Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals by Richards Christina; Barker Meg-John; & Meg Barker

Author:Richards, Christina; Barker, Meg-John; & Meg Barker
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1631696
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2013-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

PAUSE FOR CONSIDERATION

What explanations of sexuality are you aware of? Which are you drawn to? Consider: What caused your sexuality? How is it for you speaking to people who have very different explanations? Does there need to be a cause?

Much problematic theorising and research has been conducted in this area: problematic because it is overwhelmingly assumed that LGB sexualities require an explanation in a way that heterosexual ones do not, and also because most of the explanations which have been put forward suggest some abnormality or deficiency on the part of LGB people. However, many people desire such explanations in order to make sense of their experiences, to feel that their ‘difference’ is not ‘their fault’, and/or to prove their legitimacy to others. Currently biological explanations are often assumed to confer more legitimacy in these ways, so many may be drawn to the notion that they were ‘born gay’, while those who align themselves with queer activism (see Chapter 5) may be drawn to more sociocultural understandings.

As we have previously seen with trans and cisgender (Chapters 2 and 4), sexual and gender identities are likely to be the result of complex interactions between biological, psychological and social factors, with each influencing the other, all playing out in a certain sociohistorical context which structures the sense that is made of them, and how they are experienced. Additionally, even if such complexities were untangled, it is likely that explanations would differ vastly between people, for example the woman who took up a politically lesbian identity in the 1970s, compared to the teenage boy who knows that he has been attracted to other boys all his life.

As professionals it is important that we are open to multiple accounts of sexual identity, and to clients expressing beliefs and explanations which may not fit with our own. As with sexual identity labels themselves, a useful way to practise with explanations is to encourage clients to consider the various possibilities, what they offer, and what their drawbacks are. It is worth including consideration of what is lost and gained by having an explanation in general (including the possibility of not having one), as well as gently questioning whether explanations rooted in choice are the same thing as someone being ‘to blame’ (and the assumption behind this that being LG is somehow problematic in itself – it is not).

While coming out, and looking for explanations, are quite common experiences across LG people (as well as for many bisexual and queer people), experiences may well differ on the basis of gender in terms of the explanations and perceptions which are readily available to them. For example, the focus of explanations for ‘same-gender’ attraction has generally been on men rather than women and, as we will see, stereotypes and prejudices around ‘same-gender’ attracted men and women’s sexualities differ.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.