The Dichotomy of Sexuality: A Narrative-Epistemological Framework for Social Work Practice and Research

This paper examines sexuality and the social construction of the sexual binary divide, illustrating how sexual identities have progressed, developed, and transformed.  Social categories have been created as a form of social control and have therefore perpetuated stereotypical attitudes and discriminatory acts.  This paper will illustrate how institutional and individual level harms have occurred due to the continued dichotomization of sexuality; and simultaneously how such categorizations have, in contrast, helped to form supportive and cohesive communities. Concluding, this paper will contend that dichotomous categories leave no room for individuals to question or explore their own sexuality; the sexual divide ignores the changing sexualities within today’s modern western perspective.  Deriving from a social work perspective, this paper argues that a narrative epistemological framework remains the best practice to recognize and address the complex and multifaceted nature of sexual identity