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Author Topic: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer  (Read 3683 times)

Altair

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Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« on: June 12, 2012, 10:54:59 pm »
Fascinating.

Why Are There Gay Men? Because Women Who Inherit 'Gay Genes' Have More Kids, Scientists Say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/why-are-there-gay-men_n_1590501.html

I'll add--completely unscientifically--that those gay uncles are great for helping to raise all those kids, adding another evolutionary advantage.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

Lokabrenna

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2012, 12:11:35 am »
Quote from: Altair;59797
Fascinating.

Why Are There Gay Men? Because Women Who Inherit 'Gay Genes' Have More Kids, Scientists Say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/why-are-there-gay-men_n_1590501.html

I'll add--completely unscientifically--that those gay uncles are great for helping to raise all those kids, adding another evolutionary advantage.

 
Is there a similar theory explaining the existence of lesbians? We've been around for a long time too!

Aine Rayne

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2012, 02:14:16 am »
Quote from: Lokabrenna;59802
Is there a similar theory explaining the existence of lesbians? We've been around for a long time too!

 
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2563-gay-women.html

here ya go :D
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Altair

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2012, 09:57:26 am »
Quote from: Aine Rayne;59816
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2563-gay-women.html

here ya go :D

 
Well, that was disappointing; I was hoping for an equally intriguing theory on the genetic roots of lesbianism, and it's just not there, at least not in this article.

I'll add that there are also plenty of bisexual guys, though I'll agree that as a whole guys are more polarized about sexual orientation. Note, however, that guys can also "flip" their sexual orientation under certain environmental conditions; witness otherwise heterosexual men in prison settings.

Finally--totally off-topic--the copy editor in me loves the typo in the sentence "sexuality is essentially fixed from puberty onroughout their lives" [should have been "on throughout"]. It's a great accidental contraction and should be adopted as a legitimate word in the English language. From now onroughout [pronounced the same as "en route"] my life I'm going to use it.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

Kessei

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2012, 09:08:17 pm »
Quote from: Altair;59797
Why Are There Gay Men? Because Women Who Inherit 'Gay Genes' Have More Kids, Scientists Say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/why-are-there-gay-men_n_1590501.html

 
I was laughing earlier about the sexism in the way the study's creators were analyzing the data.

Women who are more fertile, have fewer gynecological problems, and have easier childbirth, are therefore more attractive to men, which in turn results in them having more children. Seriously? It's not, say, "women who have an easier time in childbirth or get pregnant more easily are more likely to choose to have more children"? No, it's all about the mens wanting to get with their sexy, fecund femaleness. :sick:

Valentine

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2012, 02:55:17 pm »
Quote from: Lokabrenna;59802
Is there a similar theory explaining the existence of lesbians? We've been around for a long time too!

 
That's funny, because my kneejerk answer to "Why are there gay men?" was,
"...so us ladies don't have to carry all of the gayness for humanity, I mean, it always falls to women to pick up the slack..."
"Let be be finale of seem." - Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"
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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2012, 06:05:44 pm »
Quote from: Kessei;59947
Women who are more fertile, have fewer gynecological problems, and have easier childbirth, are therefore more attractive to men, which in turn results in them having more children. Seriously? It's not, say, "women who have an easier time in childbirth or get pregnant more easily are more likely to choose to have more children"? No, it's all about the mens wanting to get with their sexy, fecund femaleness.


I read this exactly the same way.  Like "There's nothing less attractive than a difficult birth..."  What the hell?

Brina

Sharysa

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2012, 06:57:29 pm »
Quote from: yewberry;60093
I read this exactly the same way.  Like "There's nothing less attractive than a difficult birth..."

Have these people seen a NORMAL birth? I saw one of those "Miracles of Life" documentaries in sex-ed, and it turned me off having kids for YEARS. Like hell if giving birth is a MIRACLE.

Admittedly I was sixteen, but still.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2012, 06:58:02 pm by Sharysa »
On hiatus, but might pop in now and then. Just making it official.

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Aine Rayne

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #8 on: June 17, 2012, 04:15:07 am »
Quote from: Sharysa;60097
Have these people seen a NORMAL birth? I saw one of those "Miracles of Life" documentaries in sex-ed, and it turned me off having kids for YEARS. Like hell if giving birth is a MIRACLE.

Admittedly I was sixteen, but still.

 
I found a better, though still less adequate than the one on dudes, article for why lesbians and bi women exist. Here it is
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Owl

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #9 on: June 18, 2012, 05:46:57 pm »
Quote from: Sharysa;60097
Have these people seen a NORMAL birth? I saw one of those "Miracles of Life" documentaries in sex-ed, and it turned me off having kids for YEARS. Like hell if giving birth is a MIRACLE.

Admittedly I was sixteen, but still.


My sister made us all watch the birth of her first on video - I had 2 kids already and it made me uncomfortable.  My brother just shut his eyes a lot - he was kinda squicked out with the shots of his sister's genital area.  As was I.
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

Altair

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Re: Why Are There Gay Men? Science Has an Answer
« Reply #10 on: June 18, 2012, 07:07:54 pm »
Quote from: Aine Rayne;60423
I found a better, though still less adequate than the one on dudes, article for why lesbians and bi women exist. Here it is

 
Slightly better, though the author's use of "drones" is maddeningly inaccurate (which doesn't boost confidence in the science). The term drone in bees is used specifically for the males, who do their one-time copulation thing and are otherwise of little use. (Apparently they get ejected from the hive, too.) The term the author wanted was worker bee.

Still, the concept of individuals forgoing reproduction themselves in order to assist close relatives in raising young is well known in lots of species (e.g., crows). It's similar to the "grandmother" theory. (Why do female humans go through menopause, when most other female animals stay fertile throughout their lives? The thinking is that in a species for which rearing the young is as extended and labor-intensive as ours, having nonreproductive females around to assist and guide younger females confers a survival benefit. It takes a village and all that.)

It's not as tidy an explanation for homosexuality as the one that's been offered for that in us guys, but for now I guess it will have to do.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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