Quite where Weeks himself fits into a less politicised historiography of sexuality is unclear. For all his commitment, he has never been a tub-thumper. Yet for the past two decades, as this essay collection makes plain, he has largely deserted history in favour of sociological studies of a more discursive, less empirical sort. The past can be mined for components of an identity, but mostly it yields detritus and junk, so much useless knowledge more distracting than inspiring for the activist of today. Even if we accept a place for politics in academic research, this leaves unresolved which political line to follow.
Weeks is more than aware that gay intellectuals accord to no single party whip.
A major dividing line among them is the nature-nurture debate, as the social constructionist orthodoxy of the 1970s and early 1980s has come under challenge from geneticists seeking to identify a gay gene . There is also the question of the relationship between lesbians and gay men. Weeks is a reluctant participant in each of these disputes. On the origins of homosexuality, he remains a convinced environmentalist, claiming that his own work has conclusively demonstrated the power of culture in giving definition to what or who we are . This sounds reasonable enough, but his hostility to biological explanations of sexual behaviour leads him to simplify his opponents views.