SECTION I: EPISTEMOLOGY

Chapters in this section focus on aspects of epistemology, especially chapter 1, and other chapters review evolutionary and biological ap­proaches to sex and gender, meta-analytic approaches to human sex dif­ferences in sexuality, and feminist considerations of sexology and the med — icalization of sexuality. In chapter 2, Danny Moore and Cheryl Travis point out that even when standard criteria of logical positivism are applied, much of the gender-focused work in neuroanatomy and sociobiology is deeply flawed in both logic and methodology. The fact that gender-biased facts remain a favorite topic of science journals and popular media reveals the social and political nature of these constructions. In chapter 3, Janet Hyde and Mary Beth Oliver review a number of other theoretical models of gender including the perspectives of the neoanalytic theorist Nancy Cho — dorow, social learning theory, social role theory and script theory, and fem­inist theory. Hyde and Oliver then apply empiricist methods of meta­analysis to gender differences in sexuality as a way of clarifying their extent and relative size. A major conclusion of this review is that sociobiological models of gender are driving the research agenda and that feminist re­searchers must consider how to recapture it. In chapter 4, Leonore Tiefer points out that the contemporary public tends to rely on sex experts who are assumed to be professional and neutral with regard to sexual values. Thus, in some ways the experts create frameworks of meaning and reality for the public. In contrast, she proposes that it is naive to believe that sex experts have no particular ax to grind and instead illustrates how theory and research formulations actively promote particular constructions of sex­uality. This sexological model is not simply a “mirror held up to nature” but rather promotes a distinct perspective that privileges biological factors while making universal claims.