Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

Study led by A/Prof Menelaos Apostolou, team @Uni_of_Nicosia only one woman. Begins by arguing sexuality is about reproduction. Incorrect.

Human behaviour is complex. One of a range of possible motivations & outcomes of sexual behaviour may be reproduciton, but not main reason

Throughout human history, various societies manage sexuality & reproduction in diverse ways. Main commonality is they're socially controlled

For example, various technologies have been used to sequester sexuality from reproduction. E.g. in Western culture https://www.amazon.com/Transformation-Intimacy-Sexuality-Eroticism-Societies/dp/0804722145 …

Let's go back to rubbish evo psych study. As you see, premise that sex is primarily about reproduction is flawed, reflecting cultural bias

Study seeks to explain why same-sex attraction exists, given this does not lead to reproduction. Ignores that LGBTQIA people also want kids

Ignores that not all heterosexual people (just as not all LGBTQIA people) want kids. Ignores that asexual people don't desire sex.

Study's quoted proportions on sexual *attraction* for Greece (where study was conducted) match other OECD nations like Australia:

Study: 3–8% of Greek men & 14–15% of identify as heterosexual but experience same sex attraction; 0.5–5% of men & 2–4% of women are bisexual

Study picks up same trend we see in OECD nations: more women *report* same-sex attraction. Researchers want to know why & jump to evolution

There is plethora of research that already explains this: it is *relatively* more socially acceptable for women to admit same-sex attraction

#Sociology studies 3 broad elements of sexuality: identity, attraction and behaviour. These 3 do not always match up in ways people expect.

People may have heterosexual identity but experience desire for same gender, or may have one or several sexual encounters with same gender

Heterosexual women are more willing to report same sex attraction & have acted on it. Hetero men less likely to act on same sex attraction

Heterosexual men experience higher psychosocial distress when they have same sex attraction because homophobia is stronger for them

Norms about desire in Western culture have changed over time, shaping sexual behaviour. Women's sexuality was once pathologised as excessive

Laws governing age of sexual consent today are different for hetero people, gay men & lesbians because of the legacy of Queen Victoria

Queen would not consider that women would have sex with women, so medicalisation of homosexuality initially focused on men. ∴ different laws

Over time, as fiction & pornography changed, heterosexual male norms appropriated women having sex with women as a sexual fantasy.

Back to the study: it asks: why do more women report attraction to women? Well, sexuality studies have answered this: sanctions have changed

While it is more socially acceptable for women to report same-gender attraction, the sanctions are tougher on lesbians & bisexual women

That is heterosexual women may fantasise & act on same-gender attraction, but they do so b/c it doesn't really disrupt heterosexual identity

Greek study does not take this into account. Instead, it argues that men's desire & approval of seeing women together is evolutionary drive

So its hypothesis is already flawed: it forces an evolutionary perspective that does not take into history & culture, as I've just shown.

Study begins by considering that same-gender attraction in women may be a genetic mutation. To put it another way: that it's abnormal. WRONG

Taking a leaf out of Queen Victoria handbook, study does not consider gay men's sex with empiricism or how gay sex fits with this evo theory