Kinsey’s Misused Legacy: Moving on from continuums

Abstract

In analyses of Kinsey et al’s work, the sexuality continuum figures large in the literature, not because they believed that people were able to be place upon it, but because of subsequent theories surrounding their work. In this paper I draw on some of the tensions in naming trans* within a continuum model to pursue de-stigmatization of trans embodiment. I will argue that the claims to any nodal positions on an essentialized continuum misrepresents the lives of (trans*) people. Moreover, I will illustrate that this essentialism implicates those with intersex conditions without due attention the binary logics underpinning their claims.

Biography

Zowie Davy PhD is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Care, University of Lincoln. Zowie’s work centers on quality improvements in healthcare. She currently works on projects looking at curricula content for medical health and social care students, gender based violence on campus, and critically examining sexological expertise regarding transgender bodily aesthetics and embodiment. Zowie has published a number of articles about transgender embodiment and was the co-editor of Bound and Unbound: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Genders and Sexualities published by Cambridge Scholars Press. Another book entitled Recognizing Transsexuals: Personal, Political and Medicolegal Embodiment, explores how the bodies of transpeople are figured and reconfigured in socio, politico and medico-legal contexts. The book was awarded the British Sociological Association’s Philip Abrams’ memorial prize 2012.