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Abstract
Many scholarly disciplines focusing exclusively on human behavior can and do approach philology in some form in the conduct of their analyses, especially implicitly. “Philology” is generally understood to mean a study of oral and written records, particularly in their original form to determine either their authenticity and/or their original meaning—especially at the time of their development and delivery. This present article sketches a philology of human behavioral science perspective to make explicit what is largely implicit in the conduct of the science (most notably in psychological science) to answer the provocative question of this special issue (“Is lesbian identity obsolete?”). From this new perspective, I ask and answer (to the extent possible) three interrelated questions about the current or future obsolescence of the concept “lesbian identity.” The first question is whether lesbian identity like predecessor terms for the larger concept will become obsolete in the future. A second question is whether lesbian identity should become obsolete based on its potentially less inclusive meaning—either (a) from the origin terms that comprise it or (b) in comparison to other terms in the lexicon at present. A third question concerns whether lesbian identity may wane now (at the time of this writing) and then wax again in the future (some decade[s] later from this writing).
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Notes on contributors
Charlotte Chucky Tate
Charlotte Tate, Ph.D. (pronouns: she/her), is a behavioral scientist and Full Professor working in a Psychology Department. Her primary research interests are in gender identity (trans-integrated), sexual orientation (asexual-integrated), and U.S. ethnic identity (mixed-integrated). Her secondary research interests are in prejudice and discrimination toward the minoritized members of the aforementioned identities in the U.S. Charlotte is a 1990s butch lesbian with thoroughly updated politics. She and her girlfriend live together (and work separately) in San Francisco, CA USA—and hope to welcome two Pomeranian puppies into their home soon.