Bio: (1936-2013) British sociologist. Mary McIntosh studied at Oxford and the University of California, Berkeley, and taught at the Universities of Leicester and Essex. At the beginning of her career, she mostly dealt with the sociology of crime, from the position of critical criminology. Later, she focused on studying the issues of feminism, the lesbian and gay movement, the family, as well as the relationship between the social security system and gender equality. Throughout her life, McIntosh has tried to connect, both in theory and through social activism, feminism, and its critique of society, with socialist ideas and queer theory and movement.

In the article "Homosexual Role" (1968), she analyzes homosexuality as a social, not a medical category. She presents homosexuality and homosexual relations as a social process, which has changed in a practical and cultural sense, following the changes in the wider historical and cultural environment. This "constructionist" approach has allowed sociologists to ask questions about the organization and function of different homosexual groups. She did not focus on the homosexual state of a person, but on the social roles played by the homosexual person. McIntosh believes that there is no universally fixed homosexuality, instead, there are only changes in the historical and social context, as well as the changes in social roles and personal experiences of homosexuals. Her theory of the role of homosexuality was significantly influenced by the functionalism of Talcott Parsons.

In the book The Anti-Social Family (1982), co-authored with Michel Barrett, the authors criticize the ideological norms of the standard nuclear family and argue that this standard family form excludes and marginalizes other forms of family and different lifestyles. McIntosh advocated the introduction of changes in social policy, which would contribute to reducing the economic dependence of women on men.

Main works

„The Homosexual Role”, in Social Problems (1968);  

Deviance and Social Control (1974);

The Organisation of Crime (1975);

The Anti-Social Family (1982);

Sex Exposed: Sexuality and the Pornography Debate (1992).