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Photo source: http://www.sodahead.com/living/are-you-gaylesbian-bi-or-straight/question-1943063/?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl=http://images.sodahead.com/polls/001943063/244034360_biunity_logo_answer_2_xlarge.png.
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Photo source: http://www.sodahead.com/living/are-you-gaylesbian-bi-or-straight/question-1943063/?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl=http://images.sodahead.com/polls/001943063/244034360_biunity_logo_answer_2_xlarge.png The Conceptualization and Measurement of Sexuality and Sexual OrientationDudley L. Poston, Jr. Yu-Ting Chang Texas A&M University January 10, 2012
What is sexuality? Essentialism and Social Constructionism Three Facets of Sexuality Empirical Measurement of Homosexuality, Heterosexuality, and Bisexuality Outline Photo source: http://thebeaverreader.wordpress.com/page/4/
What Is Sexuality?Who Is Gay, And Who Is Straight? • Everyone seems to know who is gay and who is straight. • Let’s look at a few slides from a TV show that was broadcast a few years ago, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy • It was an American reality television series that premiered on the Bravo cable television network in July 2003. It was created by two openly gay executive producers along with a straight producing partner. • The show ended production in June 2006, and the final ten episodes aired in October 2007.
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy(the “Fab Five”) • Crossing genres of both reality television and "make-over" programs, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, created by David Collins and David Metzler, stars five openly gay men (the “Fab Five”), each of whom fills a particular function as part of the makeover team. The show is produced by Scout Productions. • Each episode featured a new candidate (usually a straight/heterosexual man) ready to be culturally transformed by the "Fab Five." • Do you know who is the straight guy, • and who are the gay guys? • HOW DO YOU KNOW?
This is a picture of the “Fab Five” giving a straight guy a makeover. • The show is about straight guys getting makeovers from the five gay guys. • So this is an easy photo for figuring out who is gay and who is straight.
This is a book published in 2011 about the diet preferences of gay versus heterosexual men; the author talks about gay food and straight food. • But it is assumed that the reader knows who is a gay man and who is a straight man. • There is virtually no discussion in the book with regard to who is gay and who is straight, and how this is determined.
What is Sexuality? • Two Perspectives: • Essentialism • Social Constructionism
Essentialism • Essentialism is the most widespread view, especially in popular thinking. • Sexuality is treated as analogous to similar views of race or sex, where biology is usually the driving force.
Essentialism • Essentialism is binary. • The essentialist view dictates that everyone has a particular sexuality. It was once believed there were only two sexualities, homosexual or heterosexual. Every person was either a heterosexual or a homosexual. • More recently, evidence indicates this was too narrow a picture of sexuality. It is now believed that sexuality includes additional possibilities, namely, bisexuality and asexuality.
Essentialism • For example, Heterosexuals all share an essential feature that is identical. • This essence could be a single quality, e.g., perhaps a particular gene, or psychological disposition, that then leads to certain preferences, behaviors and self-identifications. • The same is the case for homosexuals. • Similarly, the same is the case for bisexuals, and for asexuals.
Social Constructionism SC involves a description and critique of essentialism. SC examines the implicit assumptions of our thinking about sexual preferences and orientations, and questions their universality. SC emphasizes the historical and cultural variability of categories such as homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality and asexuality. SC stresses how conceptions of sexual orientation and practices change over time and vary across societies.
Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) Time, August 24, 1953
Alfred Kinsey moved sexuality research away from a position of essentialism. • He argued that sexuality within humans is a lot more varied than was originally thought. • The range of expression he created has become known as the “Kinsey scale,” which ranks overall sexuality from completely heterosexual to completely homosexual and everything in-between. • When he introduced the scale, Kinsey wrote the following: (next slide)
“Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories... The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.” • “While emphasizing the continuity of the gradations between exclusively heterosexual and exclusively homosexual histories, it has seemed desirable to develop some sort of classification which could be based on the relative amounts of heterosexual and homosexual experience or response in each history [...] An individual may be assigned a position on this scale, for each period in his life. [...] A seven-point scale comes nearer to showing the many gradations that actually exist.”
Here is the Kinsey scale, a measurement that is used to this very day.
Consider three dimensions of sexuality: • Self-identification: how does the person identify his/her sexual orientation? • Behavior: how does the person behave sexually? Same sex, opposite sex, both sexes, no sex behavior. • Desire: what are person’s sexual desires? Our Approach
The essentialist view states, for example, that heterosexuals will desire sex with persons of the opposite sex, will have sex with persons of the opposite sex, and will identify themselves accordingly as heterosexuals. • Similarly, homosexuals will desire sex with persons of the same sex, will have sex with persons of the same sex, and will identify themselves accordingly as homosexuals.
The social constructionist view, on the other hand, does not take a binary position. It holds that there are many possibilities. • For instance, one could behave and desire as a homosexual or as a bisexual, but self-identify as a heterosexual. • Or one could desire as an asexual, behave as a heterosexual, but self-identify as an asexual. • Or one could desire as a homosexual, behave as a bisexual, and identify as a homosexual. • The possibilities and combinations are endless. • Moreover, the sexuality mix of desire, behavior and identification of any one person need not be the same over time. The combination or mix for a person could change. • Social constructionism states that sexuality is fluid and not stable.
The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. It is known as Cycle 7 of the NSFG. • Interviews were conducted in person in 2006 to 2008. • The sample is comprised of 13,495 Americans (7,356 women and 6,139 men) between the ages of 15 to 44. The American Data
The Sexual Desire Question from the Cycle 7 NSFG People are different in their sexual attraction to other people. Which best describes you feelings? Are you… • Only attracted to opposite sex • Mostly attracted to opposite sex • Equally attracted to opposite sex and same sex • Mostly attracted to same sex • Only attracted to same sex • Not sure
The Sexual Identification Question from the Cycle 7 NSFG Do you think of yourself as a heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or something else?
The Sexual Behavior Questions from the Cycle 7 NSFG Thinking about the last 12 months, that is, since [M/Y of 1 YR before interview date], how many male sex partners have you had? Please count every partner, even those you had sex with only once. Thinking about the last 12 months, that is, since [M/Y of 1 YR before interview date], how many female sex partners have you had? Same questions were asked with regard to one’s lifetime, not just the past 12 months.
Identification • Desire • Behavior • ID & Desire • ID & Behavior • Desire and Behavior • ID & Desire & Behavior The Dimensions of Sexuality and their Combinations
Identification • Desire • Behavior • ID & Desire • ID & Behavior • Desire and Behavior • ID & Desire & Behavior The Dimensions of Sexuality and their Combinations
LAST 12M LIFETIME Behavior Behavior 3 0.43% 1.40% 1.22% 0.50% 0.88% 1.06% 74.96% 75.71% 0.71% 1.44% 0.37% 0.56% 21.22% 19.53% Interrelations of Components of Heterosexuality, females ,U.S., 2006-2008 Desire Desire Identity Identity
LIFETIME LAST 12M Behavior Behavior 3 65.19% 25.58% 1.25% 2.65% 9.74% 6.81% 11.56% 8.81% 12.21% 3.65% 21.15% 3.34% 3.88% 24.15% Interrelations of Components of Bisexuality, females, U.S., 2006-2008 Desire Desire Identity Identity
LIFETIME LAST 12M Behavior Behavior 3 23.19% 20.36% 2.97% 0.58% 0.63% 0.66% 17.62% 44.07% 20.83% 22.37% 4.56% 4.4% 31.21% 6.56% Interrelations of Components of Homosexuality, females ,U.S., 2006-2008 Desire Desire Identity Identity
LIFETIME LAST 12M Behavior Behavior 3 0.11% 0.21% 0.38% 0.28% 0.23% 0.23% 82.59% 79.97% 0.30% 0.41% 0.22% 0.22% 16.16% 18.68% Interrelations of Components of Heterosexuality, males ,U.S., 2006-2008 Desire Desire Identity Identity
LIFETIME LAST 12M Behavior Behavior 3 72.81% 19.75% 8.80% 6.00% 0% 0% 6.48% 5.53% 1.12% 0.38% 36.3% 7.72% 6.61% 28.43% Interrelations of Components of Bisexuality, males, U.S., 2006-2008 Desire Desire Identity Identity
LIFETIME LAST 12M Behavior Behavior 3 12.66% 14.48% 1.64% 0.82% 0% 0% 28.69% 54.81% 12.44% 13.53% 4.35% 4.27% 40.03% 12.58% Interrelations of Components of Homosexuality, males ,U.S., 2006-2008 Desire Desire Identity Identity
