ABSTRACT
In considering sexuality too often its political and human aspects have been ignored in favour of descriptions of the bizarre sexual behaviour of exotic deviants. This approach has merely served to treat as unproblematic the nature of new interpretations of sexuality and their political potential. Sexual liberation, like any other form of freedom, is political by definition. This chapter proposes to argue against the position by examining some of the evidence about sex and gender; by considering new forms of consciousness arising among sexual minority groups in our society that are oppressed by the dominant heterosexual male hegemony. It discusses the problems posed by those who refuse to act in ways considered appropriate to their gender — that is transexuals, transvestites, and homosexuals. The chapter considers the influence that male hegemony has, not only upon the heterosexual, but also on the homosexual world. It proposes to consider sex as a biological classification, indicated by primary (genital) sexual characteristics.
