Exploring the Relation of Values, Power, and Advocacy in American Sexual Science

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is widespread acceptance by American sexual scientists of the need to be aware of our values and control their potential biasing effect. Despite this belief, there is a lack of consensus among sexual scientists concerning whether we should advocate for or against policy issues that come before Congress and impact our field. Also, even though in the United States we are dealing with a society of 316 million people, sexual scientists have often failed to propose solutions that are pluralistic and that work in groups with unconventional sexual values. In addition, sexual scientists have conflicting views on just how much we should reveal about our personal values concerning a sexual problem area that we are studying. In these and other ways many sexual scientists have not integrated into their research and theory their verbal support for avoiding bias. Above all, the containment of bias requires the exploration of the interface of values, power, and advocacy with the work we do in sexual science. I spell out my value-aware approach as a way to cope with the complexities of our sexual science field. I illustrate the tenets in that approach by discussing the way the current debate on public school sex education has been handled by sexual scientists and also by reference to the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage.