Re: Homosexuality: male & female
Yousuf Khan (ykhan@achilles.net)
Sun, 13 Oct 1996 18:39:05 GMT
On 30 Sep 1996 11:11:32 -0600, mycol1@unm.edu (Bryant) wrote:
>In article <52ln2o$orh@hermes.achilles.net>,
>Yousuf Khan <ykhan@achilles.net> wrote:
>>
>>I see, it seems an interesting concept, but I fail to see any connection
>>between behaviour and fingerprint patterns. It would require some proof,
>>like percentages of correlation. Then I'd be convinced that there might be
>>some connection, even if the explanation relating the two phenomenon were
>>not yet known.
>Maybe it's just because I deal with this stuff on a daily basis, but I
>don't think that it's much of a stretch to imagine developmental
>integrity of the phenotype (including the brain) having behavioral
>ramifications. We found a significant correlation (negative) between
>fluctuating asymmetry and psychometric intelligence, for instance.
Okay, but how would anyone even determine fingerprints are asymmetrical?
I've got a right hand that's slightly larger than my left hand; it's only
noticeable if I put them together, and even then I'm the only one that
notices. I can only imagine how the size differences may make the
fingerprint patterns between my left and right hands different.
Besides why would fingerprint asymmettry reflect differences in the brain,
why not something more major like a leg that's longer or thicker than the
other?
>>Well, to be honest with you, no, I'm not interested in reading through
>>their entire paper just to get the crux of the idea. Can you provide it
>>yourself, since you've already read it?
>Sure. The developmental "target" for the traits I'm talking about (such
>as hands) is bilateral symmetry. Since the traits develop in a very
>similar environment, with the same genetic substrate, deviations from the
>developmental target (asymmetries) represent developmental perturbations
>(stress). We know that maternal alcohol consumption, maternal emotional
>stress, heat and chemical stress, and parental smoking can affect
>prenatal development sufficiently to increase organismal fluctuating
>asymmetry (FA).
Having fingerprints asymmetrical seems more minor than even the slight
asymmetry we see between the left and right side of the bodies. How many
points in a fingerprint are catalogued and compared between the two sides?
>FA is associated with attractiveness ratings, sex partner number,
>nutrition history, IQ, sexual behavior within relationships,
>aggressiveness, brain size, and brain laterality (with high FA
>individuals exhibiting atypical degrees of hemispheric directional
>asymmetry in the brain).
Well, to be honest with you, homosexuals don't exactly remind me of the
elephant man in terms of looks. Most of them look as symmetrical as
hetrosexuals to me. Are you absolutely sure that homosexuals are typically
going to have asymmetry? And if they do have asymmetry, and it's mostly at
the fingerprint level, how could a skewed fingerprint affect their
attractiveness ratings (let alone IQ, aggressiveness, etc.)?
>>>So, within bisexual populations, there seems indeed to be a continuum of
>>>preferences. Little wonder, then, that bisexuals have such a difficult
>>>time understanding the strict orientations of homosexuals and
>>>heterosexuals, eh?
>>
>>Or possibly, heterosexuality and homosexuality could just be the two
>>extreme ends of the bisexuality continuum.
>Viewing it that way seems fine to me. I think that homo- and
>hetero-sexuality are exclusive orientations, so my nit was that while a
>population may show a relatively continuous distribution of sexual
>preferences, individuals may not (even though this would make perfect,
>intuitive sense to bisexuals).
>>It's possible that if sexual attractions are programmed into us prenatally
>>through our genes, that there are also sexual revulsions also programmed
>>into us. A heterosexual female, for example, would find most features of
>>men attractive, but would find most features of women revulsive.
>Or indifferently. Personally, I don't think it's "genetic" but
>developmental--some genes, however, might predispose some people to given
>developmental reactions to given sources of stress.
It could be genetic, because we can tell the difference between male and
female (mother and father) when we are quite young. Even if that ability is
not used in the selection of sexual partners at that early age, it is used
in identifying parents and identifying between the parents.
Later we could use it for selection of sexual partners.
Yousuf Khan
--
Yousuf J. Khan
ykhan@achilles.net
Ottawa, Ont, Canada
Nation's capital
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