More information about:

Sex, Cells, and Same-Sex Desire:
The Biology of Sexual Preference

Edited by John P. De Cecco and David Allen Parker

Skip to my abstract

Skip to table of contents

Sex, Cells, and Same-Sex Desire: The Biology of Sexual Preference describes, reviews, and questions recent biological research on sexual preference. These essays by knowledgeable scientists and scholars in the social sciences and humanities place such research within the emerging field of queer studies, with mixed success.

The essays are divided into sections discussing historical and conceptual background; sexual preference and the roles of heredity, hormones, and the brain; and questions of mislabeling, social stigma, science, and medicine.

The issues involved are wide-ranging and remain the subject of much controversy. The contributors to this book demystify biological research on sexual preference and make it accessible to readers unfamiliar with it and its terminology -- albeit in a way which usually suggests the limits, rather than the possibilities, of biological models. It's too bad that no one thinks to write a book deconstructing environmentalistic theories of sexual orientation.

Also published as Journal of Homosexuality, v.28, nos.1/2/3/4, 1995.

volutionary biologists are tired of being accused of being too biologically deterministic, by critics who have little understanding of what biological or evolutionary theories actually imply. Misunderstandings came about because social-science disciplines often do not share evolutionary biology's tendency to build into their models multiple "normal" paths of development. Sociobiologists first explained homosexuality adaptively because they first try to explain everything adaptively. Most nonbiologists are unaware of this very strong evolutionary tradition.

It is now fashionable to discount scientific objectivity, but there are many examples of where such an attack is unwarranted. Kinsey produced a nontypological theory of sexual orientation in spite of his history as a taxonomist. Sociobiologists produced a nonpathological explanation of nonreproductive homosexuality in spite of the centrality of reproductive success in their models.

In judging whether a discipline is particularly likely to be misused in social debates, one must perform the appropriate intellectual "controls." One must examine appropriate uses as well as misuses, and one must examine other disciplines to see whether there are differences in the relative likelihood of abuse. Indeed, many social-science theories have been even more clearly abused than biological ones.

To order this book from Amazon Books (the hardcover at a substantial discount), click the bookstore link.

Table of Contents

0.	Preface	11.	Biomedical Concepts of Homosexuality: Folk Belief in a White Coat By Louis J. G. Gooren
1.	The Biology of Homosexuality: Sexual Orientation or Sexual Preference? By John P. De Cecco and David Allen Parker
		12.	Hormones and Sexual Orientation: A Questionable Link By Amy Banks and Nanette K. Gartrell
2.	On the History of Biological Theories of Homosexuality By Rainer Herrn
3.	Homosexuality, Biology, and Ideology By Gunter Haumann	13.	Does Peace Prevent Homosexuality? By Gunter Schmidt and Ulrich Clement
4.	Female or Male: The Classification of Homosexuality and Gender By Nelly Oudshoorn	14.	Brain Research, Gender, and Sexual Orientation By D. F. Swaab, L. J. G. Gooren, and M. A. Hofman
5.	A Critique of the Possibility of Genetic Inheritance of Homosexual Orientation By James D. Haynes	15.	Science and Belief: Psychobiological Research on Sexual Orientation By William Byne
6.	Is Homosexuality Genetic? A Critical Review and Some Suggestions By Terry R. McGuire	16.	Sexuality in the Brain By Ruth G. Doell
7.	Wilson's Panchreston: The Inclusive Fitness Hypothesis of Sociobiology Re-Examined By Mildred Dickemann	17.	Biology of Bisexuality: Critique and Observations By Paul H. Van Wyk and Chrisann S. Geist
8.	Sexual Preference and Altruism By Debra Salais and Robert B. Fischer	18.	Dexterity and Sexuality: Is There a Relationship? By John A. Hamill
9.	Biological Research on Sexual Orientation: A Critique of the Critics By James D. Weinrich	19.	Policing "Perversions": Depo-Provera and John Money's New Sexual Order By Daniel C. Tsang
10.	Animal Models for the Development of Human Sexuality: A Critical Evaluation By Anne Fausto-Sterling	20.	Sexual Expression: A Global Perspective By David Allen Parker and John P. De Cecco
		21.	Glossary and Index

---

---

Copyright ©1997 James D. Weinrich.

Looks best on Netscape viewers (version 3.0 or later), but should work OK with most browsers.