Beyond the Depathologization of Homosexuality Reframing Evelyn Hooker as a Boundary Shifter in Twentieth-Century US Sex Research

• Published in: Journal of the history of sexuality Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 48 - 91
• Main Author: MOLLDREM, STEPHEN
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Austin University of Texas Press 01.01.2021; University of Texas at Austin (University of Texas Press)
• Subjects: Biographies; Book publishing; Friendship; Gay men; Gays & lesbians; History; Homosexuality; Hooker, Evelyn; Mental illness; Psychological aspects; Psychologists; Research subjects; Sex research; Sexual behavior; Sexuality; Social aspects; Studies; Training; Works; United States; New York; United Kingdom; California; Illinois; Los Angeles California; United States > US
• ISSN: 1043-4070; 1535-3605
• DOI: 10.7560/JHS30103

Molldrem shown that Evelyn Hooker has generally been characterized as what he calls the "great depathologizer" of homosexuality in academic texts and popular biographies and that she also saw and characterized herself this way, particularly in the later years of her life. In his effort to revise this one-dimensional narrative, he proposed that Hooker be reinterpreted as a "boundary shifter" in mid-twentieth-century sexuality research in the US: someone who was uniquely situated at the intersection of multiple liminal social and intellectual lifeworlds and who drew on methodological training and forms of insider access that her peers did not share, thus enabling her to translate insights between very different academic arenas where sexual knowledge was being made. Through these boundary shifts, Hooker helped to induce transformations in multiple fields as she moved across their borders and the social worlds of her peers, friends, and research subjects. Future scholars of the history of sexuality can proactively work to uncover other similar boundary shifters. Doing so could potentially enrich the collective understanding of the production of sexual knowledge in the history of sexuality.