Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The old model of lesbianism as a pathological affliction has largely given way to a liberal social scientific one which presents it as an alternative lifestyle, a way of loving, a sexual preference, or a source of personal fulfilment.

This controversial book argues that the shift from `pathological′ to `gay affirmative′ research merely substitutes one depoliticized construction of lesbianism for another. The author contends that the gay affirmative model is fundamentally incompatible with radical feminist theory in which lesbianism is a political statement representing the bonding of women against male supremacy.

This volume was awarded a 1989 Distinguished Publication Award by the Association for Women in Psychology.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Rhetoric in Research on Lesbianism and Male Homosexuality
• Social Scientific Accounts
• Eliciting and Assessing Lesbian Accounts
• Lesbian Identities
• Lesbian Politics
• The Social Construction of Prejudice
• The Future for Research on Lesbianism

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Kitzinger reviews social scientific research on lesbianism and male homosexuality. Her critique of existing research includes a searching analysis of the notion of "scientific objectivity." She argues that the traditional account of lesbians as pathological and contemporary "gay affirmative" research share the assumptions of a liberal political analysis and serve to depoliticize lesbianism. Kitzinger then tackles the tricky methodological problem of defining who is a lesbian , asserting that use of the Q methodology with factor analysis can avoid many of the problems of more traditional techniques. Data are analyzed in the chapters on "Lesbian Identities," "Lesbian Politics," and the "Social Construction of Prejudice." Kitzinger ends with a discussion of the future for research on lesbianism, arguing that the deconstruction of social science by feminists is vital in demonstrating that liberal humanism is in fact an ideology that helps to prevent necessary social change. There have been relatively few studies of lesbian women in the social sciences (e.g., E.M. Ettorre's Lesbians, Women, and Society, CH, Sep '80; Deborah Wolf's The Lesbian Community, CH, Jul, '79; Barbara Ponse's Identities in the Lesbian World: The Social Construction of Self, CH, Oct '78; Sasha Lewis's Sunday's Women: A Report of Lesbian Life Today, 1979), none of them like Kitzinger's. Her book is fascinating, challenging, and controversial. The bibliography is broad-ranging and thorough.