disidentification

Disidentification is a concept in social theory and cultural studies that describes how individuals navigate identity categories by partially distancing themselves from a dominant or stigmatized identity while continuing to operate within the field that defines that identity. It is a strategic mode of engagement that allows people to critique prevailing norms without fully rejecting everyday life within those norms.

The term is most closely associated with the work of José Esteban Muñoz, who in Disidentifications (1999) analyzes how queer people of color negotiate heteronormative, racialized discourses. Disidentification, for Muñoz, involves refashioning or reinterpreting available cultural codes so as to survive, critique, and create in spaces where straight, white, or nationalist scripts predominate.

In practice, disidentification can take many forms: strategic misrecognition, selective alignment with certain aspects of a dominant discourse, reinterpretation of stereotypes, or the use of humor and parody to reveal contradictions. It is widely applied in studies of film, literature, performance, and media to explain how marginalized audiences and creators engage with cultural texts without fully adopting their implicit ideologies.

In information and privacy contexts, the more common term for removing personal identifiers is de-identification or anonymization, rather than disidentification. Some scholars differentiate between social or discursive disidentification and technical de-identification. Critics have noted that disidentification is not a solution to structural oppression but an analytic lens for understanding negotiation and representation.