What do we know and not know about sexuality and gender? What happens if people make ill-informed decisions about their sexuality?
Human sexuality is a multifaceted and massively complex phenomenon. Heterosexuality, the attraction to individuals of the opposite sex, is, and as far as we can tell throughout history, by far the most common sexual orientation.
A veritable A-Z of human sexuality does and seems always to have existed. The next most common forms of sexuality, in order, are bisexuality, homosexuality, and asexuality. With around 33%, 7% and 2%, respectively. The precise percentages are not known, mainly because of the private nature of sexuality.
There are a vast number of variations and expressions of sexuality. For instance, some people prefer sex between equals. Others prefer one partner to be more dominant or passive. Some prefer role or gender fluidity. Some prefer role plays. The interplay between sexuality and gender has endless variations. Indeed, any sexual interest that you can think of, or anyway of expressing that interest, probably exists in at least some people.
This will seem like an odd question: what causes sexuality? Yes, we can say simplistically restate the observation that sexuality is based on the biological urge to procreate. That does not explain the wide variety of sexual interests of gender identities. Many factors seem to be in play.
The involved biological factors in sexuality include genetics, hormones, and brain structure. In trying to understand human behaviour, twin studies are a rich source of information.
Studies of twins have shown that monozygotic (identical) twins are more likely to share the same sexual orientation than bizygotic (fraternal) twins. That suggests a genetic component to sexuality. But there are many cases where one identical twin is heterosexual and the other is homosexual, which indicates that there are factors involved that are stronger than their shared identical genes.
Hormonal factors during gestation (prenatal development) seem also involved in the formation of sexual orientation. For example, exposure to higher levels of androgens in the womb has been linked to increased rates of homosexuality in both males and females. There, too, the picture is incomplete. If hormonal factors were determinative, there would be no identical twins with different sexualities since they were subjected to the same hormones during gestation.
Some theorists have suggested that brain structure and function may also vary between individuals with different sexual orientations. Even where differences can be found, it is far from clear whether such variation is causal, consequential, or a mediating factor.
It is entirely possible, given that the brain is highly plastic (it changes depending on experience), that any brain differences detected happen as a result of a different sexuality emerging, that is, they are consequential and not causal.
As if those weren’t enough uncertainties, then there is the added complexity of epigenetics. For a century and a half, it was thought that our genes were fixed and they determined who and what we are. Anyone who suggested otherwise was ridiculed and lampooned, as was Lamark. He suggested that genes could be altered by experience and environment.
It turns out he was right. That field of study is called epigenetics. Our genes and their expressions can be changed. Of course, that makes perfect evolutionary sense. The chances of survival of any genome are greater if it can adapt itself to its environment than if the genome was dependent on natural selection based on mere random variation.
Add to that biological complexity the vast diversity of the gut microbiome. We are only just beginning to understand some of the microbiome’s impacts on and interactions with other bodily systems and organs. Given its pervasive nature, it is unlikely in the extreme that the biome has no effect on sexuality.
We are a very long way from understanding the biological basis of human sexuality variation.
The role of social and environmental factors
It seems that social and environmental factors are also heavily involved in the variety of human sexuality. It is equally reasonable to think that biological factors and social and environmental factors interact to shape sexuality. Given that we don’t even understand the biological basis, we are headed for even more uncertainty when we start to look at the other factors.
Culture, social norms, and personal experiences can shape how a person’s sexuality is created and expressed. In some cultures, homosexuality and non-binary gender is stigmatised or criminalised. That can force people to suppress or conceal their sexual orientation or gender identity. You can imagine what psychological damage it could do to a person who is so coerced.
Throughout history and across all known societies, there have been bisexual, homosexual, asexual, and transgender people (of various kinds). The approximate numbers remain constant regardless of cultural suppression. For instance, even in countries where there are widespread claims that such variation in human sexuality does not exist, it is alive to almost the same extent as elsewhere but is usually hidden.
That is, cultural factors cannot and do not prevent what seems to be a human constant: in each generation there is a wide range of sexuality and gender preferences.
Childhood experiences, such as relationships with parents and peers, can also influence sexual orientation. Both highly dysfunctional and beneficial relationships could, in theory, create variations in sexuality.
If, as some researchers have claimed, early childhood trauma or abuse causes other than mainstream sexualities to emerge, we would not expect to see anything other than heterosexuality when people had come through childhood with no trauma or abuse. Yet we do. Trauma cannot be the explanation for variations in sexuality, at least not on its own. The level of complexity in understanding human sexuality and its causes alone is huge.
How much more so when we add in gender identity variation? What is the interplay between sexuality and gender? To answer that question, we need to define what each term means.
“Sexuality” refers to a person’s sexual orientation; their pattern of romantic, sexual, or emotional attraction to others. In brief, sexuality is what category of person (or entity, or neither) a person is attracted to.
“Gender” refers to the social and cultural roles, behaviours, and identities typically associated with being male, female, or another gender (around 2% to 3% of people have chromosomal variations that make their gender not as clear as for others).
Gender identity is distinct from sex, which refers to biological differences such as chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy. That is, there are feminine men, macho women, and men and women who have the characteristics of both genders in some contexts but not in others. There are macho men who play the female role sexually, and effeminate men who are socially submissive yet are hyper-heterosexual.
Sexuality and gender, while in some cases they appear to be independent variables, in most cases they are interconnected, and they often influence each other. For example, a person’s sexual orientation may impact their gender identity, and vice versa. While there are many theories, quite how that interaction works or is shaped is currently beyond our understanding.
Both gender and sexuality are fluid in the sense that people can experience changes in their sexual orientation or gender identity over time and context. It is not uncommon for people to move from being heterosexual to homosexual and back again. For instance, some of those who are imprisoned become “prison gay”, and immediately upon release are exclusively heterosexual.
Social and cultural pressures can change how a person perceives their sexuality and gender. For instance, in some cultures where being attracted to the same sex has been historically stigmatised, some people will perceive themselves to be the opposite gender to their biological sex.
It could be that gender identifying in such a way makes their sexuality more acceptable to them and to society. One fairly robust finding is that 80% of people who present as being gender dysphoric turn out to be homosexual. That could be indicating that they initially conflated or confused gender and sexuality.
The mental and emotional distress experienced by people who have not accepted their sexuality or are persecuted for having a non-majority sexuality is severe. People who are not sexuality and gender-conforming are hugely more likely to experience mental health problems, mostly caused, it seems, by social prejudice and ostracisation.
Throughout history, vast numbers of people whose self-perceived gender or sexuality is different from the most common have taken their own lives, at huge cost to society. For instance, the father of computing, the person who led the breaking of the enigma code and thus saved probably millions of lives and enabled the war against totalitarianism to be won, Alan Turing, took his own life after being persecuted (in a totalitarian way), by the British state for his homosexuality, even though his persecutors knew of the enormity of his war contribution.
We can only imagine what benefit Alan Turing could have brought to his country and the world if he had been understood, supported, or at least accepted. Would the UK, not the US, now be the home of the world’s largest and wealthiest computing companies?
The history of attempts to explain the variety of human sexuality and gender identity is littered with failed theories. Even the ‘theories’ that are most plausible, for example, the interactionist theory, are no more than observation passing off as explanation.
The interactionist theory suggests that combinations of biological and social factors explain the development of sexual orientation and that biological predispositions interact with social and environmental factors to shape individual sexual identities.
That is no more than a statement of the blindingly obvious. There is no coherent explanation of how the vast numbers of involved variables interact or why they are causal in some circumstances and not in others. In short, we are utterly clueless about how the variations in sexuality and gender identity come about.
Other than saying: “It is evolutionarily advantageous or genetically predisposed,” we can’t even answer the question: “What causes heterosexuality.” We are gender and sexuality ignorami.
What happens if people make ill-informed decisions about their sexuality? Given how little we know, ill-informed decisions at a state and individual level are entirely understandable, maybe even inevitable.
Here is a logical analysis based on what little we know. If a person is naturally heterosexual and they are secure in their own sexuality, they are unlikely to feel threatened by the sexuality of others.
If a person doubts their own heterosexuality and fears that they may be bisexual or homosexual to some degree, they seem more likely to be prejudiced toward sexual minorities.
A person who finds themselves attracted to their own sex, depending on social and cultural factors, may discover it easier to claim they are a “man trapped inside a woman’s body” than accept that they are homosexual in a prejudiced world.
Young females, upon becoming aware of and regularly witnessing the misogyny around them, may decide that they would rather be male. That can start a chain of mental and emotional habits that leads to the enduring conviction that they are male and can’t function unless society sees them as male.
If that pathology is met with collusion by the dangerous trans idealogues in the health care sector, the young girl can be put on puberty blockers and set on a surgical path that will sterilise them and leave them anorgasmic for life. Not accepting our gender can have devastating consequences.
The same fate can await effeminate boys who are deeply distressed at being teased for their effeminacy. They learn about trans people and decide that they are female inside. They, too, can be subjected to misguided “affirmative only” policy idealogues and set on a path to sterilisation and be rendered anorgasmic life, long before they are capable of understanding what joy an orgasm can bring.
There are also severe risks of nerve damage and urinary tract and bladder problems for both M2F and F2M gender dysphorics who are encouraged to go down the surgery route without any attempt to help them accept their differences in a less risky and permanent way.
Conflating gender with sexuality seems to apply to 80% of people who initially present with gender dysphoria. That is, they eventually settle for being same-sex attracted and shed their ideas of “being trapped inside the wrong body”.
There are countless cases of young people having their first sexual awakenings without understanding what is going on, resulting in substantial psychological, emotional, or physical harm. For instance, a girl is having her first period and being traumatised by the sudden appearance of what appears to be vast amounts of blood.
The pubescent boy who suddenly wakes up thinking he has wet his bed or that something is wrong with his genitalia can be similarly traumatised.
Trauma induced by a lack of understanding can be caused by deliberately misleading young people. Teenagers of both genders masturbate and explore their sexuality with friends and through fantasy. If they are made to feel guilty about an entirely natural process, as their hormones dramatically increase their sex drive, the emotional and psychological damage can be severe.
It can be no less distressing for adults who experience a reduction in their sexuality. For instance, the man who can no longer perform sexually and feels that his masculinity has left him. Or the post-menopausal woman with similar identity challenges.
Not understanding our sexuality and gender can cause harm in all sorts of other ways. The antidote is education. Not just the cursory sex education provided in schools, but self-education in the changes that can and do take place over the course of our lives. The changes in our sexual tastes. The changes in levels of masculinity or femininity. The changes in our sex drive.
Understanding and acknowledging the reality of our sexuality and gender are essential for our well-being.
Professor Nigel MacLennan runs the performance coaching practice PsyPerform.
