Sexual Dysfunction or Heterosexual Dysfunction?

Abstract

The psychological literature on sexual dysfunction has been mainly concerned with the sexual problems of people in heterosexual relationships. This article takes as its starting point recent attempts to extend this literature to the sexual problems of homosexual women and men. It is argued that such attempts may not have taken sufficient account of the extent to which existing classification systems, nomenclature and theory of sexual problems are based on heterosexist and sexist assumptions about the nature of male and female sexuality, about sexual activity and about what is seen as sexually problematic.