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Picking up on Emily's seemingly pessimistic point, that in order to create a representativie spectrum we would have to create an endless amount of criteria to identify one individual, I wholeheartedly agree that this is simply not possible. In addition, I am wondering that even if we were able to create this spectrum, would we want to use it? As individuals we tend to have a set of two conflicitng needs. One) that we are capable of free will and are unique in our "selfness." Two) We crave to be identified in a certain social context by those around us (i.e., as part of a group, or against a group--in both cases, we want a social identity. With simple dichotomies like gender identity or sexual preference, humans are able to easily broadcast and interpret social identities, to the detriment of our goal (that we are all different from each other). By adopting a continuous measure of these aspects of identity, however, an individual's identity would become infinitely more complex and confusing for others to derive in a social setting. In addition to scientific problems to which Emily alludes, a spectrum would also complicate an individual's projected identity.

We use oversimplification as a way to easily identify a person in a social context. We also spend a lot of time projecting a first impression for others. While this behavior can lead to prejudice and an "in-vs-outgroup" mentality, I believe it is an intractable aspect of our social selves. But just because this mindset may lead to negative predispositions, does that mean we should scrap it in favor for something more complicated? I believe that rather than encouraging people to interpret one another as 17 or 69.3 percent male vs. female, we should use the older, simpler method of social identification. However, it is also important to teach people that differences between sexuality, gender, ethnic identity, etc. are so small that any individual is capable of being better than any other. This method of identification addresses both human needs while addressing the drawbacks of these social oversimplifications.

~Alex Tuttle

Haverford '08