Also, Social
Constructionism. A school of thought now dominant in Women's and
Gay studies that holds that categories of gender and sexuality like
masculine/feminine and hetero/homo derive from cultural influences, not from
essential features of an individual's biology or psychology as essentialists
believe. Although influenced by anthropological cultural relativism
and phenomenological philosophy, most contemporary social constructionists
trace the roots of their points of view to postmodern philosophy, especially
the work of French philosophers Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault.
See Also: Queer
Theory.
