Questioning Gender and Sexuality Binaries

Social work has largely adopted the oppression model in our research, practice, education, policy and advocacy work. These essentialist constructions rely on the binary categorizations of male/female and heterosexuality/homosexuality. Largely missing from the mainstream social work literature are the perspectives of postmodern/queer theorists, the latest sex research, and the experience of transgendered individuals. These perspectives offer critiques of gender and sexuality binaries as well as libratory goals for social justice. Tensions between the postmodern perspective and the social work liberal model are discussed, and suggestions for incorporating the ideas emanating from queer theorists, new sex research, and the lived experiences of the transgendered into all areas of social work are offered.