S u m m a r y

Salonen M (2000)

Current Paradigms in Gender and Sexuality Studies

Psykologia 35(2):151-162. Vammala ISSN 0355-1067

 

Sexuality and gender are studied and theorised in many disciplines including psychology and the social sciences. As the number of theories and research practises has increased and become mixed, the uses of many central concepts of gender and sexuality have become less and less distinguishable.

This article sets out to clarify the use of concepts as well as the foundations of the concepts, which are used in the studies of gender and sexuality. Three different paradigms are found which apply different conceptual frames in order to establish knowledge of gender and sexuality. These paradigms are called: 1) sex/gender-system, 2) sex difference and 3) performance.

These three paradigms are incommensurable because they establish methodologically and ontologically different knowledge. Therefore, it is pragmatically argued that the concepts of sexuality and gender might be most useful when the idea of a common reality behind one theory is forgotten. This way one could simultaneously apply all the multifaceted theories of gender and sexuality. When doing research one could also "see" gender and sexuality as pluralistic as possible and this might help in recognising the individuality of sexual and gendered persons.

 

Key words:

Gender, sexuality, theory.

 

Marko Salonen, M.Soc.Sc., Department of Sociology and Social Psychology, FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland.