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Analysing the writings and research from major French feminist studies scholars, this article attempts to reconstruct a debate which has never really taken place in France although it has developed in other countries (for example in Britain and the USA) about the legitimacy of sexuality as a relevant topic for sociological research and as a specific issue for feminist theorization. Having outlined the considered, and partly historically justifiable, reasons developed in France to reject the inclusion of sexuality in gender theorization, this article argues that articulating gender and sexuality brings epistemological and political payoffs.