----- Original Message -----
From: "Damien Broderick" <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au>
> Do you assume that your own brain was feminized in utero, even though
> your body (evidently) wasn't?
I don't know. It certainly seems that way, subjectively... like it is "hard
wired" but I suspect that it would seem that way even if it is software
rather than hardware.
As an explanation, the "mistimed hormone wash resulting in a cross sexed
brain" has a certain appeal... but that doesn't mean it's actually true.
In the long run, it doesn't matter. I accept what IS and deal with it in as
extropian a way as possile.
> Do you think that those people who choose to switch later in life (several
> of my gfs and old pals are now elective lesbians, after years of
> heterosexuality) must always have been pre-wired to make the move?
Sexuality and sexual orientation can be almost as divisive a topic as
religion or politics. My own thoughts are that most humans have the
capacity to be bi-sexual though generally one type of attraction is
dominate. The number of purely heterosexual or homosexual individuals is
relatively small.
I do believe that sexual orientation is pre-programed... And the most common
program is "anything that moves".
In the case of the "elective lesbians" you mentioned, there are several
possibilities. The best way to find out is to simply ask them. It could be
that they had always been attracted exclusively to women but were too scared
to admit it before. It could be the are actually bisexual and simply tired
of putting up with males at this point (it isn't easy, given the average
male out there), or it could have come as a total shock and delight to them
that this shift has happened.
I do believe the queer political community downplays the role of free will
and choice in it's official stance on sexual orientation... just as much as
their opposites, the religious right, overplay them.
> This
> seems to me perhaps as dangerous a preconception as the purely socially
> constructed variety. I *do* think we, or some of us, have the ability to
> expand or specialise our sexual desires, up to a point.
I think most of us do.
> (I personally can't
> find it imaginable to feel gay desire, which narrows my chances dismally.
> But marooned on Mars with the other guys in an all-male crew, maybe I'd
> eventually get more sentimental about my buds...)
It's possible. Given the incidence of homsexual encounters among "straight"
men in isolated all male populations, I'd say it's even probable <G>.
I think you should go slow though... don't even think about sex with another
man at this point, rather consider finding a person who is someplace between
male and female.
Know any?
Loree
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