A Sociological Perspective On Homosexuality - amazonia.fiocruz.br

A Sociological Perspective On Homosexuality Video

The relationship between biology and sexual orientation is a subject of research.

While scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientationthey theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetichormonaland environmental influences. Biological theories for explaining the causes of sexual orientation are favored by scientists. A Sociological Perspective On Homosexuality influence of hormones on the developing foetus has been the most influential causal hypothesis of the development of sexual orientation. The presence of the Y-chromosome in males prompts the development of testes, which release testosterone, click here primary androgen receptor-activating hormone, to masculinize the fetus and fetal brain.

This masculinising effect pushes males towards male typical brain structures, and most of the time, attraction to females.

It has been hypothesized that gay men may have been exposed to little testosterone in key regions of the brain, or had different levels of receptivity to its masculinizing effects, or experienced fluctuations at critical times. In women, it is hypothesized that high levels of exposure to testosterone in key regions may increase likelihood of same sex attraction. Lesbians on average, have significantly more masculine digit ratios, a finding which has been A Sociological Perspective On Homosexuality numerous times in studies cross-culturally. Maternal immune responses during fetal development are strongly demonstrated as causing male homosexuality and bisexuality.

During pregnancy, male cells enter a mother's bloodstream, which are foreign to her immune system. In response, she develops antibodies to neutralize them. These antibodies are then released on future male foetuses and may neutralize Y-linked antigens, which play a role in brain masculinization, leaving areas of the brain responsible for sexual attraction in the female-typical A Sociological Perspective On Homosexuality, or attracted to men. The more sons a mother has will increase the levels of these antibodies, more info creating the observed fraternal birth order effect.

Biochemical evidence to support this effect was confirmed in a lab study infinding that mothers with a gay son, particularly those with older brothers, had heightened levels of antibodies to the NLGN4Y Y-protein than mothers with heterosexual sons.

Michael Bailey has described maternal immune responses as "causal" of male homosexuality. Socialization theories, which were dominant in the s, favored the idea that children were born "undifferentiated" and were socialized into gender roles and sexual orientation. This led to medical experiments in which newborn and infant boys were surgically A Sociological Perspective On Homosexuality into girls after accidents such as botched circumcisions. These males were then reared and raised as females without telling the boys, which, contrary to expectations, did not make them feminine nor attracted to men.

All published cases providing sexual orientation grew up to be strongly attracted to women. The failure of these experiments demonstrate that socialization effects does not induce feminine type behavior in males, nor make them attracted to men, and that the organizational effects of hormones on the fetal brain prior to birth have permanent effects.

These are indicative of 'nature', not nurture, at least with regards to male sexual orientation.

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The sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area SDN-POA is a key region of the A Sociological Perspective On Homosexuality which differs between males and females in humans and a number of mammals e. Dissection studies found that gay men had significantly smaller sized INAH-3 than heterosexual males, which is shifted in the female typical direction, a finding first demonstrated by neuroscientist Simon LeVaywhich has been replicated.

Dissection of ram brains also found a similar smaller feminized structure in homosexually oriented rams compared to heterosexually oriented rams in the equivalent brain region to the human SDN, the ovine sexually dimorphic nucleus oSDN. Other studies in humans have relied on brain imaging technology, such as research lead by Ivanka Savic which compared hemispheres of the brain. In heterosexual women, the two hemispheres were the same size.

In gay men, the two hemispheres were also the same size, or sex Slciological, while in lesbians, the right hemispheres were slightly larger than the left, indicating a small shift in the male direction. A model proposed by evolutionary geneticist William R. Rice argues that a misexpressed epigenetic modifier of testosterone sensitivity or insensitivity that affected development of the brain can explain homosexuality, and can best explain twin discordance.

Multiple genes have been found to play a role in sexual orientation.]