On Fri, 15 Jul 2005, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> If Miles has a problem with the idea that human sexual
> behavior and the range of preference involves a
> spectrum, I'm not sure what it is. Maybe he thinks
> and preferences even apart from sexual preference. But
> the whole POINT of the Kinsey spectrum, and Posner's
> theory, is that sexual preference, while very far from
> infinitely plastic, is highly contingent on a complesx
> of social and biological circumstance and involvesa
> much wider range of alternatives than people often
> think -- not just gay/straight/bi.
Okay, then I'm on the same page as you and P: our sexual categories (gay/straight/bi) are not natural or necessary; people engage in a wide range of sexual activities, and these activities are determined by both genetic and social factors.
> Veneer? Bullshit. It's just that 3/4 of the left can't
> hear the word biology mentioned in the same context as
> behaviort without thinking that that it's some sort of
> reactionary justification for the worst aspects of the
> existing order. They just stop thinking and repeat
> Gould and Lewontin's good arguments against other
> targets in contexts where they don't belong. I am
> sorry to see Miles put himself in the "stop thinking"
> group.
No, I promise I'm thinking. I know what Justin is talking about--the knee jerk "biology leads to reductionism leads to Auschwitz" argument is tiresome to me too. Over the years here (has it been years already!?), I've repeatedly emphasized that various psychological characteristics are influenced by genetic factors (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, sexual preferences, IQ performance). However, that's irrelevant to my point about sexual identity being a social category, not just a precipitate of psychological preferences. (One more example: even if we do find some genetic predisposition for submissive behavior, a society can only have slaves if people in that society construct slavery as an important component of their economic institution. --Slavery cannot emerge simply and solely from psychological and/or genetic predispositions. And just so with sexual identity categories.)
Miles