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''The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation'' is a 1999 book about sexual orientation research by philosopher Edward Stein, who gives an account of the debate between "social constructionists" and "essentialists" and criticizes the way other authors have discussed social constructionism. Part of the "Ideologies of Desire" series edited by queer theorist David M. Halperin,〔Stein 1999. pp. ii〕 ''The Mismeasure of Desire'' has been praised by philosophers and other commentators. ==Summary== Discussing the debate over sexual orientation between "essentialists" and "constructionists", Stein observes that essentialists generally see heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual orientations as "natural human kinds" that can be found in other cultures and throughout history, whereas constructionists maintain that sexual orientations are "social human kinds", linguistic constructs that capture certain culturally derived meanings about sexual behavior.〔Jones 2007. p. 29.〕 In his discussion of sexual orientation research, Stein criticizes several other authors for their views on the subject. He finds research that claims to have identified genes that cause homosexuality in drosophilia (fruit flies), including a 1995 study by Jean-François Ferveur et al. that was published in ''Science'' magazine, to be guilty of anthropomorphism. He argues that such research is irrelevant to understanding sexual orientation in humans. He criticizes journalist Chandler Burr for uncritically accepting "courtship" behavior between male fruit flies as an example of animal homosexuality. Stein calls Burr's ''A Separate Creation'' (1996) "unsophisticated" and criticizes Burr for his failure to discuss social constructionist views of sexual orientation. Stein criticizes Michael Ruse's views on social constructionism as expressed in ''Homosexuality: A Philosophical Inquiry'' (1988). Other people Stein criticizes for their treatment of social constructionism include neuroscientist Simon LeVay and author Andrew Sullivan; Stein notes that in ''The Sexual Brain'' (1993), LeVay fails to discuss social constructionism even though it is relevant to the subject of the book, and maintains that in ''Virtually Normal'' (1995) Sullivan fails to show that social constructionism is false. Stein argues that it has not been shown that sexual orientations are non-arbitrary groups ("natural kinds") and that the ethics of sexual orientation research are open to question.〔Stein 1999. pp. iii, 78, 105, 166, 338, 350, 366.〕 Discussing Halperin's social constructionist views, Stein writes that Halperin's claims about the development of contemporary categories of sexual orientation in ''One Hundred Years of Homosexuality'' (1990) are not universally shared: while Halperin maintains that the word "homosexual" was coined by Karl-Maria Kertbeny in 1869 and attaches significance to this event, others such as John Boswell argue that the concept the word refers to has existed for centuries.〔Stein 1999. p. 100〕 Stein calls ''Sexual Preference'' (1981) one of the most detailed retrospective studies relating to sexual orientation. Stein writes that while the study has been criticized on various grounds, including the fact that all of its subjects were living in such an atypical location as San Francisco, Bell et al.'s "conclusions with respect to experiential theories seem to have been confirmed and accepted." Stein adds that ''Sexual Preference'' "suggests that early sexual experience does not play an important role in the development of sexual orientation", and that it also fails to support theories relating homosexuality to family dynamics. Stein summarizes its data as showing no difference between gay men and straight men in the strength of their attachment to their mothers, and only a weak connection between unfavorable relationships with the father and male homosexuality and gender non-conformity, with similar findings for women. Stein writes that the study does not support the "parental manipulation theory" according to which "children with no siblings would almost never be lesbian or gay and...children with a large number of siblings would be likely to be so." Stein observes that many other retrospective studies have been conducted on childhood gender non-conformity partly because of Bell et al.'s finding that it is related to homosexuality.〔Stein 1999. pp. 235-237.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Mismeasure of Desire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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