[lbo-talk] heterosexuality?

[Miles Jackson]

Tahir Wood wrote:
> Can you point me to a corpus or any genuine linguistic study
> that shows 'heterosexuality' to have the meaning of an institution of
> the type you are claiming?
> Tahir
>   
Seriously?  Historians and sociologists have been studying the social 
construction of sexual identity for at least 40 years now.  If you don't 
like Foucault, try out Gilbert Herdt, Ken Plummer, or David Halperin. 
(--And note that this social analysis does not imply a position in the 
Nature/nurture debate!  All biologically determined traits must be 
embedded in social interactions to create social structure and 
processes.  From the sociological standpoint, biological characteristics 
cannot explain any social facts, because it is always through social 
interactions that any social roles, statuses, groups, and institutions 
are created and sustained.  --Thus the "social construction" of 
homosexuality and heterosexuality, regardless of the biological factors 
that influence individual sexual preferences.)

Miles