From straight to gay
Is everyone a mix of straight and gay? A social pressure theory of sexual orientation, with supporting data from a large global sample
Introduction
Humans have a strong tendency to categorize phenomena that are in truth continuous in their physical characteristics (Jorde and Wooding, ; Culotta, ). When should scientists put aside category labels in favor of a continuum model that more accurately describes the phenomenon of interest? This issue has been debated in various scientific fields for at least a century and is still of trouble today, in part because of an obvious advantage that continuous variables contain over categorical ones. Categories often subsist on nominal or ordinal scales of low resolution (male/female, red/blue/yellow), whereas continuous variables tend to make precise measurement possible, facilitating the development of predictive, quantitative models.
Mathematical aspects of continua were discussed at length in Science in an essay by Luce and Narens (), in which they concluded, continuous variables are the correct kind of idealization for many, if not mos
by Fred Penzel, PhD
This article was initially published in the Winter edition of the OCD Newsletter.
OCD, as we know, is largely about experiencing severe and unrelenting doubt. It can cause you to disbelieve even the most basic things about yourself – even your sexual orientation. A study published in the Journal of Sex Research found that among a group of college students, 84% reported the occurrence of sexual intrusive thoughts (Byers, et al. ). In order to have doubts about one’s sexual identity, a sufferer need not ever acquire had a homo- or heterosexual experience, or any type of sexual trial at all. I own observed this symptom in young children, adolescents, and adults as well. Interestingly Swedo, et al., , create that approximately 4% of children with OCD life obsessions concerned with forbidden aggressive or perverse sexual thoughts.
Although doubts about one’s own sexual identity might seem pretty straightforward as a symptom, there are actually a number of variations. The most evident form is where a sufferer experiences the idea that they mig
Hi. I&#;m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I&#;m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O&#;Neill Library at Boston College. In the online nature, I live in this blog. You might say I possess multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren&#;t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.
I have some human assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O&#;Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often allude to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.
If you&#;d like a quicker reply to your question and don&#;t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.
Long-suffering Spectator readers deserve a seasonal break from yet another Remoaner diatribe from me. My last on this page, making the outrageous suggestion that the populace may sometimes be wrong, is now entity brandished by online Leaver-readers of my Times column as proof that I am in fact a fascist; so there isn’t anywhere much to depart from there.
Instead, I change to sex. There is little time left for me to write about sex as the thoughts of a septuagenarian on this subject (I rotate 70 this year) may soon meet only a shudder. But I own a theory which I have the audacity to think important.
What follows is not written here for the first time, and much of it is neither original nor new; but on very not many subjects have I ever been more sure I’m right, or more sure that future generations will see so, and wonder that it stared us in the face yet was not acknowledged. My firm belief is that in trying to categorise sex, sexuality and — yes — even gender, the late 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries have taken the medical and social sciences down a massive bl