Posts Tagged ‘identity’
“I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member”*…

Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Our Motto, 1883
For all of their esoteric ways, America’s early secrets societies were remarkable branding machines. They had their own slogans, their own fashions, and their own symbols and colors. They even had their own manufacturing industry that produced and sold all of these items for mass consumption.
“The secrets function less for the concealing of information than as a bonding mechanism for members,” write the authors of As Above, So Below Art of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930, a new book about the golden age of secret societies in America. These groups functioned not unlike street fashion or indie music—in which secret societies have contemporary corollaries—by offering experiences cloaked in hierarchy and mystery, designed to bond members together and transform their lives…
More at “The Bizarre Branding Of America’s Many, Many Secret Societies.”
* Groucho Marx
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As we chant our oaths, we might pause to celebrate National Multiple Personality Day, celebrated on this date each year. While NMPD is an occasion to raise awareness of Multiple Personality Disorder, now more commonly known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, it is also an opportunity for the exploration of one’s own– not always consistent– personality traits.
“Human relationships are not rocket science—they are far, far more complicated”*…
In the English language, the word “he” is used to refer to males and “she” to refer to females. But some people identify as neither gender, or both – which is why an increasing number of US universities are making it easier for people to choose to be referred to by other pronouns…
More at “Beyond ‘he’ and ‘she’: The rise of non-binary pronouns.”
* James W. Pennebaker, The Secret Life of Pronouns
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As we revel in reference, we might send thoughtful birthday greetings to Naguib Mahfouz; he was born on this date in 1911. A prolific writer– he published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays over a 70-year career– he was one of the first writers in Arabic to explore Existentialist themes (e.g., the Cairo Trilogy, Adrift on the Nile). He was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature.