Sexual Diversity Studies

""Largely based on pre-theory that ties high testosterone (T) to masculinity, and low T to femininity, high T is mainly studied in relation to aggression, mating, sexuality, and challenge, and low T with parenting. Evidence, however, fails to support this, and the social variability in T is better accounted for by a competition–
nurturance trade-off as per the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds (van Anders et al., 2011). Four key domains are discussed: adult–infant interactions, sexual desire, sexual behavior, and partnering. Empirical engagements with gender/sex are shown to lead to important insights over assumptions about masculinity–femininity. Humans are discussed within a comparative framework that attends to cross species principles informed by human insights alongside human-specific particularities like social constructions, which are critical to evolutionary understandings of the social role of T. This paper thus integrates seemingly orthogonal perspectives to allow for transformative approaches to an empirically supported social phenomenology of T.""

This article examines debates on nudity, sexism, and pornography in the Canadian gay and lesbian newspaper The Body Politic, tracing its use of images and people’s responses to them over time. In the 1970s, concerns about sexism and the objectification of the body shaped discussions over sexual and erotic imagery. In the 1980s concerns about pornography were more current, since they mirrored the then-contemporary debates over pornography and censorship. Drawing upon archival sources and oral histories, the article argues that TBP’s visual culture—particularly its sexual and erotic imagery—played a key role in the paper’s community-building project. The article also shows how responses to images reflect a deep ambivalence, and the conflicting perspectives shaping the paper’s production and reception. While liberationist politics, feminist theory, and ideas of a “gay community” influenced the paper throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the meanings that people ascribed to such concepts were diverse and sometimes incompatible.

Testosterone (T) and other androgens are incorporated into an increasingly wide array of human sexuality research, but there are a number of issues that can affect or confound research outcomes. This review addresses various methodological issues relevant to research design in human studies with T; unaddressed, these issues may introduce unwanted noise, error, or conceptual barriers to interpreting results. Topics covered are
(1) social and demographic factors (gender and sex; sexual orientations and sexual diversity; social/familial connections and
processes; social location variables), (2) biological rhythms (diurnal variation; seasonality; menstrual cycles; aging and menopause), (3) sample collection, handling, and storage (saliva
vs. blood; sialogogues, saliva, and tubes; sampling frequency,
timing, and context; shipping samples), (4) health, medical issues, and the body (hormonal contraceptives; medications and nicotine; health conditions and stress; body composition, weight, and exercise), and (5) incorporating multiple hormones. Detailing a comprehensive set of important issues and relevant empirical evidence, this review provides a starting point for best practices in human sexuality research with T and other androgens that may be especially useful for those new to hormone research.

The view that humans comprise only two types of beings, women and men, a framework that is sometimes referred to as the “gender binary,” played a profound role in shaping the history of psychological science. In recent years, serious challenges to the gender binary have arisen from both academic research and social activism. This review describes 5 sets of empirical findings, spanning multiple disciplines, that fundamentally undermine the gender binary. These sources of evidence include neuroscience findings that refute sexual dimorphism of the human brain; behavioral neuroendocrinology findings that challenge the notion of genetically fixed, nonoverlapping, sexually dimorphic hormonal systems; psychological findings that highlight the similarities between men and women; psychological research on transgender and nonbinary individuals’ identities and experiences; and developmental research suggesting that the tendency to view gender/sex as a meaningful, binary category is culturally determined and malleable. Costs associated with reliance on the gender binary and recommendations for future research, as well as clinical practice, are outlined.

Sexual configurations theory (SCT) is a trans-inclusive theory, model, and measure of gender/sex and partnered sexuality that destabilizes ideas of universal gender truths and recognizes individuals’ authority to self-define. SCT makes space for binary and nonbinary trans existences and provides a visual medium for trans people and their partners to communicate their genders and/or sexualities with or without identity labels for themselves or others. It was published in 2015 by Sari van Anders and is rooted in trans lived experiences and scholarship, feminist and queer approaches, and marginalized and majority gender and sexual experiences. This entry summarizes the concepts in SCT and explains their relevance to trans understandings and experiences of gender, sex, and sexuality.

Eliciting direct feedback on theories and measures, particularly when they attempt to represent marginalized populations, is an important part of refining research methods and conducting culturally sensitive research. In this study, we collected reactions to and perceptions of a novel survey method using sexual configurations theory (SCT; van Anders, 2015). SCT is a theory and measure of gender/sex and sexual diversity that allows for greater nuance, flexibility, and specificity than most existing measures of gender/sex. After they had filled out SCT's gender/sex, gender, and sex diagrams, we asked participants (N ϭ 242) of diverse gender/sexes to report on their prior engagement with these concepts, their understanding of SCT, the ease/difficulty of the diagrams, and their perception of the utility of SCT. Participants reported generally understanding the concepts, and although some found the diagrams unnecessarily complicated, many saw their utility, either for describing their own gender/sex or as a tool for understanding gender/sex diversity in general. Gender/sex majorities and minorities differed in their level of prior engagement with gender/sex concepts, and accordingly, minorities found it more useful in describing themselves, whereas majorities were more likely to indicate that the study shifted their thinking around gender/sex. These findings indicate that SCT provides both challenges and opportunities for deeply engaging with gender/sex diversity and demonstrates the utility of direct feedback from community members. This article is Part 2 of a two-part report, and Part 1 contains visualizations of the ways people used SCT's diagrams (Beischel, Schudson, & van Anders, 2021). Public Significance Statement In this online survey, participants gave direct feedback about sexual configurations theory (SCT): their perception of its concepts and their reactions to its gender, sex, and gender/sex diagrams. The results indicated that using the diagrams is a challenging but productive process, with gender/sex majorities especially finding it educational and gender/sex minorities especially appreciating the nuance and flexibility SCT affords.

With co-authors: Debby Herbenick, Lori A Brotto, Emily A Harris, and Sara B Chadwick.
Low sexual desire in women partnered with men is typically presumed to be a problem-one that exists in women and encourages a research agenda on causation and treatment targeting women. In this paper, we present a distinct way forward for research on low sexual desire in women partnered with men that attends to a more structural explanation: heteronormativity. A heteronormative worldview assumes that relationships and structures are heterosexual, gender (usually conflated with sex) is binary and complementary, and gender roles fit within narrow bounds including nurturant labor for women. We propose the heteronormativity theory of low sexual desire in women partnered with men, arguing that heteronormative gender inequities are contributing factors. We outline four hypotheses and their predictions related to: inequitable divisions of household labor, blurring of partner and mother roles, objectification of women, and gender norms surrounding sexual initiation. We discuss some mechanisms-social, physiological, and otherwise-for the heteronormativity theory, especially related to stress, objectification, and nurturance. We close by noting some limitations of our paper and the ways that the heteronormativity theory of low sexual desire in women partnered with men provides a rigorous, generative, and empirical way forward.

COMS 490 – History and Theory of Media (Special Topic: Queer Media Theory). Advanced undergraduate seminar on intersections between queer and media studies, with particular emphasis on debates on the archive and affect theory. (Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University)

Prior research has documented shifts in sexual orientation identity, attractions, and partnering behavior over time and social context, commonly referred to as sexual fluidity (Diamond, 2008). Social contextual factors may include relationship status and type of relationship, and these may be particularly salient in polyamorous communities where multiple relationships and some degree of fluidity are common. Also common, and potentially important for experiences of fluidity, are nonheteronormativities and nonmononormativities. This study aimed to explore the sexual trajectories (experiences of sexual identity, sexual attractions, and sexual and romantic partnering) over time in people of diverse relational identities and genders. A sample of 55 polyamorous or otherwise consensually nonmonogamous individuals and 61 monoamorous individuals completed online questionnaires regarding sexual identity, attractions, and partnering behaviors at two time points approximately 7 months apart. Relational identity had a number of implications for sexuality. Polyamorous individuals were more likely than monoamorous participants to identify their sexuality in nonpolar and nontraditional ways. Polyamorous women shifted attraction ratings over time at a higher rate than polyamorous men or monoamorous women or men, and differences in present and ideal attractions at Time 1 partially predicted these shifts. Results indicate the importance of relational identity alongside sexual identity and gender in sexuality research.

Sexual orientation typically describes people’s sexual attractions or desires based on their sex relative to that of a target. Despite its utility, it has been critiqued in part because it fails to account for non-biological gender-related factors, partnered sexualities unrelated to gender or sex, or potential divergences between love and lust. In this article, I propose Sexual Configurations Theory (SCT) as a testable, empirically grounded framework for understanding diverse partnered sexualities, separate from solitary sexualities. I focus on and provide models of two parameters of partnered sexuality—gender/sex and partner number. SCT also delineates individual gender/sex. I discuss a sexual diversity lens as a way to study the particularities and generalities of diverse sexualities without privileging either. I also discuss how sexual identities, orientations, and statuses that are typically seen as misaligned or aligned are more meaningfully conceptualized as branched or co-incident. I map out some existing identities using SCT and detail its applied implications for health and counseling work. I highlight its importance for sexuality in terms of measurement and social neuroendocrinology, and the ways it may be useful for self-knowledge and feminist and queer empowerment and alliance building. I also make a case that SCT changes existing understandings and  conceptualizations of sexuality in constructive and generative ways informed by both biology and culture, and that it is a potential starting point for sexual diversity studies and research.

Gender/sex and sexual diversity are increasingly understood by the public as complex. But, scientific frameworks that address the
complexity of gender/sex and sexual diversity are few and not well situated for the public. Sexual configurations theory (SCT; van Anders, 2015) is one approach that provides a visual framework for understanding and measuring gender/sex and sexual diversity.
But how might knowledge users and creators actually use it? To make SCT more accessible to researchers, educators, clinicians, and the general public, we created three instructional videos (individual gender/sex, gender/sex sexuality, and partner number sexuality) that explained SCT and demonstrated how to use its diagrams. Participants (N = 242) of diverse gender/sex and sexual identities, including professionals who work in gender/sex- and sexuality-related fields, watched one of the three videos, filled out the diagrams, and evaluated the video and diagrams via scaled and open-ended questions. Results demonstrated that the SCT videos were sufficient for most participants to fill out the diagrams. Participants evaluated the video generally positively, with some variation by condition, identity group, and professional status. These results indicate that instructional videos are able to translate SCT, potentially facilitating uptake of SCT by clinicians, researchers, and educators as well as increasing awareness of gender/sex and sexual diversity more broadly within the public.

Author list is: WJ Beischel, ZC Schudson, RA Hoskin, J Mao, A Zielinksi, SM van Anders

MERGING IS SEX OBVIOUSLY,  NORMAL MERGING IS KNOWING THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF BOTH BEINGS, NO YOU OR I = ONENESS,  THE TWO ANUs MERGE – IF ONE IS AN ATTACK, THEN THE ORIGINAL ANU BECOMES SMALLER, DUMBER AND WEAKER, WHICH IS WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. 

AND - OUR "REALITY" UNMASKED

Este artículo tiene el objetivo de establecer un marco histórico de la organización social de lesbianas, gays,
bisexuales, transexuales y transgéneros (LGBT) en San Salvador, El Salvador. Asimismo, procura contribuir
al resguardo de la memoria histórica de las minorías sexuales en El Salvador. La metodología utilizada
fue la exploratoria, para recuperar la información del movimiento social y organizaciones LGBT (desde
el surgimiento de las dictaduras militares en 1932 hasta el 2015). Las técnicas de investigación fueron
las entrevistas a activistas LGBT y una búsqueda arqueológica documental. Los resultados apuntan a la
organización social de las identidades LGBT en San Salvador y conquistas políticas restringidas.

Este capítulo aborda el estudio desarrollado con el objetivo de conocer las reflexiones del futuro profesorado de Educación Primaria sobre el tratamiento de la diversidad sexual dentro del ámbito de la educación musical y el papel que otorga a la educación musical para abordar la di- versidad sexual dentro del aula mediante un pensamiento crítico en pro de la justicia social. Esta propuesta de innovación consistió en la lectura y reflexión por escrito de una serie de artículos científicos sobre la temática LGTBI en educación musical por parte de cuatro grupos de estudiantes de la asignatura “Educación Musical” del Grado en Educación Primaria de la Universidad de Granada, durante los cursos académicos 2018/2019 y 2019/2020. El análisis de contenido de los datos reflejó la toma de con- ciencia por parte del estudiantado sobre la existencia de una discriminación hacia las personas LGTBI dentro de las aulas, así como la identificación y propuesta de varias estrategias para abordar la atención a la diversidad sexual y las identidades de género desde la asignatura de Música. De esta manera, la asignatura “Educación musical” puede ampliar la visión sobre la atención a la diversidad en la escuela y suplir las ca- rencias formativas que presentan los planes de estudio de formación inicial del profe- sorado de Educación Primaria en relación con la diversidad sexual. Además, desde un enfoque de educación musical crítica se fomenta el pensamiento crítico en el aula como herramienta educativa para el aprendizaje, pero también para la reflexión de la futura práctica docente en pro de la justicia social.

Gender and sex diversity exist in humans, but are often seen as too complex for scientists to incorporate beyond a female/male binary or placement on single dimensions. Here, we demonstrate a novel method for assessing and visualizing diverse gender/sexes using diagrams adapted from sexual configurations theory (SCT; van Anders, 2015). We asked participants (N ϭ 242) with diverse gender/sex identities to locate their genders, sexes, and gender/sexes (i.e., "gender/sex configurations") by marking and writing on SCT's diagrams via an online platform. Results showed that visualizing gender/sex (a) demonstrated the complexity underlying seemingly simple gender/sexes such as "woman" and "man," and (b) provided a way to systematically describe seemingly complex gender/sexes. These findings suggest that SCT visualizations provide a way for people of diverse gender/sex identities and experiences to represent the fullness and complexity of their gender/sexes in ways that can help create a more inclusive psychological science. This article is Part 1 of a 2-part report, and Part 2 explores the ways participants reacted to and perceived SCT and this novel survey (Beischel, Schudson, & van Anders, 2021). Public Significance Statement We demonstrate a new way of visualizing gender, sex, and gender/sex via sexual configurations theory (SCT) that reveals insights into the complex nature of gender/sex categories. Our findings indicate that SCT may be a useful tool for researchers, educators, and clinicians who study and work with gender/sex diversity.

El presente trabajo explora las formas en que la masculinidad se hace presente en un boliche gay de Montevideo, Caín Dance.
Se eligió este lugar como universo de estudio, por constituir un referente fundamental entre los homosexuales montevideanos que buscan un espacio en el que socializar. Allí, las interacciones entre los concurrentes están permeadas por diversas representaciones acerca de la masculinidad y la homosexualidad, que esta investigación intenta dilucidar.
El uso del espacio y del lenguaje, la dinámica de la discoteca y los modos de interacción dentro y fuera del local, fueron elementos considerados para la adecuada observación del tema abordado.
El trabajo de campo en el local se realizó entre julio de 2007 y mayo de 2008. Diferentes instancias de participación en el ambiente gay montevideano complementaron la observación realizada en el boliche, de manera de realizar un abordaje lo más completo posible de la temática de la investigación.

Prejudice against or affirmation of gender/sex minorities is often framed in terms of beliefs about the ontology of gender/sex (i.e., what gender/sex is), or gender/sex diversity beliefs. We constructed the Gender/Sex Diversity Beliefs Scale (GSDB) to assess ontological beliefs about the nature of gender/sex, including essentialist and social constructionist beliefs, and validated the GSDB across a series of studies. In Study 1 (N = 304), we explored the factor structure of the GSDB and found evidence of associations with prejudice against transgender and/or nonbinary people. In Study 2 (N = 300), we
assessed the stability of the factor structure of the GSDB and examined its criterion-related validity, including its relationship to feelings toward multiple gender/sex groups. In Studies 3a (N = 48) and 3b (N = 500), we established test–retest reliability. We conclude that gender/sex diversity beliefs are important for understanding contemporary attitudes about gender/sex, including prejudice against gender/sex minorities, and that the GSDB is a reliable and valid way to measure them.

Este escrito trata acerca de la relación entre la ciencia y la pornografía, y de cómo en el centro de esta relación subyace una transformación de nuestro concepto del cuerpo orgánico que ha generado nuevas expresiones del deseo erótico, y nuevos caminos iconográficos para la representación sexual. Una constante predomina en esta transición: el cuerpo está siendo (re)construido por la ciencia y las ancentrales mitologías que han vinculado la reproducción están experimentando un proceso irreversible de reinvención.

"La declaración de una famosa actriz de que su hija “quiere ser un niño” –acompañada de las fotos de la pequeña con el pelo corto, luciendo un pantalón militar y corbata o portando una espada de juguete en la cintura– corrió como la pólvora por el mundo. Las reacciones no se hicieron esperar. Desde l@s que criticaron con dureza a la madre y al padre por fomentar semejante conducta, hasta l@s que consideraron que l@s niñ@s tenían que ser libres de expresar sus preferencias.
Aunque en las últimas décadas en las sociedades occidentales la idea de promover la libertad de explorar, negociar y expresar la propia identidad de género va cobrando fuerza, numerosos comportamientos se rigen predominantemente por la obediencia a las normas sociales basadas en la insistencia en una rígida correspondencia entre sexo y género. El término sexo se utiliza comúnmente para designar determinadas características biológicas y género para referirse a la identificación psicológica de una persona y a la elaboración sociocultural de sus atributos físicos, psicológicos y sociales. Esta distinción está recogida en una conocida frase que reza: “El sexo está entre las piernas, pero el género está entre las orejas”.""

Notwithstanding Gore Vidal’s praise of the story as one of the best ever written by Tennessee Williams, ‘The Knightly Quest’ (1966), a dystopian fable with a spacefaring ending, has received sparse critical attention. Largely sketched during the 1940s, the novella, a hybrid of SF and Gothic, shows Williams’s awareness of the sexual deviant’s political resistance in a world verging on totalitarianism; and, simultaneously, illustrates the author’s use of counter-narrative strategies against the normative order. In choosing apocalyptic SF Williams is reversing the logic of the favorite Cold War genre. Here the threat does not come from an external space (the alien invasion or the Russian nuclear attack) but from within: the emergence of a nation which annihilates any form of alterity and dissidence. Likewise, by making a homosexual vampire (the quintessential expression of the Jungian shadow and the polymorphous perverse) the morally superior hero of a world in its death throes and the survivor in a future utopia, Williams is granting a privileged position to the demonized Other as the savior of the American dream of limitless individual freedom.

This essay approaches the persistence of certain forms of conservatism against recent processes of social change in Brazil, related to the increasing visibility of sexual minorities in public sphere. Although many collective controversies concerning this issues emerged along the last years, I wish to adress here a topic somewhat different. I discuss conservative values embedded in conducts and judgments with wich, in everyday life,  people operate without much awareness. I intend to focus, particularly, some representations about the distinction between "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" which are connected with certain family models and beliefs about the processes of social reproduction. Could the way "heterosexuality" is routinely portrayed articulate forms of subordination of sexual diversity? I would like, through this brief reflection, to highlight some of the challenges that are posed to education professionals committed to building respect for sexual diversity and gender in Brazil.

El presente texto trata sobre un área de estudio no explorada en El Salvador, tiene como objetivo analizar el proceso de organización de identidades gays, lesbiana, bisexual, travesti, transexual, transgénero e intersexuales (LGBTI) en San Salvador entre 1992 hasta 2015. Se identifican cuatro momentos de estructuración: 1) el orgullo gay, los primeros momentos de organización en el periodo de la postguerra; 2) lo LGBTI, consolidación de identidades; 3) Diversidad Sexual, el surgimiento de un actor político y 4) Haciendo la diferencia sin ser diferentes, reconocimiento social restringido. Se utilizan los conceptos de política sexual y acciones simbólicas para el análisis de cada momento histórico propuesto. Se concluye, el movimiento social LGBTI ha promovido el cuestionamiento de los patrones binarios de la sexualidad y los esencialismos de género, por medio de acciones simbólicas. En cuanto a la política sexual se ha focalizado en la promoción de los Derechos Humanos de la población LGBT.

En una sociedad que reprime la sexualidad, castiga la diversidad sexual y menosprecia a la infancia, ser niño y homosexual –ya sin agregar otras condiciones- es todavía menos que ubicarse en una situación de doble discriminación, es hacerlo en una de inexistencia; ni siquiera es ser objeto de algo porque es ser simple imaginación de nada.
Después de una historia de negación, los estudios antropológicos más o menos recientes descubren evidencia contundente para afirmar que los niños sí son seres sexuados, que sí hay niños heterosexuales y homosexuales, que no pueden ni aprender ni curar su orientación sexual y que buscarán su expresión aun en la opresión.
También se encuentra, gracias a la psicología, que vivir una orientación sexual diversa oculta –en el closet, se dice coloquialmente- tiene consecuencias dañinas para la salud mental, física y el desarrollo social, y que a más prontitud para dejar ese estado, mejor.
¿Cómo instaurar las condiciones para evitar a las personas homosexuales esta transición? Ya no tener que salir del clóset porque nunca se entró el. Que la pregunta “¿y a ti te gustan los niños o las niñas?” sea tan común como “¿cómo te llamas?”.

Resumen El presente texto es parte de mi trabajo de tesis de maestría en Educación Física de la Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil (2015). En el mismo me propongo cuestionar si el juego puede huir de los determinismos de género. La pregunta provocativa del título, si se puede decir así, indaga si el juego en la infancia puede huir de una marcada heteronormatividad (Butler, 1999) que invade y se proclama como hegemónica en nuestros cuerpos. Reina y Cea (2005) atribuyen a los juegos ciertos estereotipos de género, en ese sentido Mc Phail Fanger (2006) va a decir que ciertos patrones se inculcan y reproducen en la infancia, resultado de esa reproducción es el que se le asigna a las niñas para jugar muñecas y a los varones autitos. La investigación fue realizada en un barrio del oeste de Montevideo, Uruguay, en el que se entrevistaron a personas adultas, padres y madres de niñas/x/os menores de 10 años de edad. La metodología utilizada fue predominantemente cualitativa, estudio de caso, donde se realizaron observaciones, entrevistas en profundidad y donde luego se relacionaron las observaciones y lo que esas personas manifestaron con la teoría. Se observó que las personas adultas mayoritariamente reproducen ciertos estereotipos de género en los juegos que realizan con sus hijxs, y son pocas las personas adultas que no reproducen patrones heteronormativos. Este trabajo pretende aumentar las investigaciones que se vienen realizando en relación al juego y la infancia, desde una perspectiva de género y diversidad sexual. 1 Este artículo es parte de mi trabajo de maestría financiada por la beca CAPES de Brasil, para docentes de la UDELAR, Uruguay.

Aunque a fines del siglo pasado el término gay se resignificó para contrarrestar el carácter patológico del concepto homosexual, también adquirió un sentido excluyente al enaltecer rasgos y prácticas no compartidas por toda la diversidad sexual. La respuesta de un grupo de hombres homosexuales lejanos a este modelo (con sobrepeso, vello facial y corporal, edad madura, arreglo informal) fue darse un nuevo nombre, bears, para visibilizarse como gays pero con sus propias expresiones de la masculinidad y homosexualidad. Esta intención se ha ido modificado a tal grado que ahora son más un club de encuentros y entretenimiento tan restrictivo como el gay.
Para Giddens la comunicación es un fenómeno de interacción y construcción de sentido en el que intervienen la conciencia práctica (el actuar cotidiano tácito) y discursiva (la capacidad de explicar nuestros actos). Para hacer un estudio al respecto se debe considerar que hay aspectos discursivos y de la acción más allá de lo expreso, y que nuestra interpretación del problema se hará ya sobre una interpretación del mismo por los agentes sociales. Por esto, se hará un análisis, siguiendo la hermenéutica profunda de Thompson, de los materiales simbólicos de bears mexicanos para determinar si hay estructuras de significación que permitan hablar de una conciencia discursiva de su identificación como parte de esta comunidad.