Frontmatter and Editorial

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the frontmatter and editorial: 

The boundaries of the private and public self appear to have become less discernible within the last two decades. The expanding and ceaseless dissemination of personal pictures and narratives through different media have led to a vanishing sense of shielded privacy and intimacy. By the same token, the sense of continuously performing oneself because of seeing oneself as being seen increasingly shapes our perceptions and expectations of the gendered self. The notion of gender and sexual identity as a continued and staged performance renders the idea of an authentic and natural self ever more questionable. The three articles in this issue address the implications of altered relations of Private I, Public Eye for the general engagement with gender and sexual “identity”and its consequences for indivdual agency.