Transcript Sexual Orientation

SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Definitions
 Sexual Orientation
 Whom we are sexually attracted to
 Capable of falling in love with
 Sexual Identity
 Ones’ self identity
 Usually seen as a dichotomy
 Homosexual
 Heterosexual
 Bisexual
Definitions
 The scientific study of homosexuality
 Frequency
 Who is?
 Need a definition
 Self-label
 Behaviour
 How often?
 When?
 Tea room men, Indonesian men
 Causes
Definitions
 Kinsey
 37% of all males had at least one same sex
experience to orgasm in adulthood
 1 – 10% of the population
 Canadian Community Health Survey
 National Health and Life Styles Survey
 Twice as many men as women
Definitions
 Asexual category:
 Not attracted to either sex
 Non-existent sex drive
1. Hormonal deficiency
2. Central nervous system misconnection
3. Possible early trauma
Definitions
 Bisexuality
 33% - if based on one encounter
 Higher sex drive
 More sexual activity in general, including




masturbation.
More high risk behaviour
Majority married (heterorole)
Sexual pleasure oriented
Few cultural images
Definitions
 Danger
 71% of bisexual men do not tell their female partners
 STDs – AIDS
 Adolescent males
 Very common transitional stage
 Difficulty
 Rejected by both hetero and homo
 Called fence-sitters, some feel pressured to go in
either direction
 Many gays reject the concept, saying that bi’s
are misguided homosexuals
Attitudes
 Heterosexism
 Heterosexual = normal
 Homophobia
 Strong, irrational fears of homosexuals
 Homonegativity
 Negative attitudes and behaviors toward
homosexuals
 Cultural attitude based on religious teachings
Attitudes
 Same sex marriage
 Equal rights
 Minority group
 Stereotypes
 Many negative consequences
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Assault
Rejection
Discrimination
Suicide
Attitudes
 Same-sex sexual activity illegal in Canada
 Decriminalized in 1969
 Criminal code still discriminates
 Age of consent for anal sex is 18 (14 for vaginal)
 Charter of Human Rights
 Sexual orientation prohibited ground for
discrimination
Research
 Adams, Wright and Lohr (1996) gave test to
measure homophobia to male college students
 Group 1: high scores
 Group 2: low scores
 All participants were hooked to plethysmograph
that measured erection
 They all watched film clips of hetero, gay and
lesbian sex
 Group 1: 54% had increased penile errection
 Group 2: 24% had increased penile circumference
Gender Differences
 In an experiment heterosexual and homosexual
males and females watched videos of
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
Heterosexual sex
Male gay sex
Lesbian sex
Nude males
Nude females
Bonobos having sex
 The participants were hooked to a
plethysmograph and were asked to report
verbally when they were aroused
Gender Differences
 Heterosexual males became aroused when
watching
 Heterosexual sex
 Lesbian sex
 Nude females
 Homosexual males became aroused when
watching
 Male homosexual sex
 Nude males
 100% concordance between plethysmograph
results and self report
Gender Differences
 Both heterosexual and homosexual women
were aroused by all the videos according to
the plethysmograph
 Self reports were at odds with objective data
 Women are not aware when they are aroused
 Another gender difference:
 More women self-label bisexual than males
 More women switch sexual orientation over their
life times
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Several possible ways to acquire sexual
orientation
 Basic human needs shared by all
 Sensual/sexual fulfillment
 Socio-emotional connection
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Possible variables involved
 Genes
 Hormones in utero
 Subtle intrauterine interactions
 Brain: timing
 Early influences
 Identity problems
 Social stereotypes, prejudice
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Cannot look for THE cause
 INTERACTIONS
 Individual differences in etiology
 Circumstances:
 Jail, boarding school
 Cross-cultural evidence:
 Prescribed homosexuality at certain age-stage
 Definition found in many cultures:
 gay man is the one that is penetrated
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Genetic:
 Twin Studies
Monozygotic
Dizygotic
Adopted
Genetic Similarity
100%
50%
0%
Concordance Rate
52%
22%
11%
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Prenatal factors
 Sexual differentiation and innappropriate
hormones
 Severe maternal stress (animal studies)
 Maternal stress is retrospective
 No tally of stressed expectant mothers who had
heterosexual children
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Prenatal factors
 Very high levels of estrogen
 Lesbian offspring
 Birth order (Canadian):
 Males with several older brothers
 2D:4D finger-length ratio
 Handedness
 No agreement in different studies,
contradictory data
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Brain differences
 Hypothalamus
 Small sample
 Non-comparable
 Cause of death
 Difference due to orientation or to disease and its
treatment?
 Other differences found, but all in adults after the
fact (chicken/egg)
 Endocrine imbalance
 No differences found
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Learning:
 Possible in some cases
 Polymorphously Perverse
 Personal negative experience could override social
reinforcement patterns
 Also, peer group can provide more reinforcement
than society at large.
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Sociological theories:
 Importance of labels
 Labels affect perception
 Perception affects behaviour
 This can influence self-perception
 Leading to self-labelling.
Development of Sexual Orientation
 Reiss
 Negative pathway
 Rigidly polarized societies have higher incidence of
male-male sex
 High maternal involvement; Low paternal
 Little opportunity to learn
 Positive pathway
 Very permissive societies
 Experimentation OK.
Bem: The Exotic Becomes Erotic
Boys more active and aggressive
Different = exotic
Bem’s Theory – Criticisms
 There is NO abundant evidence of inborn
aggression and activity levels by gender
 Contaminated by culture.
 Homosocial activities are mostly a cultural
phenomenon.
 Children who don’t fit the gender stereotypes
are clearly told they are odd and wrong.
Bem’s Theory – Criticisms
 Many gays are “gender typical” in their
interests, appearance, etc. Bem fell for the
effeminate guy/macho woman stereotype of
gays.
 Many atypical (i.e., boys who played with
dolls, girls who played with trucks) kids do
not go on to become gay.
Bell and Weinberg Typology
 Sample of 979
 Close coupled
 One long-time partner
 Marriage type relationship
 Few problems
 Few sex partners
 Infrequent cruising
Bell and Weinberg Typology
 Open coupled:
 steady live-in partner
 Also many outside partners
 Frequent cruising
 More likely to have problems
 More likely to regret being gay
Bell and Weinberg Typology
 Functional
 Not coupled
 High number of sex partners
 Few problems
 Younger
 High sex drive
 Few regrets
Bell and Weinberg Typology
 Dysfunctional
 Not coupled
 High number of partners
 Many sex and psychological problems
 Tense
 Unhappy
 Depressed
Bell and Weinberg Typology
 Asexual
 Low in sexual interest and activity
 Less exclusively gay
 Very secretive
 Loners
 Highest incidence of suicidal thoughts
Bell, Weinberg and Hammersmith
 In depth interviews comparing gays/ lesbians
and straights.
 No support for psychoanalytic, learning or
sociological (labelling) theories.
 They speculate a biological basis but have no
data.