The story of my dissertation begins with an observation about our social world: there are queer people who pass for heterosexual. This social observation spurs many philosophical questions: What are the theoretical components of “passing”? What is sexual identity and how is it different from other types of identities (especially ones associated with passing)? How do we morally respond to people who pass? What do our reactions and assessments say about our ethical associations with identity? What does passing reveal about the nature of identity? What does systematic oppression do to identity/passing/and morality?

My dissertation makes two primary arguments: (1) The theory of performativity is not an effective strategy for understanding sexual identity and particularly the ethics of sexual identity passing; instead I proffer a model of style, based in corporeal and linguistic habituation, in the tradition of continental philosophy that can explain both sexual identity and passing. (2) I argue that the ethics of identity, in association with passing, are already mired in the ethical implications and judgments of sexuality. Sexual identity is always already a moral (and moralized) identity. This means that sexual identity passing must be understood in an ethical context and that a community ethic for queer people must confront the ethics of sexuality in a direct way. I offer the moral paradox of “the liar or the pervert” as the given background to sexual identity passing.

Chapter 1 focuses on the history of passing in literature and culture. Chapter 2 focuses on the conceptual components of passing and the moral evaluations we use in assessing those who have passed. Chapter 3 looks at questions of power, oppression, and our morals under power and oppression. Chapter 4 looks at the limitations of the theory of performativity (particularly its ethical limitations), offers up a model of style, discusses the history of sexual identity, and begins to sketch out what a style of sexual identity would look like. Chapter 5 builds a community ethic for queer people in light of the common phenomenon of people passing for heterosexual, questions of style, and the ethical history of sexual identity.