J E Sumerau
Biographic Data
| ID | 29824 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J E Sumerau |
| GIVEN NAMES | J E |
| FAMILY NAME | Sumerau |
| SIGNATURE | SUMERAU J E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tampa |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5903-0368 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 73 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 592 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 72 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
A Trip through Black Baseball History
Narrating Covid
Aging Amidst Anti-Trans Legislation: Strategies for Safeguarding the Mental Health of Transgender Older Adults
This study investigates how transgender older adults manage and protect their mental health amid anti-trans stigma, discrimination, and legislation in the United States. Using semi-structured, individual interviews with 47 transgender older adults, two key strategies emerged: (1) defining transgender identities, bodies, and experiences as life-affirming; and (2) cultivating transgender-inclusive social support networks. Results from the study exp…
Nobody Told Us
This article examines continuity and change in racial meaning and inequality through the case of the author’s visits to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. As part of a broader autoethnographic study of baseball in social life, this article compares past and present racial events and memorials through the lens of personal travel and the standpoint of a white Southern biography and scholarly trajectory over time. Specifical…
White people's colorblind racial identity work in music-related contexts
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name colorblind racial identity work. Based on 4 years of ethnographic observation in public settings and 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews, we outline how white people in public interactions use colorblind frames to present racial selves and others through their discussions, interpretations, and reactions to musical spaces, genres, and consumption patterns. In conc…
Music and the Social Construction of Self
Sociologists have demonstrated that people use music to construct meaning in numerous specific contexts, groups, and subcultures. This article expands such work by examining how people draw on music to construct identities in daily life beyond any specific setting. Drawing on four years of participant observation and twenty-five in-depth interviews, findings demonstrate three mechanisms of identity-work as people use music in public to (1) define…
An Interactionist Approach to Media Representations of Sexual Violence
The Space Between
Unlivable Lives: Violence and Identity in Transgender Activism
Transgender Possibilities and the Cisgendering of Family among Cisgender Women
In this article, we examine vocabularies of motive concerning the possibility of transgender partners and children. Data from 20 in-depth interviews with (mostly white) cisgender college-aged women in the southeastern United States were analyzed to determine how they construct familial ideals predicated upon cisgender norms and assumptions. Participants respond to the possibility of transgender family members by mobilizing vocabularies of (1) cla…
Introduction to the Special Issue
Constructing Allyship and the Persistence of Inequality
We examine how people construct what it means to be an ally to marginalized groups. Based on 70 in-depth interviews with college students who identify as allies to one or more marginalized groups, we analyze how they construct allyship in ways that ultimately reproduce patterns of social inequality by (1) assigning responsibility for inequalities to minorities, and (2) suggesting individualized, rather than structural, remedies for combatting une…
Continuity and Change in Beliefs and Attitudes
The Rest Stop
Generational Variation in Young Adults’ Attitudes toward Legal Abortion: Contextualizing the Role of Religion
Recent sociological research has addressed a wide range of attitudinal, behavioral, and sociodemographic factors that influence attitudes toward legal abortion. Young adulthood is an important life stage for the development of attitudes and behaviors that are likely to influence individuals over time. Several life course theorists in psychology, social psychology, and sociology hold views consistent with this idea. We use a cohort comparison to e…
Expanding Transgender Studies in Sociology
A Tale of Three Spectrums: Deviating from Normative Treatments of Sex and Gender
This article presents pathways for deviating from sex and gender analyses norms to better incorporate sex and gender diversity in deviance studies. Synthesizing insights from emerging intersex, transgender, and gender-nonconforming scholarship and prior theorizing on the social construction of gender norms, I outline three separate, yet interrelated spectrums embedded in existing theorizing, and illustrate how more explicit engagement with each o…
Teaching Symbolic Interactionism
Foreclosing Fluidity at the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Normativities
Binary gender and sexuality are socially constructed, but they structure thought at such a deep level that even those critical of sexism and homophobia can unwittingly reproduce them, with consequences felt most profoundly by those whose gender/sexual identity defy binary logic. This article outlines a generic pattern in the reproduction of inequality we call foreclosing fluidity,the symbolic or material removal of fluid possibilities from sexual…
Expanding the Rainbow: Exploring the Relationships of Bi+, Polyamorous, Kinky, Ace, Intersex, and Trans People
Expanding the Rainbow is the first comprehensive collection of research on the relationships of people who identify as bi+, poly, kinky, asexual, intersex, and/or trans that is written to be accessible to an undergraduate audience. The volume highlights a diverse range of identities, relationship structures, and understandings of bodies, sexualities, and interpersonal relationships. Contributions to the volume include original empirical research,…
The use of gender in the interpretation of BDSM
In this article, we explore the ways BDSM practitioners negotiate gender. Based on 32 in-depth interviews with BDSM practitioners and thousands of message board posts from the then-largest online BDSM community in the USA, we explore the explanatory frameworks BDSM practitioners use to (1) downplay and (2) emphasize dominant notions of gender to make sense of BDSM practices and experiences. In so doing, we discuss some ways BDSM practices and int…
Producing an LGBT Religious Organizational Identity: The Case of DignityUSA
In this exploratory study, we examine the production of an organizational LGBT religious identity utilizing the case of DignityUSA. To this end, we engage in two interconnected analyses. First, we revisit and verify the findings of Loseke and Cavendish (2001) concerning the production of what they called a “Dignified Self,” which LGBT Catholics may use to integrate their religious-sexual-gender identities. Then, we expand on their analyses of Dig…
Continuity and Change in Gender Frames: The Case of Transgender Reproduction
In this article, we examine the ways gendered frames shift to make room for societal changes while maintaining existing pillars of systemic gender inequality. Utilizing the case of U.S. media representations of transgender people who reproduce, we analyze how media outlets make room for increasing societal recognition of transgender people and maintain cisnormative and repronormative traditions and beliefs in the process. Specifically, we outline…
Alpha, Omega, and the Letters in Between: LGBTQI Conservative Christians Undoing Gender
Sociologists studying gender have debated West and Zimmerman's premise that 'doing gender is unavoidable,' seeking to ascertain whether people can 'undo' or only 'redo' gender. While sociologists have been correct to focus on the interactional accomplishment of gender, they have neglected one of Garfinkel's key insights about interaction: that people hold each other accountable to particular narratives. Neglecting the narrative aspect of doing-an…
Reframing health and illness: A Collaborative Autoethnography on the Experience of Health and Illness Transformations in the Life Course
In this collaborative autoethnography, we examine the processes whereby people may reframe their interpretations and understandings of health and illness as a result of new diagnostic information. In so doing, we utilise the first author's experience receiving a conclusive diagnosis of cystic fibrosis after years of misdiagnosis to outline some ways changes in diagnosis facilitate shifts in illness management, the nature of health and illness and…
That's What a Man Is Supposed to Do: Compensatory Manhood Acts in an LGBT Christian Church
In this article, I examine how gay Christian men constructed compensatory manhood acts. Based on more than 450 hours of fieldwork in a southeastern LGBT Christian organization, I analyze how a group of gay men, responding to sexist, heterosexist, and religious stigma, as well as the acquisition of a new pastor, constructed identities as gay Christian men by (1) emphasizing paternal stewardship, (2) stressing emotional control and inherent rationa…
The Last Bastion of Sexual and Gender Prejudice? Sexualities, Race, Gender, Religiosity, and Spirituality in the Examination of Prejudice Toward Sexual and Gender Minorities
Prior research has reported that many Americans hold prejudicial attitudes toward sexual and gender minorities. Most of this research analyzed attitudes toward target categories in isolation and not in relation to attitudes toward heterosexuals. In addition, most previous research has not examined attitudes of members of sexual and gender minority categories toward other categories. While some research has examined the influence of religiosity on…
Contemporary Religion and the Cisgendering of Reality
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name cisgendering reality. Based on 114 responses from transgender Mormons and systematic reviews of religious, transgender, and inequalities scholarship, we demonstrate how contemporary American religions cisgender reality by (1) erasing, (2) marking, and (3) punishing transgender experience in ways that reproduce conceptions of reality predicated on cisnormativity. In …
Foreclosing Fluidity at the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Normativities
Binary gender and sexuality are socially constructed, but they structure thought at such a deep level that even those critical of sexism and homophobia can unwittingly reproduce them, with consequences felt most profoundly by those whose gender/sexual identity defy binary logic. This article outlines a generic pattern in the reproduction of inequality we call foreclosing fluidity,the symbolic or material removal of fluid possibilities from sexual…
The Limits of Homonormativity: Constructions of Bisexual and Transgender People in the Post-gay Era
This article addresses limitations of homonormativity in the pursuit of sexual and gender equality. Based on 20 interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Christian women, we demonstrate how even people who support same-sex marriage and some recognition of cisgender lesbian and gay people as potentially moral individuals may continue marginalization of transgender and bisexual people in their interpretations of gender, sexualities, and religion. We …
Obscuring Oppression: Racism, Cissexism, and the Persistence of Social Inequality
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality the authors name obscuring oppression. On the basis of 35 in-depth interviews with college students seeking to make sense of two contemporary social movements, Black Lives Matter and Transgender Bathroom Access, the authors demonstrate three ways people obscure (i.e., avoid, ignore, hide, or explain away claims of) oppression in response to minority protest: trusting the pu…
Little Girls Unwilling to Do What's Best for Them: Resurrecting Patriarchy in an LGBT Christian Church
This paper examines how a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christians resurrected patriarchal patterns of gender inequality in their local church. On the basis of more than 450 hours of fieldwork, we analyze how a group of lesbian and gay members collaborated with a new pastor to transform an egalitarian, inclusive, and democratic organization into one characterized by the elevation of men and the subordination of women via…
None of the above: Strategies for Inclusive Teaching with “Representative” Data
This conversation explores emerging debates concerning teaching to and about marginalized populations often left out of “representative” data sets. Based on our experiences studying, teaching, and belonging to some of these unrepresented populations, we outline some strategies sociologists may use to transform the limitations of data sets traditionally labeled as representative into tools for delivering core sociological concepts. In so doing, we…
Continuity and Change in Gender Frames: The Case of Transgender Reproduction
In this article, we examine the ways gendered frames shift to make room for societal changes while maintaining existing pillars of systemic gender inequality. Utilizing the case of U.S. media representations of transgender people who reproduce, we analyze how media outlets make room for increasing societal recognition of transgender people and maintain cisnormative and repronormative traditions and beliefs in the process. Specifically, we outline…
I Think Some People Need Religion: The Social Construction of Nonreligious Moral Identities
In this article, we examine moral identity construction among nonreligious people. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with nonreligious Americans unaffiliated with secular movement organizations, we analyze some ways nonreligious people may utilize their experiences with religion in society to define nonreligion as a sign of value, worth, and character. Specifically, we demonstrate how our respondents drew upon their childhood and current experience…
The Hallmarks of Righteous Women: Gendered Background Expectations in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) collaborated with some Mormon women to construct gendered background expectations. Based on LDS archival materials, we analyze how LDS leaders and their representatives embedded specific notions of what it means to be a woman into the institutional and theological structure of the religion by (1) defining womanhood and (2) teaching femininit…
Examining Differences in Identity Disclosure Between Monosexuals and Bisexuals
Sociological research has uncovered many ways social factors and locations influence identity disclosure decisions and strategies among sexual minorities. However, most research has examined only monosexual sexual minorities (i.e., lesbian and gay identified respondents) or lumped various sexual minorities together as one despite similarities and differences in experience and social recognition. In this article, we drew on insights from Queer The…
Alpha, Omega, and the Letters in Between: LGBTQI Conservative Christians Undoing Gender
Sociologists studying gender have debated West and Zimmerman's premise that 'doing gender is unavoidable,' seeking to ascertain whether people can 'undo' or only 'redo' gender. While sociologists have been correct to focus on the interactional accomplishment of gender, they have neglected one of Garfinkel's key insights about interaction: that people hold each other accountable to particular narratives. Neglecting the narrative aspect of doing-an…
Reframing health and illness: A Collaborative Autoethnography on the Experience of Health and Illness Transformations in the Life Course
In this collaborative autoethnography, we examine the processes whereby people may reframe their interpretations and understandings of health and illness as a result of new diagnostic information. In so doing, we utilise the first author's experience receiving a conclusive diagnosis of cystic fibrosis after years of misdiagnosis to outline some ways changes in diagnosis facilitate shifts in illness management, the nature of health and illness and…
No One Expects a Transgender Jew: Religious, Sexual and Gendered Intersections in the Evaluation of Religious and Nonreligious Others
While a large body of research has established that there is substantial prejudice against atheists and nonreligious individuals, both in the US and in other countries where nonreligious people are minorities, to date very little research has looked beyond attitudes toward solitary identities (e.g., “atheists” vs. “gay atheists”). Given the growing recognition of the importance of intersectionality in understanding the experiences of minorities, …
Some of Us Are Good, God-Fearing Folks: Justifying Religious Participation in an LGBT Christian Church
In this article, I examine how a group of LGBT Christians explained Christianity. Based on more than 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern LGBT Christian church, I analyze how a group of LGBT Christians, responding to sexual and religious stigma, justified their Christian belief and practice by (1) denying abnormality, (2) appealing to emotions, and (3) claiming self-sacrifice. In conclusion, I draw out implications for understanding how membe…
Oh My God, I Sound Like a Horrible Person: Generic Processes in the Conditional Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality that we name 'conditional acceptance.' Based on 20 in-depth interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Christian women who support same-sex marriage legalization, supplemented with reviews of LGBT, religious, and inequalities scholarship, we demonstrate how members of dominant groups may maintain boundaries that facilitate the persistence of social inequality by conditionally …
Why Would Our Heavenly Father Do that to Anyone: Oppressive Othering through Sexual Classification Schemes in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDSorLDSChurch) responded to the emergence of homosexuality as a prominent social issue by engaging in 'oppressive othering' (Schwalbe et al.), which refers to the process whereby elites classify members of other groups as morally inferior. On the basis ofLDSarchival materials, we analyze howLDSelites accomplished 'oppressive othering' by constructing sexu…
From Sodomy to Sympathy: LDS Elites' Discursive Construction of Homosexuality Over Time
In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) discursively constructed homosexuality over the last 50 years. Based on textual analysis of LDS talks, magazines, and other publications, we analyze how LDS elites, responding to shifting historical, cultural, and religious interpretations of sexualities, discursively constructed homosexuality as problematic for (1) society from the 1950s to the 1990s…
Constructing Allyship and the Persistence of Inequality
We examine how people construct what it means to be an ally to marginalized groups. Based on 70 in-depth interviews with college students who identify as allies to one or more marginalized groups, we analyze how they construct allyship in ways that ultimately reproduce patterns of social inequality by (1) assigning responsibility for inequalities to minorities, and (2) suggesting individualized, rather than structural, remedies for combatting une…
Generational Variation in Young Adults’ Attitudes toward Legal Abortion: Contextualizing the Role of Religion
Recent sociological research has addressed a wide range of attitudinal, behavioral, and sociodemographic factors that influence attitudes toward legal abortion. Young adulthood is an important life stage for the development of attitudes and behaviors that are likely to influence individuals over time. Several life course theorists in psychology, social psychology, and sociology hold views consistent with this idea. We use a cohort comparison to e…
Learning from the Religious Experiences of Bi+ Trans People
This article builds upon emerging studies of bi+ and trans populations to explore the importance of expanding studies of religion and nonreligion beyond an almost entirely cisgender and monosexual focus. Specifically, we utilize the largest qualitative sample of bi+ trans people (n= 249) in sociology to date to explore the ways people in both these populations experience religion. We find that while some bi+ trans people note exceptional positive…
This Isn't Just Another Gay Group: Privileging Heterosexuality in a Mixed-Sexuality LGBTQ Advocacy Group
This paper examines how members of a southeastern LGBTQ advocacy group privileged heterosexuality through group interactions. Based on twelve months of fieldwork, we analyze how LGBTQ members and their heterosexual allies traded power for (heterosexual) patronage by (1) heterosexualizing their group, (2) sanctifying allies, and (3) privileging parenthood. In so doing, all the members, regardless of their intentions, ultimately reproduced societal…
Losing Manhood Like a Man: A Collaborative Autoethnographic Examination of Masculinities and the Experience of a Vasectomy
In this article, we examine the first author's experiences before, during, and after a vasectomy to uncover gaps in existing masculinities scholarship. Utilizing collaborative autoethnographic methods, we document some ways the first author's experience reveals (1) missing pieces in existing research into masculinities and vasectomies, (2) unanswered questions about manhood and reproductive justice, and (3) limitations in contemporary conceptuali…
Should We Talk about the Pain? Personalizing Sociology in the Medical Sociology Classroom
This article discusses the potential of personalizing sociology curriculum, specifically in Medical Sociology courses, to increase student engagement and sociological awareness. Based on our experiences offering separate Medical Sociology courses at a large public research university and a small private teaching university, respectively, we outline emotional techniques we have each employed—separately and together—in our classes to facilitate stu…
“It’s Important to Show Your Colors”: Counter-Heteronormativity in a Metropolitan Community Church
That's What a Man Is Supposed to Do: Compensatory Manhood Acts in an LGBT Christian Church
In this article, I examine how gay Christian men constructed compensatory manhood acts. Based on more than 450 hours of fieldwork in a southeastern LGBT Christian organization, I analyze how a group of gay men, responding to sexist, heterosexist, and religious stigma, as well as the acquisition of a new pastor, constructed identities as gay Christian men by (1) emphasizing paternal stewardship, (2) stressing emotional control and inherent rationa…
The Last Bastion of Sexual and Gender Prejudice? Sexualities, Race, Gender, Religiosity, and Spirituality in the Examination of Prejudice Toward Sexual and Gender Minorities
Prior research has reported that many Americans hold prejudicial attitudes toward sexual and gender minorities. Most of this research analyzed attitudes toward target categories in isolation and not in relation to attitudes toward heterosexuals. In addition, most previous research has not examined attitudes of members of sexual and gender minority categories toward other categories. While some research has examined the influence of religiosity on…
Why Would Our Heavenly Father Do that to Anyone: Oppressive Othering through Sexual Classification Schemes in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDSorLDSChurch) responded to the emergence of homosexuality as a prominent social issue by engaging in 'oppressive othering' (Schwalbe et al.), which refers to the process whereby elites classify members of other groups as morally inferior. On the basis ofLDSarchival materials, we analyze howLDSelites accomplished 'oppressive othering' by constructing sexu…
God May save your Life, but you have to Find your Own Keys: Religious Attributions, Secular Attributions, and Religious Priming
Previous research has found that people make religious attributions under certain conditions. In this study, we used causally ambiguous vignettes to confirm some previous findings regarding religious attributions and extend these findings by testing: (a) whether implicit priming increased the odds of making causal attributions, and (b) whether atheists also exhibit an attribution bias. Like previous studies, we found that people who were less rel…
Contemporary Religion and the Cisgendering of Reality
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name cisgendering reality. Based on 114 responses from transgender Mormons and systematic reviews of religious, transgender, and inequalities scholarship, we demonstrate how contemporary American religions cisgender reality by (1) erasing, (2) marking, and (3) punishing transgender experience in ways that reproduce conceptions of reality predicated on cisnormativity. In …
Should We Talk about the Pain? Personalizing Sociology in the Medical Sociology Classroom
This article discusses the potential of personalizing sociology curriculum, specifically in Medical Sociology courses, to increase student engagement and sociological awareness. Based on our experiences offering separate Medical Sociology courses at a large public research university and a small private teaching university, respectively, we outline emotional techniques we have each employed—separately and together—in our classes to facilitate stu…
Avoid that pornographic playground: Teaching pornographic abstinence in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
In recent years, many studies have examined conservative Christian responses to shifting societal attitudes about sexuality. In this article we examine official discourse from the LDS Church found in General Conference talks and the official adult magazine of the Church, Ensign, to better understand how leaders of the religion have taught the members to abstain from the use of pornography. Using a grounded-theory approach, we noted a pattern to t…
Don't push your immorals on me: Encouraging anti-porn advocacy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS or LDS Church) encouraged their followers to oppose pornography. Based on archival materials from the LDS Church, we examine how LDS leaders, responding to the expansion of pornography over the last 40 years, fostered anti-porn advocacy among their followers by (1) creating anti-porn media offerings, (2) celebrating anti-porn activism, and (3) negotiat…
I Don't Need a Shotgun, Just a Look: Representing Manhood in Secular and Religious Magazines
In this article, we examine gender representations in secular and religious media. Based on comparative content analysis of six secular and religious magazines, we analyze how both types of media represented manhood in ways that facilitate the elevation of men at the expense of women. Specifically, we demonstrate how religious and secular magazines represented fatherly and spousal manhood by emphasizing inherent gender differences, male leadershi…
Little Girls Unwilling to Do What's Best for Them: Resurrecting Patriarchy in an LGBT Christian Church
This paper examines how a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christians resurrected patriarchal patterns of gender inequality in their local church. On the basis of more than 450 hours of fieldwork, we analyze how a group of lesbian and gay members collaborated with a new pastor to transform an egalitarian, inclusive, and democratic organization into one characterized by the elevation of men and the subordination of women via…
From Sodomy to Sympathy: LDS Elites' Discursive Construction of Homosexuality Over Time
In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) discursively constructed homosexuality over the last 50 years. Based on textual analysis of LDS talks, magazines, and other publications, we analyze how LDS elites, responding to shifting historical, cultural, and religious interpretations of sexualities, discursively constructed homosexuality as problematic for (1) society from the 1950s to the 1990s…
The Hallmarks of Righteous Women: Gendered Background Expectations in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) collaborated with some Mormon women to construct gendered background expectations. Based on LDS archival materials, we analyze how LDS leaders and their representatives embedded specific notions of what it means to be a woman into the institutional and theological structure of the religion by (1) defining womanhood and (2) teaching femininit…
Swell Foundations: Fundamental Social Causes and Chronic Inflammation
We assess prior research identifying potential causal links between social disadvantage and chronic inflammation, using Fundamental Social Causes (see Link and Phelan 1995 Link, Bruce G. and Jo Phelan. 1995. “Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 36:80–94.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and gender theory.We use ordinary least-squares regression to investigate how social struc…
Frames of Reference: Applying Sociology in Interdisciplinary Medical Settings
Unforeseen obstacles and inefficiencies may arise when medical organizations seek to implement protocols that rely upon cooperation and coordination by clinical practitioners from multiple disciplines, departments, and professional orientations. In this reflection, we discuss some ways in which sociological concepts may be useful in forestalling and mitigating such obstacles and inefficiencies in clinical settings. Echoing recent decisions by pro…
How Low Can Humans Plunge!”: Facilitating Moral Opposition in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In this article, we examine how religious leaders teach their followers to protect themselves and others from pornography. Based on archival materials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS, LDS Church, or Mormons), we analyze how LDS leaders, responding to the expansion of pornographic influence over the past 40 years, facilitated moral opposition to pornography by teaching their followers to (1) set moral examples for others,…
Can’t Put my Finger on It”: A Research Report on the Non-Existence and Meaninglessness of Sin
This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of sin. Based on nine in-depth interviews with self-identified religious people, we demonstrate that respondents define sin as (1) nonconformity, (2) relative to other social realities, and (3) taught by moral authorities. In so doing, respondents’ definitions reveal that sin, despite its use to justify all types of social policies, is a social construction that has no established concrete me…
An Interactionist Approach to the Social Construction of Deities
This paper examines the ways people construct and signify deities. Utilizing responses from an ethnographic study as well as analyses of existing studies of religion, we elaborate ways people construct the existence and characteristics of deities by engaging in “deity work,” which we define as the work people do to give meaning to deities as well as to themselves, others, or social phenomena related to deities. In so doing, we demonstrate how peo…
None of the above: Strategies for Inclusive Teaching with “Representative” Data
This conversation explores emerging debates concerning teaching to and about marginalized populations often left out of “representative” data sets. Based on our experiences studying, teaching, and belonging to some of these unrepresented populations, we outline some strategies sociologists may use to transform the limitations of data sets traditionally labeled as representative into tools for delivering core sociological concepts. In so doing, we…
They Just Don't Stand for Nothing: LGBT Christians' Definitions of Non-Religious Others
In this exploratory study, I examine how a group of LGBT Christians conceptualized non-religious others. Based on over 450 hours of fieldwork in an LGBT Christian church located in the southeastern region of the United States, I demonstrate how a group of LGBT Christians defined non-religious others as (1) morally suspect and untrustworthy, (2) in need of salvation and guidance, and (3) poor representations of the LGBT community. Although these L…
I Found God in The Glory Hole: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian
This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christian church and a synthesis of research intoLGBTChristian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emoti…
I Think Some People Need Religion: The Social Construction of Nonreligious Moral Identities
In this article, we examine moral identity construction among nonreligious people. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with nonreligious Americans unaffiliated with secular movement organizations, we analyze some ways nonreligious people may utilize their experiences with religion in society to define nonreligion as a sign of value, worth, and character. Specifically, we demonstrate how our respondents drew upon their childhood and current experience…
Do religiosity and spirituality really matter for social, mental, and physical health: A tale of two samples
Some prior research has found that religiosity and spirituality can be related to health. However, the relationships are inconsistent, measures of religiosity and spirituality are often problematic and conflated with the health outcomes they are supposed to predict, and very little research on this topic specifies which aspects of health supposedly benefit from religiosity and spirituality. Using two sets of survey data (Sample 1 N = 347; Sample …
Deviant Dialogue
Helping quantitative sociology come out of the closet
This essay offers some ways quantitative sociology may embrace increasing scholarly and public recognition of sexual and gender diversity. Specifically, we suggest that increasing (1) public awareness and debate concerning sexual and gender fluidity, (2) calls for sociologists to become engaged in public debates, and (3) awareness of gender and sexual nuances underlying the majority of social phenomena create an opportunity for quantitative socio…
Sociology (64 works) · Psychology (48 works) · Gender Studies (43 works) · Social Psychology (35 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (33 works) · Political science (22 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (18 works) · Transgender (18 works) · Human sexuality (17 works)