Facts, Fictions, Identity Constrictions: Sexuality, Gender and Class in Higher Education

Abstract

In this chapter I aim to provide some (personal, professional) insights into the negotiation of Higher Education (HE), combining classed, gendered and sexual positionings as significant to this experience. I have been somewhat guarded in writing this piece, in thinking about whether it would be a useful addition or a personalised ‘complaint’, a case of another academic taking up too much space (Taylor, 2010a). In still struggling with (personal and research) articulations, I’d like to explore the ‘critical differentials’ (Gabb, 2004) in processes and experiences of being at and becoming in university (Evans, 2010; Taylor, 2011; Taylor and Scurry, 2011; Evans, this volume). Which versions of ourselves (sexual or classed) get to be, and get to speak: who can have voice and legitimacy within this (Adkins, 2002; Skeggs, 2002)? My concern is in making visible varied stories as well as the absence of (legitimate) tales, where the ordinariness of privilege can also be made evident in such articulations and silences (Taylor, 2009). I aim to focus upon the substantive — and frequently neglected — issue of intersecting sexual and classed lives. Identifying as working-class and ‘queer’ in academia is a fraught and challenging process (Binnie, 2011; Taylor, 2005a, b); such challenges, can never fully be achieved or completed as (only) ‘mine’ if the potential to situate claims beyond the personal (and beyond identity) is taken seriously.