Do you agree with the Kinsey scale of human sexuality?

LiamMcConville · #1 08-17-2009, 02:15 AM

Do you agree that every human can be ranked at a different number based on certain experiences/feelings during a certain period of one's life? Or do you think sexuality is more black and white?

I believe that the extremes on this scale: exclusively heterosexual & exclusively homosexual are based on "nature"/science, while the numbers in between are based on "nurture"/environment one was raised in.

kinsey scale Pictures, Images and Photos

carrie721 · #2 08-17-2009, 03:08 AM

i haven't done enough research (take that as you will) to figure it all out.

i'm not quite sure what you mean by this:

I believe that the extremes on this scale: exclusively heterosexual & exclusively homosexual are based on "nature"/science, while the numbers in between are based on "nurture"/environment one was raised in.

do you mean that people are born either totally straight or totally gay and then start "experimenting" later on?

i don't know. the problem is so much happens with a child between conception and toddlerhood that who knows what causes these things to happen? kids pick up on so many social cues before they are aware of these things that it may be impossible to figure out.

LikeAWillow · #3 08-17-2009, 07:16 PM

Liam, I'm curious, do you believe bisexuality is a societal construct? If so, do you believe the majority of those who identify as bisexual are born straight or gay?

carrie721 · #4 08-17-2009, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

Liam, I'm curious, do you believe bisexuality is a societal construct? If so, do you believe the majority of those who identify as bisexual are born straight or gay?

you didn't ask me, but i'm a blowhard.

that is how i read what he said. IDK that i agree, as i said above. what are your thoughts? also, do you identify as lez or bi?

ultimately i think labels are pointless but i'm always interested in how they perceive themselves & others.

LikeAWillow · #5 08-17-2009, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

you didn't ask me, but i'm a blowhard.

that is how i read what he said. IDK that i agree, as i said above. what are your thoughts? also, do you identify as lez or bi?

ultimately i think labels are pointless but i'm always interested in how they perceive themselves & others.

I'm not big on labels either. I've done relationships with men and women, and I tend to say I'm whatever label best fits with the relationship I'm in at the time.

seekerj · #6 02-15-2010, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

Liam, I'm curious, do you believe bisexuality is a societal construct? If so, do you believe the majority of those who identify as bisexual are born straight or gay?

Doesn't the fact that animals engage in this behavior rule out the possibility that it has something to do with human society?

LikeAWillow · #7 02-15-2010, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seekerj

Doesn't the fact that animals engage in this behavior rule out the possibility that it has something to do with human society?

What animals engage in bisexual behavior? I'm curious. I didn't say that I believed in bisexuality as a construct, though, I asked Liam if he did.

seekerj · #8 02-15-2010, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

What animals engage in bisexual behavior? I'm curious. I didn't say that I believed in bisexuality as a construct, though, I asked Liam if he did.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to address that part of it, and I know you were asking Liam specifically; what I wrote was just a thought I had as I read your question to Liam. It really was just a thought, nothing more.

There are many species who randomly, or out of boredom, or for whatever reason, practice this behavior. There are too many to list. It might be easier to list those that do not.

jaycee · #9 02-20-2010, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

What animals engage in bisexual behavior? I'm curious. I didn't say that I believed in bisexuality as a construct, though, I asked Liam if he did.

I know Bonobos, an ape species, regularly engage in various sexual practices, including bisexuality and, of all things, paedophilia.

To quote the primatologist Frans de Waal:
"Paedophilia is not a hang-up with bonobos; all kinds of philia seem fine to them."
"The Ancestor's Tale", Richard Dawkins, pg. 110.
Beyond advising humans not to suddenly start behaving like bonobos (I doubt most people would want to anyway...), I don't know what to say...

LiamMcConville · #10 08-17-2009, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

do you mean that people are born either totally straight or totally gay and then start "experimenting" later on?

Yes. But not "experimenting", per say. I think that you are either born straight or gay, and the way you were raised and the environment you were raised in has a great effect on how you view your sexuality consciously or subconsciously.

Quote:

Liam, I'm curious, do you believe bisexuality is a societal construct? If so, do you believe the majority of those who identify as bisexual are born straight or gay?

I have no idea, as I haven't really thought into this.

carrie721 · #11 08-17-2009, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LiamMcConville

Yes. But not "experimenting", per say. I think that you are either born straight or gay, and the way you were raised and the environment you were raised in has a great effect on how you view your sexuality consciously or subconsciously.

i gotcha.

if people are born gay, i guess i don't understand what the biological imperative is. within our current society, one in which the species' survival is not correlative to fecundity, homosexuality isn't a bizarre thing. but in the millenia before modern times, how did homosexuality fit into the big picture? i have no idea.

LikeAWillow · #12 08-17-2009, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LiamMcConville

I have no idea, as I haven't really thought into this.

I'm going to keep picking on you anyway because you said I sound like Sharon Celani, and as much as I love her, I know your feelings about the long, cool woman in a black dress

Quote:

the way you were raised and the environment you were raised in has a great effect on how you view your sexuality consciously or subconsciously

Nature vs. Nuture is such a tough thing for me to grapple with. Studies have shown (I'll try to track down the one in particular I'm thinking of if anyone is interested) that most women have some degree of physical attraction to other women, even if that attraction isn't emotional. So in that case, does nature decide the physical dimension and nurture determines whether or not you're willing to act on that attraction, or, is that attraction based on the fact that women are sexualized in almost every aspect of our society?

carrie721 · #13 08-17-2009, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

I'm not big on labels either. I've done relationships with men and women, and I tend to say I'm whatever label best fits with the relationship I'm in at the time.

cool. fwiw, i have been with guys and girls and consider myself lez.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

Nature vs. Nuture is such a tough thing for me to grapple with. Studies have shown (I'll try to track down the one in particular I'm thinking of if anyone is interested) that most women have some degree of physical attraction to other women, even if that attraction isn't emotional. So in that case, does nature decide the physical dimension and nurture determines whether or not you're willing to act on that attraction, or, is that attraction based on the fact that women are sexualized in almost every aspect of our society?

i know the studies you're talking about. i have no idea what to make of them, though.

i think it was NYT that ran a big piece about it some years back.

i don't think it's about women being sexualized in society, though. i think everyone is sexualized - it's all part of being an animal. women are just more circumspect about sexualizing men.

LikeAWillow · #14 08-17-2009, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

i don't think it's about women being sexualized in society, though. i think everyone is sexualized - it's all part of being an animal. .

Jean Kilbourne hates you.

Haha, I have seen her documentaries way too many times, but I promise, if you have a spare 35 minutes, Killing Us Softly 3 (I'm not sure if it's intended to sound like a porn or not, but I like to think it us) is worth a watch.

www.jeankilbourne.com

I know the video is available to watch streaming free somewhere online. I'll edit this post if I find it. Apparently hinting at media I don't actually have at my fingertips is my thing tonight.

Edit:

Google is my best friend.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...68502337678412

greendaze5 · #15 02-06-2010, 11:01 AM

Has Kinsey’s research been updated? Being that he did his studies some 50 years, would more straight people admit to having bi/gay tendencies if asked today (in a 'generally more tolerant and accepting time)?

Was watching the Ted and Gayle Haggard interviews with Larry King and Oprah last week. Ted is now a self confessed ‘straight male with homosexual tendencies’ and is apparently more or less finally ‘cured’ to being exclusively hetero now.

If he’s happy with his life that’s great, but I can’t help but think he’s still a repressed bi/gay man, and wish he would just openly embrace that other part of himself. But coming from his strong religious background, that he’s married, and that he associates his former life with negative behaviour and events (the lying, the drug use, and alleged sexual abuse as a kid), that just doesn’t seem possible.

In one of the interviews, Ted Haggard didn’t say it out right (though his wife sort of did) but it sounds like he’s still in that ‘hate the sin, love the sinner’ frame of mind.

Roland