Essay On Vertical Identity

In today’s society, there is a lot of emphasis placed on convergence. People are judged based on how well they can blend into and acclimate to the popular tastes and styles of the time period. So, any type of indication to single out an individual as different from the majority leads them to face backlash and feel pressure. All of the identities we come across in people can be divided into two distinct categories – vertical identities and horizontal identities. A vertical identity consists of “attributes and values … passed down from parent to child not only through DNA, but also through shared cultural norms”, while a horizontal identity occurs when “someone has an inherent or acquired trait that is foreign to his or her parents” (Solomon

He begins by describing his encounter with the deaf community as eye-opening, since it made him realize there were many different types of horizontal identities. “I had been startled to note my common ground with the Deaf, now I was identifying with a dwarf; I wonder who else was out there waiting to join our gladsome throng” (Solomon 371). Solomon had always assumed that his horizontal identity of being gay and dyslexic was very different from other identities such as deafness, dwarfism, blindness, etc., but he soon realized that all horizontal identities faced the same skepticism, intolerance, and ignorance from society. “The reasonable corollary to the queer experience is that everyone has a defect, that everyone has an identity, and that they are often one and the same” (383). Later meeting with the mom of the dwarf child and his African American “friend” from high school, Solomon realized that society places many prejudices on all different walks of people and the irony of it is that although Solomon had to face his own horizontal identities, he still followed the societal pack of discriminating against his African American