Social marking and the mental coloring of identity: Sexual identity construction and maintenance in the United States

This article theoretically develops the concepts of social markingand mental coloringas processes in assigning and maintaining other-defined sexual identities in the United States. While most studies of sexual identity focus exclusively on sexual orientation as the foundation for identity construction, I demonstrate that contemporary sexual identities are formed along six hierarchically arranged dimensions represented as continuums. These dimensions include (1) quantity of sex, (2) timing of sex, (3) level of perceived enjoyment, (4) degree of consent, (5) orientation, and (6) social value of agents. Along these dimensions, the social marking process is used to construct discrete identities at each extreme. Social marking is a rigid, asymmetrical classification process that accents one side of a contrast as unnatural, thereby tacitly naturalizing the unmarked side. Mental coloring intensifies the rigid contrast by figuratively painting all members of the marked category under a single stereotypical image. I introduce two ideal-typical classification conventions for assigning marked identities: the mental one-drop ruleand the mental entire-ocean rule.These conventions maintain the rigidity of the marking process by preventing identity categories from overlapping. I conclude that the cognitive sociological processes outlined in this article are generalizable to the broader study of identity constructions. Ultimately the social marking of identity legitimates unequal treatment of marked categories by creating the illusion that they are less natural than the unmarked. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Eastern Sociological Society's annual meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 1995.