Emerging directions in sociological research on sexuality.

Adam, Barry ; Maticka-Tyndale, Eleanor

THIS SPECIAL ISSUE IS SOMETHING OF a departure for the Canadian Review of Sociology. Sexuality studies have shown considerable growth in recent years around the world with the development of a sexualities section in the American Sociological Association and the emergence of journals like Sexualities, GLQ, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, and Culture, Health and Sexuality that move beyond the traditional biomedical and psychological core of the field into social, historical, and cultural dimensions of sexuality and their policy implications. Much of the paradigm shift from the biomedical and psychological to the social has been pioneered by scholars in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) studies and several of these articles draw on that rich legacy. The spell of the "natural" has so long dominated research in heterosexuality that biological and positivist epistemologies hold it in the tight grip of the "scientific" search for "facts." The rapidly transforming trajectory of LGBT sexualities from sin, sickness, and crime to diversity, innovation, and the queer has made the sociocultural underpinnings of sexuality much more evident and opened the door for an expansive sociological imagination of all sexualities. With scholarship flourishing in LGBT studies, clearly there is still more to be done to queer the heterosexual and understand its sociocultural organization, politic, and diversity.

While some scholars have been contributing to the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, many Canadian sociologists have been going outside the country to find publication venues friendly to their work. The call for papers for this issue seemed at first a new venture, even a bit of a gamble. The response was impressive. A large number of papers arrived from across the country, from graduate students through to more senior academics, many of publishable quality. The papers in this special issue, then, are (hopefully) just the start of an expanded publishing stream in CRS with more papers to follow in upcoming issues.

These papers show some of the wealth of Canadian scholarship emerging in the area. They use methodologies ranging from survey and interview to sociohistorical and cultural analysis. Several address the intersections between social inequality and state institutions as the latter reproduce the social fault lines that they are mandated to dissolve. The article by Edward Lee and Shari Brotman, "Identity, Refugeeness, Belonging: Experiences of Sexual Minority Refugees in Canada" raises issues of intersectionalities, western conceptions of sexuality overall and "homosexuality" in particular. Lee and Brotman challenge dominant theoretical and advocacy paradigms and demonstrate the imperative of recognizing cultural diversities in sexuality. They show how the cultural imagination of the state instantiates particular forms of gender and sexuality, then requires conformity at the pain of exclusion or exile. At this nexus of state, gender, and sexuality, the fears of the security state play out on the lives and bodies of some of the most vulnerable of people, immigrants and refugees.

Canada's pride in its liberalism regarding diversity, especially by sexual orientation, is belied by the survey reported by Catherine Taylor and Tracey Peter, the largest of its kind ever done. This national survey on the school experiences of LGBT youth gives new force to the Althusserian idea of the school system as an ideological and repressive state apparatus or perhaps a social engine of gender and sex policing. The authors make passing reference to the refusal of the Roman Catholic school system to cooperate with the study at all, an example of the power of a church/state institution not only to thwart research but to cover up any recognition of the destructive effects of its own policies. The United Nations Human Rights Committee condemned Canada and Ontario in 1999 (CRIPE 2010) for having violated the equality provisions (Article 26) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights for the state institutionalization of one religious denomination over all others. In this instance, it is an institution enforcing an official policy of punishing and suppressing LGBT peoples and cultures. Lest this study of the school system, whether public or Catholic, be read through a minoritizing lens as applicable to one victimized sexual minority and no one else, particularly telling are the ramifications of school complicity with homophobia. The intersection of homophobic bullying with racist bullying enumerated in the results reported here is striking and confirms previous findings from Canada and other societies (Anagnostopoulos 2009; Dickinson 2006; Manhan 2006; Vicars 2006). The results for transgendered students and also for the children of gay and lesbian couples speak strongly to the pervasiveness of bullying, discrimination, and the collusion of teachers and schools in a system of endangerment and insecurity. And the absolute numbers show the sizable proportion of students suffering gender-related and homophobic harassment that are not in fact lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered themselves. Clearly, being heterosexual is not necessarily a defense against homophobic harassment and bullying. Yet, the study shows that this need not be an intractable problem and points to a way out. Schools that make a basic effort to protect the safety and well-being of their students can make a clearly significant difference. Finally, this study also belies a widespread perception that homophobia is "over" because the upcoming generation is now supposedly so open and accepting and that LGBT identities are becoming obsolete, or that contemporary youth can simply express a "fluid" sexuality without penalty in a new era of acceptance.

The article by Michael Graydon, "'Kids Not Rights, is Their Craving': Sex Education, Gay Rights and the Threat of Gay Teachers," recovers a now largely forgotten moment in Canadian history that raises a large and intriguing sociological question. Graydon's social history throws light on the social forces that conspired together to ensure the failure of schools to provide a safe environment for students who are, or are perceived to be, LGBT. The larger question arising from this article is: How did LGBT people go from the abject social position of a persecuted people reviled by public authorities and the objects of moral panic in 1977 to attain equality in human rights legislation and marriage rights by 2005? This remarkable social transformation in the space of a generation poses a challenge for a sociological analysis to weigh the social, historical, political, and cultural conditions that made this change possible.

Steve Garrick's article, "A New Sexual Revolution? Critical Theory, Pornography, and the Internet," opens a very large and underexplored question concerning the impact of the virtualization of sexuality on the Internet on the constitution of sexuality today and the possibility of a progressive form of pornography-unthinkable in terms of an earlier feminist critique. Herbert Marcuse, one of the most perceptive and prescient of theorists of late capitalism, enjoys new life here as a resource for making sense of the vast new territories of virtual sexualities opened on the Internet. While dominant forms of sexual imagery not surprisingly reproduce old hierarchies and taboos, there is much to be done to explore the more subversive, marginal, and innovative sectors of the virtual world. The question this article opens for further research is: How are sexual subjectivities and cultures being shaped for the wired generations growing up on this virtual territory?

Far more articles were submitted than could possibly be contained in one issue. The choice was challenging to select among a strong collection of submissions. As sociologists who have taught and researched in the realm of sexuality for over 30 years, we are encouraged by the growth in this interdisciplinary area. We look forward to future work that takes up the research challenges that posed here.

References

Anagnostopoulos, D. 2009. "School Staff Response to Gender-Based Bullying as Moral Interpretation: An Exploratory Study." Educational Policy 23(4):519-53.

Civil Rights in Public Education (CRIPE). 2010. "Canada's Defiance of U.N. Human Rights Committee's Decision Prompts Another Submission." Retrieved December 27, 2010 (http://cripeweb.org/UN_2005(page_1).html).

Dickinson, G. 2006. "Homophobic Harassment Directed against Heterosexuals Still Discrimination." Education Law Journal 15(3):285-91.

Manhan, W. 2006. "School and Community Service Providers' Perspectives on Gay and Lesbian and Questioning Bullying." Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling 1(2):45-66.

Vicars, M. 2006. "Who are You Calling Queer? Sticks and Stones can Break my Bones but Names will Always Hurt Me." British Educational Research Journal 32(3):347-61.

BARRY ADAM AND ELEANOR MATICKA-TYNDALE

University of Windsor