Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation refers to the sex or gender of people who are the focus of a person's amorous or erotic desires, fantasies, and spontaneous feelings, the gender(s) toward which one is primarily "oriented". The alternative terms sexual preference and sexual inclination have similar meanings. Clinicians and those who believe sexuality is fixed early in life tend to use the former term; those believing sexuality is fluid and reflects preference and choice tend towards the latter terms.

Sexual orientation as a "construction"

Because sexual orientation is complex and multi-dimensional, some academics and researchers (especially in Queer studies) have argued that sexual orientation is a completely historical and social construction. In 1976 the historian Michel Foucault argued that homosexuality as a concept did not exist as such in the 18th century; that people instead spoke of "sodomy" (which involved specific sexual acts regardless of the sex of the actors) as a crime that was often ignored but sometimes punished severely (see sodomy law).

Related Topics:
Queer studies - 1976 - Michel Foucault - Homosexuality - 18th century - Sodomy law

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He further argued that it was in the 19th century that homosexuality came into existence as practitioners of emerging sciences and arts sought to classify and analyze different forms of sexuality. Finally, Foucault argues that it was this emerging discourse that allowed some to claim that homosexuality as a human identity.

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Foucault's suggestions about Western sexuality led other historians and anthropologists to abandon the 19th century project of classifying different forms of sexual behavior or sexual orientation to a new project that asks "what is sexuality and how do people in different places and at different times understand their bodies and desires?"

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For example, they have argued that the famous case of some Melanesian societies in which adult men and pre-pubescent and adolescent boys engage in oral sex is not comparable to similar acts in the United States or Europe; that Melanesians do not understand or explain such acts in terms of sexual desire or as a sexual behavior, and that it in fact reflects a culture with a very different notion of sex, sexuality, and gender.

Related Topics:
United States - Europe

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Some historians have made similar claims about homosexuality in ancient Greece; that behaviors that appear to be homosexual in modern Western societies may have been understood by ancient Greeks in entirely different ways.

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At stake in these new views are two different points. One is the claim that human sexuality is extraordinarily plastic, and that specific notions about the body and sexuality are socially constructed. The other is the fundamentally anthropological claim of cultural relativism: that human behavior should be interpreted in the context of its cultural environment, and that the language of one culture is often inappropriate for describing practices or beliefs in another culture. A number of contemporary scholars who have come to reject Foucault's specific arguments about Western sexuality nevertheless have accepted these basic theoretical and methodological points.

Related Topics:
Anthropological - Relativism

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Critics of the strong social constructionism view generally hold that Focault?s ideas are out-dated and have been proven inaccurate by means of scientific inquiry and fruther historical exploration of sexuality in cultures.

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For example, the notion of sexual orientation being a human construct is seen to contradict current mainstream scientific findings that those of different orientations are anatomically distinct from each other and that is why they have their own separate attractions, i.e., a man who exclusively loved other men in ancient Greece is biologically homosexual, being that certain physical body parts are different in homosexuals when compared to heterosexuals, just as a man who identifies as gay in modern times is the same scientifically speaking. These medical findings however are not uncontroversial themselfes.

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Sexuality historians in modern times are increasingly abandoning the construction view. Louis Crompton has argued that if Focault were still alive today he would revise his thesis in light of the scientific factors found largely after his death and due to recently studied historical documents that shed light on exclusive homosexuality.

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For example, during Focault's time it was largely thought that all ancient Greek men practiced bisexuality in the institution of pederasty, however greater scholarship on the subject shows that, indeed, a minority of Greek males never married and continued to have sex exclusively with other men of their own age. And other findings include that during the Middle Ages in Europe when sodomy was harshly prosecuted sub-cultures developed of men who loved other men and often these men identified with each other in a community, something analogous to the modern gay identity.

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For more information, see:

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• Queer theory
• Genetics and sexual orientation
• Environment, choice, and sexual orientation