Abstract
As individuals we do not, indeed cannot, define ourselves in a vacuum or totally outside of social context. While much research speaks to this idea in considering individuals’ social groups, regional locations, and national origins, what is often overlooked is the importance of specific cities and local space ecologies in contributing to individuals’ understandings of their selves. In How Places Make Us: Novel LBQ Identities in Four Small Cities, Japonica Brown-Saracino examines the experiences of LBQ-identified people in four small US cities (Ithaca, NY; San Luis Obispo, CA; Portland, ME; and Greenfield, MA) to explore the importance of the local in LBQ individuals’ understandings of sexual identity. It is perhaps especially pertinent to examine LGBTQ individuals in the present historical moment in the USA because those with non-normative sexual identities are now negotiating the meanings attached to their identities in a rapidly changing social landscape. Civil rights and mainstream acceptance for LGBTQ people and their relationships have been both gained, and challenged, in recent decades. These shifts require that LGBTQ people do work to situate social and cultural changes in their own lives and incorporate these changes when negotiating identity meanings. Brown-Saracino’s book explores the importance of the oft-overlooked local context in these identity negotiations.
Using an impressive range of data sources (including interviews, surveys, field notes, print materials, and other secondary data), Brown-Saracino’s book offers a detailed look at each of the four research sites and reveals surprising, counterintuitive findings within each site. The author finds that distinct ‘sexual identity cultures’ exist within each city, and that factors such as perceptions of safety, general social acceptance of LGBTQ relationships, comparisons with other LBQ residents, and ‘place narratives’ (or understandings of the meanings attached to the cities themselves) all impact individuals’ own ways of making sense of themselves as LBQ people. Despite sharing many demographic characteristics, the author finds that local place-based factors help structure individuals’ understandings of sexual identity. As far as the participants, Brown-Saracino focuses mostly on those who are women and female-identified. The sample is also mostly white and privileged in terms of education and having ability to choose to settle in the cities of their choice. Yet despite their demographic similarities, participants had diverse understandings of sexual identity across the different sites. Simultaneously, participants most often demonstrated similarities and agreement in terms of how to define LBQ identities within sites. This was the case even among those LBQ ‘migrants’ who had relocated to the specific cities from elsewhere.
Brown-Saracino’s work certainly fills an important need in that while studies examining LGBTQ experiences and identity negotiation in large cities and rural areas are abundant, small cities are often overlooked. In addition, Brown-Saracino’s strategy of pursuing a relatively homogenous interview sample helps make clear the extent to which place and space do influence the ways in which LBQ-identified individuals make sense of their sexual identities. The findings affirm that we cannot assume homogenous demographic groups will make sense of sexual identity similarly across different spaces (even within the same national or regional contexts). Brown-Saracino’s findings suggest that individuals ‘do’ and ‘feel’ identity differently across different cities and locales. Further, moving from one city to another can compel individuals to shift the nuances attached to specific definitions of identity.
To conclude, Brown-Saracino’s work makes a compelling case for the continued importance of the local in contributing to LBQ individuals’ understandings of sexual identity. Despite increased globalization, we cannot assume that demographic similarities will equal similar understandings of identity across different locales. Readers of Sexualities interested in the relationship between individuals’ sexual identity negotiations and social context will find How Places Make Us: Novel LBQ Identities in Four Small Cities to be a useful read. Yet, this work can be useful more broadly because of the potential impact of the findings for analyzing the ways that local ecologies may influence a range of other identity locations as well.