go on chasing shadows that forever elude us, representing ourselves - to ourselves and to others - as 'happy', 'contented', 'comfortable', 'balanced', 'well adjusted', etc., etc. And life slips by... So fast, so tragically fast.
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