The journals listed here focus explicitly on sexuality and its intersections; however, a number of discipline-specific journals also feature work on sexuality and identity.
Contexts is a peer-reviewed sociology journal published by the American Sociological Association. It is written accessibly for a general audience, briefly summarizes timely research, and reads and looks like a magazine. GLQ is an interdisciplinary journal focused on providing scholarly queer critical and theoretical perspectives. Journal of Bisexuality. The Journal of Bisexuality publishes both research and reflective essays on bisexual identities and communities. Journal of Homosexuality. The interdisciplinary Journal of Homosexuality emphasizes research on gender and sexuality, with a particular focus on lesbian and gay identities.
Journal of Lesbian Studies. The Journal of Lesbian Studies publishes an array of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research focused on lesbian communities, identities, and experiences. Arguably the most well-known journal focused on sexual identities, Sexualities is an interdisciplinary resource for peer-reviewed research on sexual identities, cultures, and communities.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. Not a member? From a functionalist standpoint, homosexuality cannot be promoted on a large-scale as an acceptable substitute for heterosexuality.
If this occurred, procreation would eventually cease. Thus, homosexuality, if occurring predominantly within the population, is dysfunctional to society. This criticism does not take into account the increasing legal acceptance of same-sex marriage, or the rise in gay and lesbian couples who choose to bear and raise children through a variety of available resources.
From a conflict theory perspective, sexuality is another area in which power differentials are present and where dominant groups actively work to promote their worldview as well as their economic interests.
Recently, we have seen the debate over the legalization of gay marriage intensify nationwide. For conflict theorists, there are two key dimensions to the debate over same-sex marriage—one ideological and the other economic.
Dominant groups in this instance, heterosexuals wish for their worldview—which embraces traditional marriage and the nuclear family—to win out over what they see as the intrusion of a secular, individually driven worldview. On the other hand, many gay and lesbian activists argue that legal marriage is a fundamental right that cannot be denied based on sexual orientation and that, historically, there already exists a precedent for changes to marriage laws: the s legalization of formerly forbidden interracial marriages is one example.
From an economic perspective, activists in favor of same-sex marriage point out that legal marriage brings with it certain entitlements, many of which are financial in nature, like Social Security benefits and medical insurance Solmonese Denial of these benefits to gay couples is wrong, they argue.
Conflict theory suggests that as long as heterosexuals and homosexuals struggle over these social and financial resources, there will be some degree of conflict.
Interactionists focus on the meanings associated with sexuality and with sexual orientation. Since femininity is devalued in U. Just as masculinity is the symbolic norm, so too has heterosexuality come to signify normalcy. Interactionist labeling theory recognizes the impact this has made.
Before , the APA was powerful in shaping social attitudes toward homosexuality by defining it as pathological. Today, the APA cites no association between sexual orientation and psychopathology and sees homosexuality as a normal aspect of human sexuality APA Interactionists are also interested in how discussions of homosexuals often focus almost exclusively on the sex lives of gays and lesbians; homosexuals, especially men, may be assumed to be hypersexual and, in some cases, deviant.
Interactionism might also focus on the slurs used to describe homosexuals. This subsequently affects how homosexuals perceive themselves. Constant exposure to derogatory labels, jokes, and pervasive homophobia would lead to a negative self-image, or worse, self-hate.
The CDC reports that homosexual youths who experience high levels of social rejection are six times more likely to have high levels of depression and eight times more likely to have attempted suicide CDC The perspective highlights the need for a more flexible and fluid conceptualization of sexuality—one that allows for change, negotiation, and freedom. This mirrors other oppressive schemas in our culture, especially those surrounding gender and race black versus white, male versus female.
Queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argued against U. Thus, theorists utilizing queer theory strive to question the ways society perceives and experiences sex, gender, and sexuality, opening the door to new scholarly understanding. Throughout this chapter we have examined the complexities of gender, sex, and sexuality.
Differentiating between sex, gender, and sexual orientation is an important first step to a deeper understanding and critical analysis of these issues. Understanding the sociology of sex, gender, and sexuality will help to build awareness of the inequalities experienced by subordinate categories such as women, homosexuals, and transgender individuals.
When studying sex and sexuality, sociologists focus their attention on sexual attitudes and practices, not on physiology or anatomy. Norms regarding gender and sexuality vary across cultures. In general, the United States tends to be fairly conservative in its sexual attitudes. As a result, homosexuals continue to face opposition and discrimination in most major social institutions. Broude, Gwen J. New York, NY: Springer. Buss, David M. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cooley, Charles Horton. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner. Fisher, T. Moore, and M. Grose, Thomas K. Hall, Donald. Queer Theories. This would include architecture, traffic rest stops, golf courses, that is, everything. Do you believe in this idea? I have always been uneasy about the concept of revolution, meaning a sudden total transformation of social practices and meanings, even when applied to political changes. The s and early s were periods of significant sexual change in the United States, but these changes in sexual life were often dependent on changes in non-sexual life in the society.
Thus the demographic changes of the post world war period produced the baby boom, some 70 million plus new citizens in the United States in a period of 18 years. At the same time the United States experienced a period of sustained prosperity that created an expanded middle class.
The baby boomers entered adolescence as more prosperous consumers than other generation. This separation of prosperity and labor offered a moratorium during which young people could test their sense of competence in the sexual domain during their teen years. But the current level of sexual practice among adolescents did not take place overnight.
There has been a steady decline in age at first intercourse, a steady increase in proportion of sexually active youth, an increase in the numbers of sexual partners before age 21, but these changes have occurred over a period of 30 years. In many domains of sexual life e. Perhaps the major changes that have taken place in the United States are the emergence of social movements organized around gender, sexuality and reproduction.
While we were both skeptical of the dimensions and extent of sexual change in the United States, we were aware of and in touch with the changes that were occurring among the young and in certain sectors of the well-educated middle class.
As participants in the every day life of the society we were vulnerable to the rhetoric and pleasures of revolution, even as we doubted its reality.
What does this theory mean to you nowadays, taking into account the social changes on the contemporary world referring to themes such as feminism and gay and lesbian movements?
The theory has remained remarkably stable and applicable to current sexual life in my own mind, but one should probably expect that. At the same time the rise of social movements with strong agendas for sexual change has come as interesting surprise. The role of sexuality in these three movements, reproductive rights, gay and lesbian rights and women rights, is not exactly the same, though they often have common goals.
The gay and lesbian movement with its umbrella for bisexuals and trans-gendered persons is organized around individuals whose sexual and gender lives appear differ from the sexual majority. It is a movement centered on issues of sexual and gender identity and the right to be different. The importance of sexuality to each of these movements is a shifting one, but one that comes under their larger commitments to human rights. The sexual scripts of individuals in these three movements probably do not differ from a great deal from the past, what does differ is their sexual politics.
And how about straight people? Ah, straight people! What is remarkable about them is the diversity of their sexual lives. The distinction needs to be institutional rewards given to those conform with the standard model of gender, sexuality and reproduction and the wide variation in gender, sexual and reproductive conduct which can be found among them.
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