Integrating all facets of identity, not pruning to one, mobilizes full energy

Evidence

As a Black lesbian feminist comfortable with the many different ingredients of my identity, and a woman committed to racial and sexual freedom from oppression, I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self. But this is a destructive and fragmenting way to live. My fullest concentration of energy is available to me only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restrictions of externally imposed definition. Only then can I bring myself and my energies as a whole to the service of those struggles which I embrace as part of my living. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 512

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concrete instance of the watershed-flow principle applied to the self — externally imposed single definition is the dam.
• DEEPTHINKING: A century of identity politics distilled: the ‘meaningful whole’ presentation of one self-aspect, which platforms demand, is understood as a destructive fragmenting act.
• XREF: connects to: Identity construction is an exercise of power through exclusion — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 371; Positive social identity can be achieved without derogating out-groups — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1413; Social identities empower even when shaped by oppressive power relations. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 251 (+7 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Identity construction is an exercise of power through exclusion — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 371; Positive social identity can be achieved without derogating out-groups — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1413; Social identities empower even when shaped by oppressive power relations. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 251 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• The appearance of abundant identity options masks structural pressure toward situational selves #complicates (0.82) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 37
• Faster-than-lifetime social change erodes stable identity forms into situational ones #complicates (0.80) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 32
• Identity construction is an exercise of power through exclusion #complicates (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 371