Passing (sociology)
Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of social groups other than his or her own, such as a different race, ethnicity, social class, gender, intelligence, age and/or disability status, generally with the purpose of gaining social acceptance. This may take the form of changing only one group from the person's own, such as a person's dressing such as to pretend to be of a higher social class.
Etymologically, the term is simply a clipped form of the phrasal verb pass for or pass as, as in a counterfeit passing for the genuine article or an impostor passing as another person. It has been in popular use since at least the late 1920s.
Read more about Passing (sociology): Social Class, Ethnicity and Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation, Disability, Other
Famous quotes containing the word passing:
“The business eternally passing thro’ my mind and occupying it exclusively, wipes out at once the recollection of things which have been presented to it but once, and on which it has had no occasion to recur.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)