The Comfort of Identity

Abstract

This article is based on empirical research using video diaries to explore the performance of sexual identities in work, domestic and social spaces. The diaries allow respondents to show the clothes they wear on different occasions, and to talk about the process of performance. The article focuses on the ways in which identity as a concept functions within `academic', `political' and `subcultural' discourses of sexuality, and draws on diarists' discussions of comfort and discomfort in performing their (differently inflected) identities in these spaces, linking this to theories of performativity and and reflexivity.