Actually, I have heard people use it a lot... or, "normal", anyway. "I'm just a normal guy." "I live a normal life, I don't bother anyone." Normal in the way that means "good citizen who has some flaws, but doesn't go around shouting about acceptance or anything weird like that", is definitely an identity.
People don't exactly use it in the same way they use queer, but I think that's a difference between how dominant groups and marginalized groups describe their identity. For dominant groups, it's "just the way I am". There's not a heterosexual community, a sexual (as opposed to asexual) community, a romantic (as opposed to aromantic) community, a cisgender community, a human community, etc. But these things still are identities, people just don't think about them.
I used normative instead of normal, because that's the word that seems to be mostly used in a deconstructing way, and "normal" is usually used when people want to slur the Other.
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Date: 2012-12-31 11:33 pm (UTC)People don't exactly use it in the same way they use queer, but I think that's a difference between how dominant groups and marginalized groups describe their identity. For dominant groups, it's "just the way I am". There's not a heterosexual community, a sexual (as opposed to asexual) community, a romantic (as opposed to aromantic) community, a cisgender community, a human community, etc. But these things still are identities, people just don't think about them.
I used normative instead of normal, because that's the word that seems to be mostly used in a deconstructing way, and "normal" is usually used when people want to slur the Other.