The Sexual Kaleidoscope
Any discussion of human sexual behavior and mating must begin with two
clarifying statements; one about the extraordinary variability of the human
sexual response and the second about the strong effects of biological
determinants on individual sexual behavior, effects that cannot be modified by
nurturing techniques. By in large, humans do not invent their sexual interests
and behaviors. They manifest their sexual interests and behaviors. If you
examine the range of sexual behaviors and aberrations in any society, you are
looking through layers of evolutionary development and observing behaviors that
originate in different times and places, in different animals, for different
reasons.
The human mind appears to be a repository of preferences and behaviors that
date back to reptilian hissing, biting and scratching. The most sublime maternal
affection and devotion appears in warm-blooded, milk-feeding mammals. Modern
career women will talk about the “dinosaurs” or “cave men” when describing
suitors who are less than considerate and kind. They refer to old layers of the
male mind that offend them. At the same time, women will be aroused by other
primitive male qualities and seek sexual liaisons with exciting and “dangerous
men”. Their love-making may include hissing, purring, growling, biting and
scratching. DNA lays down general rules for body sex and mind sex, but leaves it
up to the environment to select from a range of possible combinations.
The environmental determinants begin with effects directed toward sperm and
eggs and continue in the maternal womb. The mother’s food, environment and
health status are strong determinants. When a baby is born, the external
environment influences that disposition of neurons in the brain that direct
sexual behavior and maturation. The net result of all the variables is not fully
revealed until several years after puberty begins. At puberty three regions of
the brain are reorganized to assume gender-specific reproductive behaviors: the
prefrontal cortex and nucleus acumens (motivation); the hippocampus-amygdala
complex (salience); hypothalamus, midbrain and spinal cord (performance).
Sisk and Foster suggested that: “…attainment of adult reproductive status
involves both gonadal and behavioral maturation through a series of
brain-driven, developmentally timed events, modulated by internal and external
sensory cues… The brain initiates gonadal steroid hormone production at puberty;
hormones in turn activate neural circuits mediating reproductive behavior during
adolescence”
Sexual Preferences
The best way to understand sexual preferences and behavior is assume that
each person is adaptable but has a set of innate preferences that both guide and
limit the choice of a long-term sexual partner. Preferences are built on a
foundation that is enduring but not fixed and learning experiences can redirect
these innate tendencies to some degree. These innate preferences begin with the
bodybrainmind blueprint laid down in DNA, but it is wrong to say that “innate
sexual preferences are genetic.”
A more correct description is to say that:” Innate preferences are
biologically determined by the interaction of DNA/RNA programming with the
physical and social environment.” Part of the change is a predictable
program sequence that takes an individual through childhood; transforms him or
her during adolescence for reproduction; sustains reproductive interest for two
or three decades and then retires each individual from reproductive duties.
While aging humans may continue to have sex, their interest and ability usually
declines and the frequency of sexual encounters decreases.
Fich and Dannenberg suggested that animal research revealed the basic
patterns of hormone influence on the development of male and female behaviors.
For example, they stated: "The manipulations of neonatal androgens affected
adult sexual behavior. Female guinea pigs exposed to testosterone by various
regimes during the prenatal period increased male-typical sexual behavior
(mounting). These subjects also decreased female-typical behavior (lordosis)
when, as adults, they were gonadectomized, primed with estrogen and
progesterone, and tested for sexual receptivity. Similarly, male rats castrated
at birth reduced male-typical sexual behaviors and increased feminine behaviors
in adulthood.These same behavioral patterns were seen in adult male
rodents exposed prenatally to stress or alcohol, which disrupts the prenatal
testosterone surge in male fetuses. These effects are mediated by aromatization
of testosterone to estrogen, since sexual behavior can be masculinized in
females and reinstated in neonatally castrated males with early administration
of a synthetic estrogen or high doses of estradiol. Estrogen has also been shown
to act asymmetrically in the hypothalamus to modify reproductive behavior of the
female rat. Estradiol pellets were placed in the left or right ventromedial
nucleus during the first two days of life.
“In adulthood, subjects were ovariectomized and primed with estradiol
benzoate and progesterone. Subjects with left-sided implants showed reduced
lordosis as compared to right-sided implants and cholesterol control. Nordeen
and Yahr also found masculinizing effects of estradiol, with local implantation
in the right preoptic area leading to increased mounting behavior in adulthood."
Psychic Gender
The development of psychic gender identity is not an on and off affair but
involves a mix of semi-independent variables with many possible combinations.
Gay and lesbian hangouts tend to gather diverse individuals with many
body-psyche gender variations. While each individual may feel that he or she or
she-he is choosing a lover or mate, his or her choices, like all human choices,
are directed and constrained by programs built into the brain and modified by
hormones and environmental determinants. An increase in man-made estrogens in
the environment interferes with male embryo development and promotes female
behaviors in males.
Females with more male hormone act like males. Males with more female hormone
develop breasts and act more like women. A concern has been voiced about the
high level of estrogens in Soya beans, for example. Soya in the diet appears to
protect women against breast cancer but no one knows how estrogens will affect
infants fed soya milk formulas. Will the males develop female psyches or will
girls rush into puberty before their time?
Gender subtypes can be understood by allowing different mixes of six sexual
identity and preference programs in the brain:
1 An inner sense of sexual identity - male or female or both
2. Sex-specific behavioral characteristics
3. Polarized sexual attraction
4. Falling-in-love - spontaneous preference for one sex
5. Sexual appetite preference for one sex
6. Aversion to intimacy with one sex
Each person is sexually adaptable but has a set of innate preferences that
limit the choices of a sexual partner. Preferences are built on a foundation
that is enduring but not fixed. Learning experiences redirect these innate
tendencies. Given the opportunity, most humans will experiment with a range of
intimate contacts and will satisfy their sexual urges in a variety of ways. Some
humans are more open and experimental than others. Some humans have more
opportunity to have varied relationships and some are strictly limited by local
rules to just one kind of relationship.
Homosexual encounters are common among youthful males and females and do not
predict adult homosexuality. Boys will often discover the pleasures of mutual
masturbation and the more adventurous boys may experiment with simulated
intercourse and sodomy. Girls may extend affection and playful body contact to
mutual masturbation and sleeping together. There is little evidence that adolescent
homosexual experiences convert a heterosexual youth to a homosexual adult, even
though early experiences demonstrate the possibility of pleasurable, meaningful
homosexual contact. A heterosexual boy will avoid kissing a male masturbation
partner on the lips, will not fall in love with a boy and will continue to
fantasize about having a female partner. The homosexual adolescent on the other
had will kiss a same sex partner on the lips, will fall in love with a male and
will not fantasize about having a heterosexual partner. A bisexual person will
be attracted to people of both sexes and intersexes, but tends toward a
preferred sexual expression. Some humans spend many years in a confusing,
ambivalent state and finally “make a decision” to be male or female, gay or
straight. The decision is not the cause of gender polarization but an effect of
developments in their brain. A straight male heterosexual answers the
idea of male gender: a person who has a male body, feels like a
man, is attracted only to women and only has sex with women. He falls in
love and marries a woman and has an aversion to the idea of having sex with a
man.
A homosexual male
has a man’s body, feels more or less like a man but displays a mix of male and
female behavior and is attracted only to men. He falls in love with men, has sex
with men and has an aversion to sex with women, although he enjoys female
friends. Male homosexuality sometimes runs in families. Identical twins share
more of their genes than regular siblings and one twin is more likely to be gay
if his twin is. Homosexual men are more likely to have homosexual brothers even
if they were not twins. There is a tendency for homosexuality to run in the
female line — men whose mothers had gay brothers tended to be homosexual and
studies have investigated the possibility that a gene in the X chromosome might
be involved. Homosexual adolescents have paid a high price for their same-sex
preference and if they were free to choose a lover or mate that was congruent
with the wishes of their family and community they would not pursue the
homosexual path. These adolescents simply discover what their preference is and
can do nothing to change it.
A true heterosexual woman has a reciprocal set of congruent characteristics.
A Lesbian homosexual is a woman who falls in love with women has sex with women
and has an aversion to sex with men, although she may enjoy male friends.
Homosexual men and women often share dance clubs and appear together in public
displays and political protests.
A transgender will have the genitals of one sex, but the mind of the opposite
sex. Some transgenders are content with cross dressing and expressing the
behaviors and attitudes of the opposite sex. Others are so committed to becoming
the other gender that they seek surgery to change the external genitals.
Passion varies from human to human. Some humans are affectionate, erotic,
fall in love easily and often. Some humans are easily aroused and love sex.
Others are cold, aloof and have difficulty forming intimate ties with other
humans. Some tend to be irritable and angry and are not affectionate; they tend
to remain alone or become unhappily married prudes who criticize and often seek
to punish more affectionate and erotic humans. Some require unusual or bizarre
sexual stimulation. “Kinky sex” was invented, in part, for hard-to arouse
individuals. Sexual arousal is sometimes linked to aggression and cruelty.
Fortunately, most people who enjoy bondage and torture just play at
sadomasochism and no-one is injured or killed as in real expressions of sexual
cruelty. The formalized and ritualistic aspects of sadomasochistic sexuality
appear in religious ceremonies world-wide and suggest that this is an innate
tendency that is expressed in a variety of ways. Even the nicest humans are
fascinated by sadomasochistic stories and will enjoy horrifying terror movies
and news reports of unsavory sexual crimes. Some humans are missing the programs
that create affection, love, intimacy and empathy. They remain cruel, dishonest
and some are dangerous sexual predators.
- The book, I and Thou, focuses on intimate relationships. Innate tendencies are hard at
work when people meet, become lovers and end with arguments and fighting. The
same tendencies determine how family members interact and explain why so many
families are “dysfunctional.” When lovers form an enduring pair bond, they often
become parents and everything changes. Humans seek bonding with others and are
distressed when they become isolated. Humans bond to each other in several ways.
The most enduring bonds are kin-related, based on closely shared genes. The
deepest bonding occurs when mother and infant are together continuously from
birth and mother breast-feeds the infant. Bonds among family members are the
most enduring. Bonds to friends, lovers and spouses are the next most
significant. Bonds to colleagues, neighbors and even strangers that are admired
from a distance are next. Friendships are often temporary bonds, based on the
need to affiliate with others for protection, social status, feeding, sex and
fun.
- I and Thou is available in a print and an eBook edition for
download. 199 Pages.
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