On Mon, 6 Oct 2003, Luke Weiger wrote:
> Further, you had
> better believe that heterosex is "natural" in the same sense that it's
> natural (not to be confused with necessary or good) for virtually all male
> and female dogs to screw at certain times if given the opportunity.
>
> -- Luke
I think it's very important to distinguish what Luke's conflating here: sexual acts and sexual identities. Being "heterosexual" is not simply engaging in heterosexual sex acts; it is an identity and a social status. Diverse sexual acts are clearly common among human beings. However, the dichomization of people into sexual types (het/homo) is a social accomplishment. For instance, the majority of gays/lesbians (up to 80% in some surveys) report that they have had "hetero" sex, and they have no problem self-identifying as gay/lesbian! When people like me say "sexuality is socially constructed", this is what we mean: the translation of sexual activity into sexual identity is historically and culturally contingent, not natural and necessary.
Miles