“Ties that bind”
The continued conflation of sex, sexuality and gender
Few in the humanities and social sciences will doubt the long-standing historical conflation of sex, sexuality and
gender both within and without academia. Despite research and socio-political movements aiming for the contrary, it continues even
now. This paper discusses the ongoing conflation between these interrelated but independent social categories in current
linguistic research, including how it can serve to reflect and reinforce socio-political antagonism outside of academia. I propose
two potential directions of travel: (1) welcoming ideological pluralism between scholars on the primacy of either sex, gender or
sexuality; and (2) horizontally disaggregating the three categories. I argue that engaging with both strategies in tandem serves
to benefit researchers, participants and the public. The former encourages trust in academic research during a time wherein that
trust is waning. The latter enables an analytical distinction between sex, gender, and sexuality in linguistic research, whilst
continuing to acknowledge their interrelatedness. Implemented together, they will allow researchers to embed research in the 21st
century, which entails pluralistic and competing socio-political activism between equally deserving groups.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Continuing conflation of categories
- 3.Future directions
- Notes
-
References
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Lawson, Robert & Laura Coffey-Glover
2023.
Introducing mediated discrimination: Intersections of gender, sexuality and media discourse.
Discourse, Context & Media 56
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