Jim Beaux
01-26-2009, 01:28 PM
Meredith Chivers, psychology professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
Clips were shown to straight men, straight women, homosexual men, and homosexual women, showing heterosexual sex, male homosexual sex, female homosexual sex, a man masturbating, a woman masturbating, a chiselled man walking naked on the beach (no erection), a naked woman exercising and bonobo monkeys having intercourse.
Arousal was measured objectively, in men by a device measuring penis swelling, in women by a device measuring genital blood flow. The subjects also gave subjective measurements of arousal via a keypad.
Straight males has penis swelling for heterosexual and lesbian sex, masturbating women and exercising women. They had little swelling when the screen contained only males. Gay males showed the exact opposite pattern to this. Straight males and gay males alike were unmoved by the monkeys. For all males, the subjective keypad rating matched the objective swelling.
Women were completely different.
Objectively (genital arousal) both straight and gay females responded strongly to men with men, women with women and men with women. They responded to both the walking male and exercising woman, but less strongly to the non-erect man. And arousal was marked for the monkeys, though less so than for any of the clips with humans.
And for women, the keypad scores did not match genital arousal.
For straight women, lesbian sex was rated less by keypad than by vagina, for male gay sex much less, for heterosexual sex much more, and for the monkeys almost zero.
For lesbian women, keypad and vagina ratings aligned when women appeared on screen, but for men only clips keypad was less, and for the monkeys almost zero.
An earlier, separate study appears to show that these differences are not cultural, but are innate.
Based on evidence from rape cases of arousal and orgasm, Chivers postulates that arousal is a defence mechanism to reduce injuries suffered during rape. And thus that genital arousal and desire are separate in females.
Lisa Diamond, University of Utah, has concluded from studies that for women “I’m the sort of person who becomes physically attracted to the person rather than to their gender” seems to ring true. She links this to oxytocin, which engenders feelings of trust and well-being, and notes this relies on estrogen.
Marta Meana, University of Nevada, highlights the critical role of being desired. “Women want a caveman and caring”.
Footnote. Chivers conducted her experiment with mtf transsexuals in an attempt to screen out cultural influences. Whether heterosexual or homosexual, the mtf TS reacted as did the male equivalent, not as female. This seemed to point to an inborn system of arousal, but the impact of culture before transition was impossible to rule out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25desire-t.html
The NY Times article is long, and I thought it wandered, but there is a lot more in it that I have covered. I can recommend the readers' comments in particular. I sorted them by most thumbs up to see what was most popular, and it was very entertaining.
Clips were shown to straight men, straight women, homosexual men, and homosexual women, showing heterosexual sex, male homosexual sex, female homosexual sex, a man masturbating, a woman masturbating, a chiselled man walking naked on the beach (no erection), a naked woman exercising and bonobo monkeys having intercourse.
Arousal was measured objectively, in men by a device measuring penis swelling, in women by a device measuring genital blood flow. The subjects also gave subjective measurements of arousal via a keypad.
Straight males has penis swelling for heterosexual and lesbian sex, masturbating women and exercising women. They had little swelling when the screen contained only males. Gay males showed the exact opposite pattern to this. Straight males and gay males alike were unmoved by the monkeys. For all males, the subjective keypad rating matched the objective swelling.
Women were completely different.
Objectively (genital arousal) both straight and gay females responded strongly to men with men, women with women and men with women. They responded to both the walking male and exercising woman, but less strongly to the non-erect man. And arousal was marked for the monkeys, though less so than for any of the clips with humans.
And for women, the keypad scores did not match genital arousal.
For straight women, lesbian sex was rated less by keypad than by vagina, for male gay sex much less, for heterosexual sex much more, and for the monkeys almost zero.
For lesbian women, keypad and vagina ratings aligned when women appeared on screen, but for men only clips keypad was less, and for the monkeys almost zero.
An earlier, separate study appears to show that these differences are not cultural, but are innate.
Based on evidence from rape cases of arousal and orgasm, Chivers postulates that arousal is a defence mechanism to reduce injuries suffered during rape. And thus that genital arousal and desire are separate in females.
Lisa Diamond, University of Utah, has concluded from studies that for women “I’m the sort of person who becomes physically attracted to the person rather than to their gender” seems to ring true. She links this to oxytocin, which engenders feelings of trust and well-being, and notes this relies on estrogen.
Marta Meana, University of Nevada, highlights the critical role of being desired. “Women want a caveman and caring”.
Footnote. Chivers conducted her experiment with mtf transsexuals in an attempt to screen out cultural influences. Whether heterosexual or homosexual, the mtf TS reacted as did the male equivalent, not as female. This seemed to point to an inborn system of arousal, but the impact of culture before transition was impossible to rule out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25desire-t.html
The NY Times article is long, and I thought it wandered, but there is a lot more in it that I have covered. I can recommend the readers' comments in particular. I sorted them by most thumbs up to see what was most popular, and it was very entertaining.