Conceptions of identity: the challenge of sexual fluidity to Christian notions of marriage

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I consider the concept of identity as foundational to the heteronormative constructions of marriage manifesting in Christian interpretations of the institution. In an attempt to destabilize what I consider the congealing function of identity, I examine current research on sexuality fluidity emerging from Lisa Diamond’s work. I argue that the evidence of sexual fluidity in women challenges stable identity markers characteristic of marriage conceived of within the male–female binary. Sexual fluidity, thus, ultimately disrupts heteronormative claims of Christian marriage.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual fluidity
• gender identity
• Christian marriage
• Lisa Diamond

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Stephanie N. Arel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9864-6915

Notes on contributor

Stephanie N. Arel is an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the September 11 Memorial and Museum and a visiting researcher at New York University. She is the author of Affect Theory, Shame and Christian Formation (Palgrave Macmillan 2016) and co-editor of Post-Traumatic Public Theology (Palgrave Macmillan 2016).

Notes

1 Jordan, Recruiting Young Love, xviii.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 See Butler, Gender Trouble.

5 See Lisa Diamond, Sexual Fluidity, 137–8, where she discusses the political context of such debates appropriated from scientific arguments. Diamond has expressed with dismay the results of her book being used by organizations employing various conceptualizations of conversion therapy. Redefinitions of reparative therapy have capitalized on the work of Lisa Diamond called the new method SAFE-T, “sexual attraction fluidity exploration in therapy” a result that she does not support.

6 See Lehmiller, The Psychology of Human Sexuality.

7 See Thatcher, Marriage after Modernity, where Thatcher commends Christian marriage as a monogamous heterosexual union the center of which are faith, children, and sacramentality; The public stance of many mainline churches including but not limited to the National Baptist Church, The Roman Catholic Church, The Assemblies of God, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod envision marriage as a distinctly heterosexual union that needs to be “protected,” (See Baptist Press Website http://www.bpnews.net/40717) even in some cases declaring that marriage should be a man and a woman from the same racial, religious, and – ideally – economic background, see Eternal Marriage Student Manual.

8 Bell, “Theoretical Foundations for Social Justice Education,” 9.

9 See Martin, Gutman, and Hutton, Technologies of the Self; Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays; Austin, How to Do Things with Words; Butler, Gender Trouble; Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology, and Brown, Wounded Attachments.

10 Brown, Wounded Attachments, 206.

11 Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle, 115.

12 Gilligan, In a Different Voice, 156.

13 Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle, 283.

14 See Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.

15 Diamond, Sexual Fluidity, 3.

16 Ibid., 12.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid., 13.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid., 51.

21 See Rich, “Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.”

22 See Savic, Garcia-Falgueras, and Swaab, “Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain.”

23 Ibid.

24 Diamond, Sexual Fluidity, 51.

25 Ibid., 74–5.

26 Ibid., 244.

27 Ibid., 230. See also Furuichi “Female Contributions,” where she considers female bonding in bonobos (more genetically comparable to humans) versus chimpanzees, and De Waal, “Bonobo Sex and Society.”

28 Diamond, Sexual Fluidity, 233.

29 Ibid., 230–31.

30 See Wiszniewski, Lusseau, and Möller, “Kinship Ties Maintain Social Cohesion,” and Parish, “Female Relationships in Bonobos (Pan Paniscus).”

31 Furuichi and Thompson, The Bonobos, 31–5.

32 Rich, “Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” 648.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid., 649.

35 Ibid., 637.

36 Coontz, Marriage, a History, 2, 94.

37 Ibid., 147.

38 Ibid., 146–50.

39 Jordan, Blessing Same-sex Unions, 108.

40 Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology, 163.

41 Book of Common Prayer,

42 Kristeva, Tales of Love, 227.

43 Heath, One Marriage Under God, 10.