Frontmatter and Editorial

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the frontmatter and editorial: This special issue of gender forum is the outcome of several conversations with David Berger over the last two months. I became aware of his story through a talk show in December 2010, where he was invited as a guest to speak about his book Der heilige Schein which by that time had already become a bestseller. After that I saw his name reappear frequently, be it on TV or in newspapers. I became intrigued by the remarkable media interest and his personal explanations, particularly because he was always shying away from labels and positionings which others were very quick to employ for him. I noticed how my own attributions and conceptualisations of “victim and perpetrator” as well as “self and other” were questioned by his stance and how an imagined safety of distance to the established discourses regarding the Roman Catholic Church and sexuality was beginning to falter. Berger's story rather is indicative of a more general problem, namely how to balance individual and group interests, the complex self and social identity.