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Why sexuality is all in our brains
Lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women, a study shows. Their responses are more like straight men's, it added. An earlier study suggested gay men's responses differed from straight men but were similar to heterosexual women. This adds weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behaviour, Swedish researchers said.
— Metro, 10 May 2006
You know, in an ideal world, this would not be considered news.
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Why?
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"Lesbians' brains respond to the same sexual stimuli as straight men, and not those of straight women. Shock horror!"
(Mind you, because this is a Metro article, and not one from a more scientific source, there is a frustrating amount of ambiguity in the article. I can see how it could be interpreted as saying something more interesting than the above.)
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Nonetheless. The idea that a straight male brain, when sexually aroused, would very much resemble that of a lesbian female is not really that surprising.
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The same article from The Guardian...
and from the Toronto Star
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I think some people just have different opinions to others. Do my genes tell me that someone wearing heavy black eyeliner and a corset is somehow a better person with whom to have children?
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And I'd agree that finding brain differences could lead to a homophobic person judging homosexuality to be a "mental illness". But finding no brain differences could well lead to the same homophobic person labeling homosexuality a "delusion". The problem here is that the homophobe has a starting assumption that homosexuality is a disorder of some kind, because it does not agree with eir view of the world.
> Do my genes tell me that someone wearing heavy black eyeliner and a corset is somehow a better person with whom to have children?
No, but your sexual preferences will nonetheless have an effect on the structure of your brain (as your brain is just the physical form of your mind). Finding a difference in the brain does not tell us whether form affected behaviour, or vice versa.
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It seems that the news report got it wrong. (Shock!) It sounds as though the Metro report is based on the AP report.
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