The Unfinished Business of Sexuality

Abstract

Margaret L. Andersen provides an insightful overview of the development of feminist studies in sociology and a roadmap for the future. Using her impressive history as a feminist sociologist as a backdrop, she illustrates the inroads women and gender scholarship have made into mainstream sociology. However, as a junior gender/sexuality scholar and generational product of third-wave feminism, I raise three queries to Andersen’s conceptualization. I first argue that her framing of the current status of feminist sociology downplays the challenges newer gender and sexuality scholars still face—challenges that, unfortunately, are not dissimilar to those women faced in the past. Second, illustrating the continued tension between social construction and biological determinism, I question whether we can close the chapter on the early themes of feminist studies she lays out. Finally, while I agree with Andersen that the integration of the study of sexuality is crucial to the future of feminist sociology, I see her hesitation to award sexuality similar analytic status to race, class, and gender as deeply problematic. Rather than engaging in generational boundary guarding that separates “serious” research on the political economy of sexuality from seemingly less weighty research on communities and identities, I suggest we recognize how these forms of research—and the diversity that comes from mixing the insights of feminist generations— work together to strengthen feminist sociology.