Sexual Orientation

Understand the four steps in developing a bisexual identity

1. Identity confusion: this is a time of confusion where many have the mono sexist assumption. Males feel their masculinity is threatened by being attracted to the same gender or feel threatened by others. females feel they will disenfranchise their lesbian community. woman may have these same gender fantasies but not act on them. Am I gay or straight? 2. Finding and applying a label: now you come across the label of bisexual and think it might be you but you still have the mono sexist assumption. 3. Settling into the identity: you are kind of okay with the label but in the back of their mind they still think it is just a phase and they will grow out of it; males become increasingly sexual and females increasingly romantic. 4. Identity maintenance: Maintain a bisexual identity but still have periodic emotional or cognitive uncertainty. Being monogomous makes you uncertain of bisexuality. Most bisexual individuals are never 100% certain they are bisexual.

Know the difficulties in operationally defining sexual orientation.

1. Kentbeny said there are only two types of people (typology)- you are either heterosexual or homosexual. 2. Kinsey's survey showed it was not binary and there was a lot of variability. It could range anywhere from 0 where you are completely heterosexual in behaviors and fantasies to 6 where you are completely homosexual in behaviors and fantasies. 3. Storm developed the two dimensional scheme which broke it down into two dimensions (homoeroticism and heteroeroticism). If you are high in homo and low in heterochromatin then homo. If you are low in both: asexual. If you are high in heterochromatin and low in homo then heterochromatin. if you are high in both: bi. 4. NHSLS: multidimensional survey that asked if they were generally attracted to same gender, if sex with same gender was appealing, if they identified as same gender oriented, if they had same gender sex at any point. Some don't want to use homosexual or heterosexual terminology. Instead they may say, "I like someone that is funny and tall." They can be androphylic (like male bodies) or gynophylic (female body) Also in terms of research, how the researchers ask questions, who asks the questions can lead to different answers-lots of variation in responses simply based on who asks the questions.

What difficulties do gay males and lesbians have that other minorities do not have?

1. No social support. If you are black, your parents are black so you have that support which may not be the case for someone that is gay.

What do we know about psychological effects on sexual orientation

1. Psychoanalytic: Freud called people that were not heterosexual polymorphous perversity. He did not mean to say that it was a bad thing; just not the usual. He thought it was just another variation, but normal. 2. Bieber: Homoseductive mother: If a boy has a mother who is extremely strong and controlling and a weak father, the boy will become gay. 3. Learning theory: you get reinforced for being homosexual 4. Sociological: labeling-you are in school and they call you a fag so you go home and ask mom what that means and mom tells you it means you like boys so you adopt that. 5. Exotic becomes erotic: This is the idea that we are biologically born with a temperament which causes us to play certain things. For example, we play with barbies. so we see the others playing with cars and that is exotic to us (strange so we get some arousal) but its cooties then at a certain age that strangeness becomes erotic. So, if you are a boy that plays with barbies you will be homosexual. All these have no empirical support

What is the approximate consensus among researchers regarding the percent of people who have same gender sexual orientation?

2% of men and 1% of woman

Either gender

7% men and 8% woman

Opposite gender orientation

90%

What have most professional associations said about conversion therapy?

APA opposes it Conversion therapy is not administered by trained psychologists (more religious groups) It is condemned by APA (Both psychological and psychiatric) as well as pediatrics. It is even illegal in some states. Obama called for an end to it

What happened in 1973?

APA said that it was not a mental health disorder

BDSM

As common as with heterosexuals

What special issues do bisexuals face?

Defining bisexuality can be difficult. What if a female dated a female in the past but is now with a male? Is that sexual fluidity or bisexuality? Do you have to be with both a male and a female at the same time to be bisexual? Think of males in prison or graduation lesbians. There are also performative bisexuality where you are bisexual at a party to attract the male you may kiss your female friend. Or you can be a political lesbian and are super feminist but sexually attracted to males. A lot of them feel that they can't make up their mind and this attitude makes life really difficult. Most people prefer to hang out with a gay or lesbian person then with someone who is bisexual. They are fence setters

Distinguish between sexual and emotional orientation. Know the rough approximation of the prevalence of bisexual emotional orientation.

Emotional orientation- most people have close friends of both genders. Emotional is who you want an intimate relationship with in terms of friendship. Sexual orientation: most people are sexually heterosexual Most people have a heterosexual sexual orientation but a bisexual emotional orientation

What are bears

Gay men are very into physical appearance since they are men but some gay men reject that and so they don't really worry about their physical appearance; they won't shave or eat healthy-they are bears

What biological factors influence sexual orientation?

Genetics (epigenetic). We know that genes are involved based on concurrence rates, we just don't know which genes exactly. Chromosomes 7,8,10. Dads epigenetic to girl-lesbian. Mom epigenetic to son-gay. Prenatal factors: If you are male and have several older BROTHERS you are more likely to be gay. Has to be older brothers not older sisters. Brain: difference in anterior hypothalamus. Problem with this study is that they simply reported they were gay while the others did not so we assumed the others were not gay and those that were gay had HIV which affects brain tissue. Hormonal imbalance: some people think gay men don't have enough testosterone but that has nothing to do with sexual orientation. when given testosterone they just became horny gay men. Fingers: men have shorter index finger than ring finger and woman are opposite so if a woman has a shorter index finger-lesbian.

What often tends to happen in gay male bars and in lesbian bars?

IN gay male bars it is more about finding sexual partners and in lesbian bars it is more about talking and socializing.

Top vs. bottom

If you were a gay couple, in the past, you had to figure if you were on top or bottom.

Femme vs. butch

In a lesbian couple, in the past, you had to figure out if you were going to be the feminine one (femme) or the masculine one (butch)

What happened in 1886?

Krafft-Ebings psychopath sexualis To him, same sex was a mental health disorder. From this point on, it was looked at as a mental health disorder so there was a lot of discrimination and prejudice. It was against the law so police was harass and arrest them.

What happened in 2015?

Laws banning same gender marriage ruled unconstitutional.

Antigay prejudice

Less strong in terms of emotional reaction than homophobia but still negative attitude towards gay individuals because of their sexual orientation.

Whats up with monogamy and bisexuality?

Most bisexuals end up in a monogamous relationship. Difficult for them because depending on which gender you end up with you are either considered homosexual or heterosexual even people that are not in a marriage but are exclusive with one person have this problem.

According to your textbook, how efficacious is conversion therapy at changing sexual orientation?

Not very. Conversion therapy tends to have very negative consequences because it does not change their sexual orientation and instead makes them feel guilty about it. These therapies make no sense since it is not an illness (they are not evil).

Egalitarian

Now-a-days we don't really use the femme vs. dutch or top v. bottom. Instead, tend to go from one role to the other and many times there are no such things as those roles.

What happened in 2013?

Some gender marriages receive same federal benefits as mixed gender marriages.

What happened in 1969?

Stonewall riots. After Ebings book leading to lots of discrimination and the fact that police would purposefully go to gay bars to harass and arrest gays, one night at this Stonewall tavern in NYC, the gays did fight back and it became an entire riot throughout the entire city. This started the gay rights movement.

What is the effect on children of growing up in a family in which both parents are the same sex?

Studies show that having two fathers or two mothers makes no difference. What does make a difference is their parenting skills. There seems to be no disturbance in their identity, not increasingly likely to be homosexual, no difference in psychological happiness, no problems in relationships with peers.

What happened in 2002?

Supreme court said that laws that made same sex illegal were unconstitutional.

Describe lesbian subcultures

Tend to be organized around an area of interest like softball or particular types of music

What is monosexism

The belief that mono sexuality (either heterosexual or homosexual) is superior to bisexuality.

What does sexual fluidity mean? Which sex is more likely to show it?

The idea that your sexual orientation changes throughout life even into adulthood. it used to be thought that you were not initially permeant but when 15-25 you were. however, the study showed that was not true because asked college females between 20-21 and then again 8 years later and there were observed differences. more often in woman

How cross culture are sexual orientations

The percent of each gender that has a same-sex orientation does differ within US, Australia, Turkey, and Norway but all the cultures have some same-sex orientation

How were gay baths affected by the HIV epidemic and what has happened with them more recently?

These gay baths (literally pay to use the bath elsewhere just to meet each other) were popular in the 1900s until HIV started to rise and we learned how it was transmitted. When this came out, they started to close. There were several reasons why they closed. 1. The owner thought it was the right thing to do. 2. local government 3. they went out of business. they almost disappeared Then, when we started to get medication for HIV they came back and now they are back.

Heterosexism

This is the belief that everyone is or at least should be heterosexual. So we don't need to consider any other possibility.

Understand the term men-who-have-sex-with-men

This is the term that is used in research to repent gay males. This is done because the word gay can simply refer to homosexual and not specify a gender. This term applies to men who are gay as well as men who occasional have sex with woman and occasional with males.

What is tearoom trade

When men go to a public restroom and use that as a place to meet other men

Homophobia

an irrational fear or disgust towards people who have the same sex orientation