SEXUALITY AND STRATIFICATION

1. SEXUALITY AND STRATIFICATION

2. “THAT’S SO GAY!” • DO NOW:Answer the following questions in your notebooks. • What does “gay” mean in this phrase? • What negative adjectives does “gay” tend to describe? • How does the routine negative use of the word inherently socialize us towards participating in stratification?

3. L G B T Q I

4. “L” • Lesbian-a woman who is attracted to and/or forms intimate relationships with other women.

5. “G” • Gay/gay man-a man who is attracted to and/or forms intimate relationships with other men.

6. “B” • Bisexual- an individual who is attracted to and/or forms intimate relationships with both men and women.

7. “T” • Transgender-an individual who lives either part or full time as a member of the opposite gender. These individuals may be heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. This includes transvestites (cross-dressers) and transsexuals (those who choose to live as the opposite gender of his/her genetic sex at birth, independent of whether he/she undergoes sex reassignment surgery).

8. “Q” • Queer- An umbrella term to refer to all LGBTI people • A political statement, as well as a sexual orientation, which advocates breaking binary thinking and seeing both sexual orientation and gender identity as potentially fluid. • A simple label to explain a complex set of sexual behaviors and desires. For example, a person who is attracted to multiple genders may identify as queer. • Many older LGBT people feel the word has been hatefully used against them for too long and are reluctant to embrace it.

9. “I” • Intersex-individuals with medically established physical or hormonal attributes of both the male and female gender. These include those born with Turner Syndrome and those that live as hermaphrodites.

10. How Can We Decide Who is Who? • Sexual orientation is considered to have three dimensions: 1. Desire/attraction 2. Behavior 3. Identity • Just because someone has had sex with a person of the same gender does not mean that they are inherently “gay.”

11. Social and Cultural Basis of Sexuality • Human sexual attitudes and behavior vary in different cultural contexts. • Sexual attitudes and behavior change over time. • Sexual identity is learned.

12. Social and Cultural Basis of Sexuality • Social institutions channel and direct human sexuality. • Public policies regulate sexual and reproductive behaviors.

13. Havelock Ellis • Associated lesbianism with insanity, arguing that professional women emerging during the 1920s and 1930s were prone to this “disease.” • Ellis regarded anything but heterosexual, monogamous sexuality as “sexual deviance.” • Ellis’s ideas show how social stereotypes about homosexuality can pervade even seemingly scientific studies of sexuality.

14. The Kinsey Reports • The first major national surveys of sexual behavior published in the 1940s and 1950s. • Kinsey’s research was based on a national sample of 11,000 interviews, but all the research subjects were White, relatively well-educated, and middle-class. • All the interviewers and staff members were White, heterosexual, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant men.

15. The Kinsey Reports • Even with bias in the sample, the Kinsey reports were the first comprehensive, nationally based studies of sexual practices. • Kinsey was first to report that 33% of women and 71% of men engaged in premarital sex despite public belief to the contrary. • Surveys show these figures have grown to 70% of women and at least 80% of men. • Kinsey reported that 37% of men had experienced consentual homosexual contact at some point in their lives.

16. NATURE VS. NURTURE SO…WHICH IS IT?

17. NATURE:GENETICS AND BIOLOGY

18. Biology and Homosexuality • The gay “gene”? • Maternal heritability • Xq28 • 33 of 40 gay brothers shared the same gene in the same region on the X-chromosome • Downfalls?

19. Downfalls • There’s no evidence for genes other than Xq28 that affect homosexuality • Study only found in gay men…what about lesbians?

20. Biology and Homosexuality • Simon LeVay (1991) • Neurobiologist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla California, Published in the Journal Science • The third interstitial nucleus (located in the hypothalamus) • is normally larger in men than in women • in his sample of gay men, the third interstitial nucleus was about the same size as in women • Hypothalamus plays a role in sexual motivation

21. Biology and Homosexuality • Handedness • Lesbians are 91% more likely to be left handed than heterosexual women. • Gay men are 34% more likely. • Index (pointer) and ring fingers • Women: the length is more similar than in men (men: bigger difference in the length of these two fingers) • Caused by exposure to male hormones in utero • You can see this difference at age 2 • Lesbians: the difference is more similar to men • Suggests that lesbians may have had a greater exposure to male hormones in the womb

22. Biology and Homosexuality • ”Fraternal Birth Order Effect" - James Cantor, et. al • The more older brothers you have, the more likely a male is to be gay • It doesn't matter what the sexual orientation of the older brother is • Not true if your older brothers are step brothers or adopted • Confirmed across cultures • No relationship found for lesbians • Explanation: a change in the hormonal balance in the mother's uterus with each additional child. • Downfalls to study?

23. Downfalls • Could this help to prove environment rather than biological factors?

24. Biology and Homosexuality • TWIN STUDIES • Types • Dizygotic twins • “fraternal twins” - two eggs, so they don't look alike • 22% of twins of gay males were also gay • 16% for lesbians • Monozigotic twins • "identical twins" (one egg) • 52% of the identical twins of gay males were also gay” • 48% for lesbians • Downfalls to the study?

25. Downfalls • Not a perfect correlation—argues that it cannot be purely genetic.

26. Biology and Homosexuality • TWIN STUDIES, cont. • Focus: identical twins raised apart • Same genes, different environment • If identical twins raised apart are both gay, that argues for a genetic influence • Results: Roger Hock-"quite consistent” • Higher, for example, than if the twins were dizygotic • Downfalls to the study?

27. Downfalls • Even twins raised apart are not likely to be raised in very different family environments

28. Biology: Animals and Homosexuality • Necking and rubbing to sexual excitement is common among male giraffes • Common among pygmy chimpanzees • Greylag geese can have homosexual unions that last up to 15 years

29. NURTURE:ENVIRONMENT AND EXPERIENCE

30. Environment and Homosexuality • Childhood Experiences • Research by Bell, Weinberg & Hammersmith (1981) • "..conducted face-to-face interviews with 979 homosexual participants (293 women and 686 men) and 477 heterosexual controls. The researchers found no single condition of family life or childhood experience that in and of itself appeared to be a factor in either homosexual or heterosexual development."

31. Family and Homosexuality • Influence of Gay Parents • Patterson, C.J. (2000). Family Relationships of Lesbians and Gay Men, Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 1052-1069 • Mikach interviewed 75 gay fathers - only 7 of their sons identified themselves as gay. • “... no significant problems in the development of sexual identity among children of lesbian mothers have yet been identified” - p. 1060 • “...gay men are no more likely than heterosexual men to perpetrate child abuse (Jenny, Roesler, & Poyer, 1994). Fears that children in custody of gay or lesbian parents might be at heightened risk for sexual abuse are without empirical foundation” - 1060-1061

32. REFUTING NURTURE • Zach Wahls

33. Factors Linked with Homosexual Behavior Specific factors that have been linked with homosexual behavior: • Poor family dynamics • Arift in the father-son or mother-daughter relationship growing up • Feelings of being an outsider among one's peers during childhood and adolescence • Instances of sexual abuse/incest

34. Family and Homosexuality • Roger Hock- explanations for homosexuality: • Homosexual men have overly protective mothers and distant fathers and homosexual women had overly protective fathers and distant mothers • Homosexuals were molested as children by a same sex adult (The so-called "seduction hypothesis") • Homosexuals are more likely to have had a gay mother or father - no evidence that homosexuality is more likely when children have gay parents • Downfalls to the study?

35. Downfalls • Possible confirmation bias: how many heterosexual men do you know who have a distant father and protective mother? We often don't even think about looking at this • The weakness of doing a survey on this issue: even if you find support - which one is the causal factor? Did the parents cause the child to be gay, or did the child's homosexuality cause the parents to act this way?

36. Conclusions of Nature vs. Nurture • Wood, Wood & Boyd: The World of Psychology • "Clearly there are no certain predictors of homosexuality” • Brian Gladue • "The presence of biological factors in the development of homosexuality (and heterosexuality) is becoming increasingly obvious. Already we have a set of reliable findings, from many laboratories, demonstrating that human sexual orientation has a genetic basis....” • "...not all men and women arrive at their sexual orientation following the same path.” • The continuum: back to where we started • The danger of black/white, gay/straight thinking. We're all along that continuum somewhere. • For some, their orientation was influenced by hormones in the womb, others by events in their childhood.

37. NATURE VIA NURTURE: • Current Accepted Theory: • Your biology gives you a pre-disposition to certain qualities • You need the environment to “trigger” and “out” these qualities

38. Dangers of Proving Nature vs. Nurture?

39. Homophobia • Definition: the fear and hatred of homosexuality. • Produces myths about gay people such as: • Gays have a desire to seduce straight people. • Gay and lesbian parents will have negative effects on their children. • They are mostly White men with large discretionary incomes who work primarily in artistic areas and personal service jobs.

40. Homophobia • MAIN REASON OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION • At times homophobic beliefs lead people toward prejudiced actions at work, at schools, at clubs and in many other areas as well. • Prejudiced views directed at homosexuals often stem from the perception that homosexual activity is immoral. • Homophobia makes some people think that they are superior to homosexuals. • ***Note*** Studies show that anti-gay bias is far more accepted among large numbers of Americans than is bias against other minorities.

41. Internalized Homophobia • Self Hate • Teenage Suicide • Researchers Remafedi, Farrow, and Deishercompared gay and bisexual adolescents who had attempted suicide, to a group of those who had not. The two groups totaled 137 males, aged 14 to 21. Of that number, 41 (30%) had made at least one suicide attempt. • Among the Remafedi study's findings: • Early Self-Identification as Gay: Subjects who had viewed themselves as homosexual or bisexual at an earlier age were more likely to attempt suicide. • Early Sexual Activity: Teens who had attempted suicide were more likely to have had sexual experiences at an early age. • Broken Homes: Only 27% of suicide attempters had parents who were married (vs. 50% of the non-attempters). • Sexual Molestation: 61% of the suicide attempters had been sexually abused (vs. only 29% of the non-attempters). • Illegal Drug Use: 85% of the attempters had used illicit drugs (vs. 63% of non-attempters). • Illegal Activities: 51% of the attempters had been arrested (vs. only 28% of non-attempters). • Prostitution: 29% of the attempters had been involved in prostitution (vs. 17% of non-attempters). • Gender Conflicts: 36.6% of the attempters were classified as feminine (vs. 17.7% of non-attempters).

42. Bias and Ignorance • Hate Crimes • LGBTI high school students have been threatened with a weapon at a rate four times that of heterosexual high school students. • While 10% of heterosexual teens reported attempted suicide, 40% of LGBTI teens reported suicide attempts.

43. How Far Have We Come? • DSM II (“Gay”) (1973) • Gay Male Blood Donations • Ben-Shalom v. Stone, Woodward v. U.S. (1990) • Matthew Shepard/Tyler Clementi • Massachusetts Marriage Ruling (2004), Gay Marriage vs. Civil Unions • Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Ruling, Controversy • Media Images – Positive and Negative