New sexual orientation "evidence"

Django
Posts: 232 Joined: 18-01-08 Location: Manchester
Submitted by Django on 16 June, 2008 - 17:07.

http://www.guardian.co [dot] uk/science/2008/jun/16/neuroscience.psychology

Quote:
Scans reveal homosexual men and heterosexual women have symmetrical brains, with the right and left hemispheres almost exactly the same size. Conversely, lesbians and straight men have asymmetrical brains, with the right hemisphere significantly larger than the left.

Scientists at the prestigious Stockholm Brain Institute in Sweden also found certain brain circuits linked to emotional responses were the same in gay men and straight women.

I don't really know much about these issues, but this looks a bit dodge. No-one's sexual orientation seems immutably fixed, so I'm wary of these identities.

I'd appreciate it if some comrades who know more about this could contribute criticisms.

Jess "The heart of a heartless world."
Posts: 2060 Joined: 26-11-04 Location: Brighton
16 June, 2008 - 17:45

Haven't got time to read the actual article at the moment, but from that Guardian article it seems ok, although as always the headline overstates the actual findings.

You say that no-one's sexual orientation is fixed, I think a lot of people would disagree with that. I think it probably is for some people and not for others. Remember with these sorts of studies they're not saying (I assume) that all gay peoples brains are always like this, and all straight peoples brains are always like this, blah blah etc. Everyone's brain is different and as things like sexual orientation come from the brain this will obviously be reflected in the variation of the brain. I don't see anything controversial about this tbh, they're not claiming that sexuality is caused by brain structure.

revol68 "MILF Hunter"
Posts: 17522 Joined: 23-02-04 Location: Belfast
16 June, 2008 - 18:05

Jess have you no critical faculties whatsoever?

Jess "The heart of a heartless world."
Posts: 2060 Joined: 26-11-04 Location: Brighton
16 June, 2008 - 18:06

Have you actually got a point?

revol68 "MILF Hunter"
Posts: 17522 Joined: 23-02-04 Location: Belfast
16 June, 2008 - 18:13
Jess wrote:
Have you actually got a point?

No it was a question hence the question mark.

Jess "The heart of a heartless world."
Posts: 2060 Joined: 26-11-04 Location: Brighton
16 June, 2008 - 18:25

Oh well seeing as it was a question, here is the answer. "Yes".

Sean Siberio
Posts: 107 Joined: 03-04-08
17 June, 2008 - 05:36

I remember when they used to call this "feeling bumps" on the head or using calipers to check head sizes and ratios. This might be a crude reduction, but its exceptionally hard to ascribe any sort of behavior, which would naturally be constrained by the society it finds itself in, to any sort of specific isolated natural "cause". You'd have to "prove" essentially, that the people who tell you they're straight or homosexual are not only being 100% honest with you, but have never thought about or leaned towards the opposite of their stated desire.

OliverTwister "Tied directly to Bekken and the Philly camp"
Posts: 2204 Joined: 10-10-05 Location: San Francisco, USA
17 June, 2008 - 06:18

I think the most important question is to ask why anyone cares what homosexual brains looks like. What possible use could this information have?

Jess "The heart of a heartless world."
Posts: 2060 Joined: 26-11-04 Location: Brighton
17 June, 2008 - 10:55

There's a drive these days to prove that people are born gay, that they can't help it. Hence the switch from 'sexual preference' to 'sexual orientation'. I still can't be bothered to read the orginal article but I don't see how this approach can be reconciled with the fact that many people's preference/orientation changes over time. And what do bisexuals brains look like?

From BBC news - 'Dr Qazi Rahman, a lecturer in cognitive biology at Queen Mary, University of London, said that he believed that these brain differences were laid down early in foetal development.

"As far as I'm concerned there is no argument any more - if you are gay, you are born gay," he said. '

I don't see how these results lead to that conclusion, I might read that article later...

Jess "The heart of a heartless world."
Posts: 2060 Joined: 26-11-04 Location: Brighton
17 June, 2008 - 10:59

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0801566105v1

need subscription to log in, I'll take a look when I'm on campus later...

Refused "LibCom's official social secretary"
Posts: 6193 Joined: 28-09-04 Location: Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
17 June, 2008 - 11:26

I think what revol68's trying to say is that one should be wary of the way sexuality is presented as a dichotomy here.

Zazaban "Anarcho-anarchist"
Posts: 155 Joined: 23-10-07
18 June, 2008 - 22:33

Jesus Christ, no. There are plenty of very masculine gays, so the idea that gays are all more mentally similar to women than straight men is hokum. Also, once again, bisexuals don't appear to exist.

pingtiao
Posts: 1569 Joined: 09-10-03
19 June, 2008 - 08:57

Annals of Essentialism: sexual orientation and rhetorical asymmetry

anarcho-punk "A burning fire of injustice"
Posts: 211 Joined: 13-12-07 Location: Ashford in Kent
19 June, 2008 - 09:57

damn us invisible people who have no intrinsik existance other than as those freaks attacked by straights for being poofs and by poofs for being greedy, damn us all.