Year: 1987
Type: article
Abstract: Bury (1986) and Nicolson and McLaughlin (1987) have respectively attacked and defended social constructionism in relation to medical sociology. In this article I try to further the debate by considering how a form of constructionism has been used to study a small area of medical knowledge ‐ that relating to transsexualism. The literature on this topic reveals two stories; one claims that transsexualism has been discovered, the other that it has been invented. In. the main part of this article I examine the invention story alongside evidence drawn from a study of the medical treatment of transsexualism in Britain. I argue that the invention story exaggerates the legitimacy of transsexualism and sex‐change surgery in this country; that what it depicts as peculiar to transsexualism is also common to other areas of medical knowledge and practice; and that its explanation of the invention of transsexualism is implausible in the light of the data presented. Finally I consider the implications of this case study for the wider issues. I conclude that, whilst some of Bury's criticisms of constructionism apply to the invention story of transsexualism, some of the latter's weaknesses are shared with the discovery story and with Bury's own position.
Source: Sociology of Health & Illness
Author: Dave King
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4247265673