Perceptions of gender and gender roles have been constantly readjusting over the last few decades, resulting in a plethora of written material about the societal disadvantages experienced by women, as well as their emotional costs (Halgin, 2001, p. 14). Although researchers and clinicians have attempted to keep the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) up to date, "psychiatric diagnosis and help-seeking behavior are multifaceted, and sometimes they involve subtle bias" (p. 14). Halgin presents Terry A. Kupers' article, "The Politics of Psychiatry: Gender and Sexual Preference in DSM-IV" in contrast to "Gender Issues in DSM-IV" by Ruth Ross, Allen Frances, and Thomas A. Widiger, as examples of this ongoing discussion.
Kupers, in her article "The Politics of Psychiatry", asserts that many of the diagnoses contained in the DSM-IV pertaining to gender and sexuality are pathological. The categories of mental disorders, states Kupers, have been constructed by those in power who determine what constitutes a mental disorder in those they hold power over. In this case those in power are straight, white males, and those they have power over are everyone else (Kupers, 1997, p. 18). There is also the fact that the every day life of the individual is being increasingly forced to fit into a more regimented role over the past century, "as a result the average citizen is permitted fewer eccentricities before deviance is declared (p. 18). Although there has been an effort in the most recent edition of the DSM, the DSM-IV continues to pathologize normal phenomena found in women, such as menstrual cycles, while ignoring male characteristics, such as avoidance of emotional attachments, that could just as easily be pathologized (p. 22). Even though homosexuality is no longer officially pathologized in the DSM-IV, there is continued bias in the some parts of the mental health community to consider it as part of a continuum i...