Lesbians’ brains react differently!
Lesbians’ brains reacted somewhat, though not completely, like those
of heterosexual men, a team of Swedish researchers said in Tuesday’s
edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.A year ago, the same group reported findings for gay men that showed
their brain response to hormones was similar to that of heterosexual
women.
In both cases the findings add weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behavior.
Well, dur. Lesbians’ brains different? No! Still, anything that pushes a little nature-not-nurture out there in the news is fine by me.
But hey, this may explain why neither of us can remember a birthday to save our lives…. (Seriously, that’s one of the reasons why we got married on April 1st — so that if we DO forget an anniversary, we can "April Fools!" our way right out of it. "Ha! Gotcha! Betcha thought I forgot! No, I got you this, this, errrrr…. ballpoint pen! See? Barely used! Happy Anniversary, babe!")
Whu … whu … what? You’re LESBIANS???
Gah, and I’ve never even BEEN to Lesbia. I coulda asked you about local customs and such.
Oh, I hate missing a cultural opportunity.
ps you speak English very well.
That Rabbitch. ROFLFLFLFLFL!
Yeah. Love that study. They get the Big Duh award.
There’s a cool book called The New Sexual Revolution, which surveys a whole bunch of research by various people on various subjects, and concludes that brain-wise, the divide isn’t between men women, it’s between people-attracted-to-women and people-attracted-to-men. Fascinating read. I recommend it.
Ooh, nice theory!
I think that means I’m a lesbian in April and June. I usually don’t have a big problem remembering birthdays, but if someone’s birthday falls in April or June, I am *guaranteed* to miss it.
I do have to say that I’d blame a lot (possibly all) of the impression that the research was obvious and unnecessary on Yahoo. Having spent a good amount of time in academia, I’ve seen the popular press mangle, oversimplify, and horrifyingly dumb down academic studies over and over and over again. I’ve even see the NY Times science section do it. It really sucks, and it’s really frustrating as a reader, because I want a source of information on topics where the actual journal articles are beyond me. Stupid media.
You’re funny. Rabbitch is too.
And yup, the media sucks at reporting research (it’s what I study for a living).
While I agree that it is good to trouble the nature/nuture thing, I’m also cautious because there are evil people out there who will be looking to find a “cure” or something nefarious. So I’m always curious why people are interested in studying this too.
Oh no! Personally, I don’t care to share a lot of brainwaves with 95% of the men I know.
Seriously, I don’t care if it’s nature or nurture. I’ve always felt that being a lesbian was a decision I made– a decision to be happy.
So, I wonder how bisexuals’ brains react….
The professor of my HomoPsych class in college (“The Psychology of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Individuals”) expressed some concern over experiments like these, trying to “prove” that homosexuality is genetic rather than learned. While we can all hope to dispel the idea of someone being “turned gay,” he wasn’t sure that proving a genetic basis for sexual orientation would be any better. After all, if it’s genetic, isn’t it a “disease”? What if they try to “cure” it? Or what if they can test for it before birth, and give parents the option of aborting the child if it might be gay? It’s all a slippery slope.
Of course, personally, I don’t care what “causes” it…I’m just glad it does!
I can’t remember birthdays or anniversaries to save my life either. Oh! Maybe I’m a lesbian! We’ll have to do a study. ; )
I kind of hope that actually happens (the “April Fool’s!” anniversary), because the thought of it is so funny. Anyway, I guess the study explains why you’re so fond of beer and, uh … sports?
Actually, here in Sweden the biological research about sexuality is not popular in the GLBT community. Anything that seeks biological differences between different social groups just reminds us a bit too much of the racial biology of the last century. Injecting things into rats to see if they turn gay more often? Didn’t win any prices at the Pride Festival. (A different project, done at the University here in Gothenburg.) That doesn’t mean people think of sexual orientation as a “choice”. It just feels like what Steph says: Are they trying to find a cure now? And why is the research always about how people turn gay, not how they turn straight or gay? (Bisexual people don’t exist, as usual.)
/Monika
Haha!!