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‘Stereotype, Attack and Stigmatize those Who Disagree’: Employing Scientific Rhetoric in Debates about Lesbian and Gay Parenting

Clarke, Victoria

Authors

Profile image of Victoria Clarke

Dr Victoria Clarke Victoria.Clarke@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Qualitative & Critical Psychology



Abstract

In this paper, I explore the controversy surrounding lesbian and gay parenting within psychology, focusing on the rhetoric with which ‘authoritative’ accounts of lesbian and gay parenting are produced. Both ‘advocates’ and ‘enemies’ of lesbian and gay parenting have used what Celia Kitzinger (1990) has dubbed the ‘rhetoric of pseudoscience’ to preserve the scientific integrity of their research while, at the same time, undermining the credibility of their opponents’ findings. Authors engage in the rhetoric of pseudoscience when they attempt to persuade
readers that a piece of research is bad science and that its results, therefore, cannot be taken seriously: they highlight (among other things) flaws in the methodology and the bias and political motivation of the researchers (Kitzinger, 1990). In the light of recent debates about the merits of essentialism and social constructionism in lesbian and gay psychology (e.g. Dickins, 1999; Kitzinger,
1999; Rahman, 1999), I consider the (political) costs and benefits of using science and scientific rhetoric.

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2000
Journal Feminism & Psychology
Print ISSN 0959-3535
Electronic ISSN 1461-7161
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 1
Pages 152-159
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010001018
Keywords same-sex parenting
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1093661
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010001018