If You Seduce a Straight Person, Can You Make Them Gay?
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The debate on whether or not people are born homosexual (biological essentialist theory) or become homosexual during the course of their lives (social constructionist theory) continues as each side claims to prove the truth through research and clinical findings. This breakthrough book shows the fissures in concepts of the gay and lesbian identity and the one-sidedness of both biological essentialist and social constructionist versions of both sexual and gender identity. The editors present an alternative view—sexual and gender expression is a product of complementary biological, personal, and cultural influences in If You Seduce a Straight Person, Can You Make Them Gay?Through theoretical analysis, ethnographic and empirical data, and case studies, the editors show how the one-sidedness of both biological essentialist and social constructionist versions of sexual and gender identity make it difficult, if not impossible, to conceptually determine the origin of an individual’s sexual expression. This thought-provoking book covers many topics that are sure to cause readers to re-evaluate their thinking about the origins of gay and lesbian identity. Among the topics examined with this fresh perspective are:• *Childhood Cross-Gender Behavior and Adult Homosexuality• *Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Coming Out• *Homosexuality, Marriage, Fidelity, and the Gay Community: Case of Gay Husbands• *Can Seduction Make Straight Men Gay?• *Gay and Lesbian Identities in Non-industrialized Societies—Surinam (Dutch New Guinea), Turkey, Nicaragua, and Argentina• *Political-Economic Construction of Gay Male IdentitiesReaders will clearly see that the controversy over the being born gay or becoming gay debate is far from resolved. From the beginning, the book explores how human beings are less constrained by biology than many would like to believe. Social circumstances and economics cause some determination of identity, but not exclusively. Theoretical introductions to each chapter attempt to synthesize elements on both sides of this most contemporary debate. Booknews Arguing that homosexuality is a combination of biological and cultural factors, 16 papers discuss gender and sexual identity from biological and political perspectives, its fluidity, and gays and lesbians in the third world. Most of the papers were presented at a 1987 conference in Amsterdam. Paper edition (1-56023-034-7), $19.95. Also published as The Journal of Homosexuality. Vol 24, nos. 3/4. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
PrefaceIIntroductionA Critique and Synthesis of Biological Essentialism and Social Constructionist Views of Sexuality and Gender1IIBiological Issues in Gender and Sexual IdentityEssentialism, Which Essentialism? Some Implications of Reproductive and Genetic Techno-Science27Childhood Cross-Gender Behavior and Adult Homosexuality: The Resurgence of Biological Models of Sexuality41Reproductive Strategies and Gender Construction: An Evolutionary View of Homosexualities55The Social Construction of Homosexuals in the Nineteenth Century: The Shift from the Sin to the Influence of Medicine on Criminalizing Sodomy in Germany73IIIPolitically Incorrect IdentitiesThe Construction of Identities as a Means of Survival: Case of Gay and Lesbian Teachers95Gay Fathers in Straight Marriages107Homosexuality and Marriage115IVFluidity of Sexual IdentityCan Seduction Make Straight Men Gay?125The Freudian Construction of Sexuality: The Gay Foundations of Heterosexuality and Straight Homophobia137VGay and Lesbian Identities in the Third WorldMati-ism and Black Lesbianism: Two Idealtypical Expressions of Female Homosexuality in Black Communities of the Diaspora145Homosexuality and Police Terror in Turkey159In Nicaragua: Homosexuality Without a Gay World171Invertidos Sexuales, Tortilleras, and Maricas Machos: The Construction of Homosexuality in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1900-1950183VICapitalism and the Gay IdentityPolitica-Economic Construction of Gay Male Clone Identity221The Mineshaft: A Retrospective Ethnography233Index253
