Weeks, Jeffrey

Created: 2022-Oct-26

Bio: (1945-) British sociologist. Jeffrey Weeks taught at and was the dean of the London South Bank University. He is best known for his study of sexuality, sexual categories, and identities, as well as the social aspects of the HIV epidemic. In his works, he applies a socio-historical analysis of the social organization of sexuality, private life, and social sexual categories. Weeks also studies the social regulation of sexuality, both at the ideological and cultural level and in the context of laws and specific public policies.

In the book Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain, from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (1977), he states that the term "homosexuality" was coined in the 1960s and that, since then, homosexuals started being seen as a type of people that are characterized by a special type of sexual deviation from the norm. Homosexuality has begun to be seen more as a medical category, a pathological behavior that needs to be treated, and not, as before, only in the context of behavior that is a religious sin. In the book Same-Sex Intimacies (2001), Weeks emphasizes the greater freedom of choice that exists in same-sex long-term relationships. In addition, he cites three key differences between heterosexual, on the one hand, and gay and lesbian relationships, on the other. Gay and lesbian relationships have a greater potential for equality because partner expectations are not shaped by social and cultural gender patterns. The absence of such expectations allows for much greater freedom in determining how the relationship will work, there is much more agreement and equal sharing of responsibilities. In the end, these relationships are characterized by a much greater commitment to the relationship and much more emotional investment.