Sexualizing the sociological: Queering and querying the intimate substructure of social life

This presidential address explores the sexual substructure of everyday life .(1) I focus on the intimate connections among sexuality, race, and ethnici ty. Masculinist heterosexuality is a central component of the bedrock upon which ethnic boundaries rest; and feminism, unruly female sexuality, and ho mosexuality are three cracks in that foundation. To illustrate the usefulne ss of understanding the sexualized dimensions of racial and ethnic relation s, and social life in general, I provide four examples of the importance of considering sexuality in race, ethnicity, and nationalism: sex and nationa lism, sex and urban residential segregation, sex and conquest, and sex and race. In all four sections, I attempt to reveal the sexual substructure of social life. Moreover, I urge sociologists to consider sexuality and the ro le of sexual systems in their own research.