The Scent of a Man

[Rosebud]

The Scent of a Man

 

Michael D Lemonick. Time. New York: May 23, 2005. Vol. 165, Iss. 21; pg. 61, 1 pgs

 

IF YOU WANT TO STIR UP TROUBLE AT A party-or better still, a bar-try bringing up the question of whether homosexuality is something people are born with or something they choose. The issue has always been controversial, and it's currently at the center of a national political debate as well, thanks to the question of gay marriage. As a result, whenever science has something to say about the biology of sexual preference, it's bound to make headlines.

 

That's exactly what happened last week. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who had earlier shown that hormonelike pheromones stimulate the human hypothalamus-a part of the brain that governs sexual arousal-took the experiment one provocative step further. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they re ported that gay men don't respond to the chemicals the same way that straight men do. "It clearly substantiates the idea that there's a biological substrate for sexual orientation," says Dean Hamer, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health and the author of Science of Desire: The Gay Gene and the Biology of Behavior (Simon & Schuster; 272 pages). "This is a highly significant result."

Rest of the article can be found here;

 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1061508,00.html

Edited August 4, 2009 by Rosebud

[Ivy715]

Rosebud,

That sure was an interesting article.For me with the gay issue Im not sure if its learned over time or a gene.

I agree that they should futher the study with lesbians just to see if its the same outcome.

Tee

[Guest Lor]

rosebud:

great article.

format it so that you give a phrase, and then link the rest of the article in the post.

this way no one can get in trouble for re-posting it without permission.

maybe you have reworded something, if so , sorry to stick my nose in.

just want everything to be cool.

[Rosebud]

rosebud:

great article.

format it so that you give a phrase, and then link the rest of the article in the post.

this way no one can get in trouble for re-posting it without permission.

maybe you have reworded something, if so , sorry to stick my nose in.

just want everything to be cool.

 

It's available online (no password needed) and with full references I don't think there would be a problem?

 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1061508,00.html

[luna65]

That was very interesting, especially considerations that male homosexuality (as example) is a hard-wired construct. I tend to believe that sexuality as a whole is an intricately-layered strata of biological, psychological and sociological influences, but for men - linear thinkers that they are - it makes sense that it's more of an either/or propostion.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Guest Lor]

It's available online (no password needed) and with full references I don't think there would be a problem?

 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1061508,00.html

 

 

you may be totally correct, i was going by other forums warning people of the same thing because the writer of articles sometimes requires permission to copy/reproduce it.

its probably fine

[Potion Master]

Great article, thank you for sharing!

 

I must agree with Lor on the matter of copyright. It's not proper to copy and paste an entire article from one site to another. We should post a subject line / reason why others might be interested, and then a link to the site of origin.

 

Unless it's a "press release", (ie., an advertisement designed to be reprinted), the writer/site of origin owns the material and it's improper to reprint the material elsewhere without permission or a license agreement.

[Rosebud]

Great article, thank you for sharing!

 

I must agree with Lor on the matter of copyright. It's not proper to copy and paste an entire article from one site to another. We should post a subject line / reason why others might be interested, and then a link to the site of origin.

 

Unless it's a "press release", (ie., an advertisement designed to be reprinted), the writer/site of origin owns the material and it's improper to reprint the material elsewhere without permission or a license agreement.

 

I'll edit the first post just to be on the safe side

[Beccah]

Falling in line w/ your topic. I was watching a documentary on BBCAmerica. John Barrows was interested to know whether it was bioligical( I hope I spelled that right), or 'a choice'. The researchers came to the conclusion: That due to low test. levels @ a certain fetal developmental stage. A homosexual males brain develops much the same as a womans( merely bioligically speaking). Also, that each male sibling born makes this occurance 30% more likely for the following male born. I would assume this research could easily be found thru BBC's website?

[cheeseburger79]

Beccah I love BBC America! If you ever get the chance, watch the documentary "Love me Love my Doll"-its crazy. Its about men who buy 10,000 dollar sex dolls and traet them as real women..take them on dates, do they're nails,...one guys dolls were so realistic he had to put name tags on them that said "I'm a Real Doll", so people in public didn't think he was carting corpses to the beach....always interesting to see how the other half lives..anyway that show is on Comcast On-Demand from time to time and its fascinating...

BUT I DIGRESS-----Again! I'm good at that!

Rosebud, Thanks for sharing that article. I have to say as a total 'fag hag', it did'

nt suprise me in the least.

Aside from my ex fiance, (who is now clearly only my friend-I'm wild about Dave,my new fella-were havin a blast), my two best friends are gay men.

What so many people don't seem to pick up on is-IT'S NOT A CHOICE THEY MAKE. No one ever seems to consider how much easier a gay persons life would be if they were straight. They could then live without fear of physical threats growing up, dissapointing they're familys and trying to date in a setting even MORE promiscuious than our straight one, if you can imagine that!

Gay people, in my opionion, are definetly BORN that way. All the ones I know have never felt differently. They have tried being with women and its failed miserably.

Thats just my two cents. i hope research finds more evidence to back up the natural aspect of homosexseuals. It seems like with articles such as the one you shared, science is off to a good start. Thanks again my friend!

[MtnJim]

I agree that they should futher the study with lesbians just to see if its the same outcome.

Tee

 

They have done lesbian studies (their brains react like straight men's), I posted a couple of studies on another phero forum. I'll see if I can find them again and post here. It's been a couple of years ago.

 

Jim

 

PS

 

Found it.

 

 

 

STOCKHOLM: The brains of lesbians react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women, a new study has shown.

 

Following an earlier study which showed differences in how homosexual and heterosexual men's brains respond to sex-linked pheromones, the new study by a team of Swedish scientists examined how the brains of women who identified as lesbian were stimulated when they smelled the same substances.

Edited September 21, 2009 by MtnJim