Figure 2.1 Texas state rep. gives powerful testimony on the history of bathroom laws [YouTube Video]. Who Can Use The Bathroom? Texas State Representative Senfronia Thompson testifies. As you watch, you might consider how using the bathroom becomes a social problem. Social scientists try to figure out why this might be true. Opening question: How is a theory different from an opinion?

In the video that opens this chapter, we see that something as simple as where to go to the bathroom can be very complicated (figure 2.1). Writing in 1892, Black feminist scholar Anna Julia Cooper noted a dilemma she encountered while traveling by train in the South. When her train stopped at a station, Cooper wrote, “I see two dingy little rooms with ‘FOR LADIES’ swinging over one and ‘FOR COLORED PEOPLE’ over the other; while wondering under which head I come” (1892:96). It is this precise dilemma that Black feminist theorists of intersectionality dealt with 100 years later when they pointed out the law’s inability to address the intersection of racial and gender discrimination.

Bathrooms have also emerged as a controversial space more recently with attacks on policies that allow gender expansive individuals to use restrooms that align with their gender identity (Schilt and Westbrook 2015). We can see that then and now something that seems so mundane—bathrooms—can produce rich theoretical insights about society, a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture.

The study of social problems is based in the wider field of sociology, the systematic study of society and social interactions to understand individuals, groups, and institutions through data collection and analysis. Sociologists study human interactions from the level of two people talking to systems that span the globe. In this section, we will explore what makes sociology as a science unique. First, we examine how sociology arose as a revolutionary response to changing social conditions. Second, we explore how sociological theories help to understand why our world works the way it does. Finally, we review the research methods and the ethics of using those methods that form the core of social science. We use this framework to help us understand the causes and consequences of social problems throughout the rest of the book.

2.1.1 Focusing Questions

The following questions will help us understand how sociology is revolutionary:

1. Why is sociology a revolutionary response to social problems historically and currently?
2. How does sociological theory help us to understand and explain our world?
3. Who are sociologists, particularly scientists who are traditionally ignored?
4. How does the social location of sociologists influence what they see?
5. How do sociologists apply the tools of science to understand society?

Let’s start by going back in time!