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The Sexuality of Gender

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Handbook of the Sociology of Gender

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

This chapter presents theory and research on gender and sexuality as well as on knowledge production in this area. Study in this area begins with the idea that gender and sexuality are interactional, socially constructed through micro and macro institutions ranging from family and individual couples to the nation, with effects varying by different social markers like race, class, cohort, age, and relationship status. What we know of the history of sexuality plus what we recognize as challenges for contemporary work are contingent on our epistemologies. This is because knowledge, too, about gender and sexuality is socially constructed, hampered by the legacy of constrained categories combined with limitations of imagination—our habits of mind. This chapter will help students and scholars of gender recognize transformations in the expression of gender and sexuality, even as it highlights the persistence of normative linkages between the two through heteronormativity. Do we think gender and sexuality will ever be disconnected from one another? It matters less to us whether they are connected or disconnected than that heteronormativity ceases to be a source of social control, racism, and structured inequalities by regulating gender and sexuality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Political economy here simply means the conjunction of market and non-market determinants of behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Framingham State University, Framingham, USA

    Virginia E. Rutter

  2. Boston University, Boston, USA

    Braxton Jones

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  1. Virginia E. Rutter
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Correspondence to Virginia E. Rutter .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Barbara J. Risman

  2. University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

    Carissa M. Froyum

  3. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    William J. Scarborough

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Rutter, V.E., Jones, B. (2018). The Sexuality of Gender. In: Risman, B., Froyum, C., Scarborough, W. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Gender. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_21

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