Forms of Desire: Sexual Orientation and the Social Constructionist Controversy? (Garland Gay and Lesbian Studies)

Perhaps the central issue in the emerging area of inquiry known as lesbian and gay studies is the social constructionist controversy. Social constructionism is the view that the categories of sexual orientation (the category "homosexual" in particular, but also the categories "heterosexual" and "bisexual") are cultural constructs rather than universal categories of nature. According to this view, it makes no sense to say, for example, that Socrates was a homosexual because the cultural kind had not yet been constructed.