Yea, ok. I wasn’t saying that’s the be all end all of “natural”=but if we’re gonna argue that the pill keeps ur body in the most “natural” state, then in the context of that argument, that is FALSE. I don’t see where I denied non-hetero women. I’m stating what is known-that when you look at natural fertility populations, your body is in breastfeeding mode much more than pregnancy mode (if you can become pregnant). Still not seeing the denial of non-heteros.

But I guess my question about the studies we’re discussing here still is: if it’s true that sex is not a binary but a continuum (though I think it may be even more complex than that), how much real value do studies that shoehorn all their participants, and all the people used as examples in the stimulus materials, into rigid A or B categories have?

But if some study did find that, I don’t think it would elicit much more response than a “LOL. OK then.” from most people.

All this fucking moralising and handwringing and “women like assholes” bs, it’s reserved for studies of female sexuality. So much gets read in to so little data. The fate of the world.

Alternative theory I just pulled out of my ass: Women go for Big Dick Face (google it, it’s a gay guy’s term) at certain times of the month. It’s a subconscious way of maximising the pleasure of PIV intercourse when taking the position of the cervix into account.

Also, we live in a remarkably homophobic world, were many folks repress part of their sexuality because it’s far too scary or repulsive to contemplate same sex attraction as an aspect of one’s persona. What kind of lab results would occur in a world where people weren’t afraid of homosexuality and bisexuality? What if people worked past their transphobia and their fear of gender variance? I have a feeling that masculinity, femininity, and attraction would be viewed somewhat differently under these circumstances. I’m betting that the kinds of research that might receive attention and the kinds of questions that might be asked would shift as well.

DAVE’S RESPONSE: I completely agree. You can see the gears start to whir in students heads when you start to teach them how sex can fall on a continuum rather than a binary – a person’s genes, chromosomes, internal genitalia, external genitalia, hormone level, brain wiring, and gender identity do not always align. But in teaching them the ways that hormones influence these development, you also have to teach them how hormones organize various brain and bodily systems during development, and how they activate these systems in adulthood, and how variations in these hormone levels can influence a wide variety of behaviors. Including sexual behaviors.

CRYS T Says: I lost a lot of respect for this sort of thing when I heard an anthropologist describe a skeleton as being of a “Hispanic person.” I mean, I’ve studied language issues for 15 years, and I have never once heard that the language you speak actually marks your bones.

DAVE’S RESPONSE: I agree with you on this point when it comes to “race”. Clearly there are no discrete races, genetically speaking. These social categories get plugged into science, and a ton of money gets wasted because of it (e.g., on research looking for genetic differences between races that are associated with disease). There is genetic clustering in different regions (e.g., if you have a person’s genome, you can predict whether they came from northern europe, or south africa, or south east asia, at greater than chance levels but no where near 100% accuracy). From a forensics perspective, however, knowing the traits associated with regions is useful. For example, the fusing pattern in mandible of south east asians typically differs from individuals in europe. So if you find a skeleton, you can make a reasonable guess as to their geographic origin given a number of these different indicators.

I’m guessing I’m probably the one one who’s uncomfortable with this, but I thought I’d mention it.

I’m aware of hunter-gatherer societies. I was actually using “caveman” to refer to the earliest humans. I fully agree with you about everything else you said.