The Social Construction of Lesbianism
Celia Kitzinger
Firstly, she looks at the ideological content of research in the area. She exposes the way in which this research, including the new gay affirmative model, often functions to manage, control and depoliticise lesbianism and male homosexuality. The second task is the dismantling of the myths which support the dominant account of social science as an objective, value- neutral activity. She shows how what is often presented as scientific truth is determined by the political understanding held by the researcher. She asks of us, as researchers, that we make explicit our political assumptions and acknowledge the way in which they inform the research process.
Her own political identity, radical feminism, is made evident in every step of her research process. Thirdly, she emphasises that social science must recognise that accounts of social phenomena cannot compete for status as truth on the basis of whether they can be verified through empirical methods. She challenges us to see that her own research on lesbianism is simply one account, not objective fact. She fulfills the other tasks set by the social constructionist approach by not taking any definition of the world for granted as they are all socially constructed, and by engaging in overt moral and political evaluation of her work.
Celia Kitzinger’s book is not only of interest because of its expose of the traditional model of science, but also because it goes on to offer an alternative approach. Her research on lesbian identities is creative in terms of its methodology and its findings. In selecting her methodology she puts into practice many of the concerns which have emerged in the current debates about alternatives to positivist methods of research. She uses interview transcripts to develop an adapted Q methodology. For anyone interested in doing research on subjectivity, this is an interesting method and it is fully described in the book.
Her findings demonstrate that women, in talking about their identity as lesbians, describe their lesbianism in different ways. This is interesting because it shows the complexity and diversity present in a group which is often portrayed as being a single, homogeneous category. While she interviews a range of participants she acknowledges that her ‘own obvious whiteness and middle-classness’ stood in the way of her access to some black lesbians and working class radical women (pg 88).
This does not detract from the significance of the study, however, since her aim is not to make normative statements about lesbians as a group. What it means is that the constructions of lesbian identity revealed are merely a ‘partial selection of the many different visions of the world and of themselves that lesbians as a whole have constructed’ (pg 88). Not only does she document her participants’ constructions of their lesbianism, she also evaluates their political implications. For us this is an exciting innovation because it shows that the way we construct our personal identity interacts with political practice. In this sense Kitzinger’s research animates the feminist slogan ‘the personal is political.’ ~ Cheryl de la Rey and Louise Mina, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, No. 11, Sexual Politics (1991)
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Details
| ISBN | 9780803981164 |
| Genre | LGBT Studies/Social Sciences |
| Publication Date | 01-Feb-87 |
| Publisher | Sage Publications, Inc |
| Format | Hardcover |
| No. of Pages | 230 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| Subject | Feminism; Gay and lesbian studies; Lesbianism |
| BookID | 12109 |
