Historical And Scientific Perspective On Homosexuality

Historical and Scientific Perspective on Homosexuality

Izabella Lee
Psy/265
06/07/15

In this paper I will be talking about the historical and scientific perspective on homosexuality. This paper I will discuss three different perspectives on the subject them being the biological, historical and psychological perspective on homosexuality. Another thing that I will go over is the impact that all these perspective may have on how homosexuals look and feel about themselves. Looking at and analyzing the experience of a homosexual coming out as gay and being able to adjust to their new life. And last, how the biological, historical and psychological perspectives have impacted my sexual orientation and how its made me look
at homosexuality. Historical perspectives of Homosexuality, whether it 's gay or lesbian has existed all throughout time. There has been a lot of different views and attitudes toward homosexuality that also included tolerances in some societies with open acceptance. But then in most other societies this type of lifestyle has had strong disapproval of. While homosexuality has mostly been condemned, this wasn’t always the case. There are a few examples that I can give, one being ancient Greece and Rome. In Greece it was actually common for established males to have these sexual relationships with younger males, young males that were reaching puberty. “Romans described highly feminine gay men who dressed flamboyantly, had showy hair styles and mannerisms, and cruised certain neighborhoods, searching for partners.” (Rathus, 2011 p. 287). In these day the church had a huge influence on everyone and activities such as these ones where strongly looked down on and not accepted and considered a sin. Other religions, like Jewish denominations and Islam feel the same way about homosexuality practices and they continue to be condemned to this day. Now biological perspective is something different.
“Biological perspectives focus on the possible roles of evolution, genetics, and hormonal influences in shaping sexual orientation.” (Rathus, 2011 p. 291) Some evolutionary perspective hypotheses are still speculative but there are also thought that homosexuality alliances bind the group members together emotionally that gives them a better chances of survival. Studies that have also been done on the family tree of homosexuals where women who are related to someone who is homosexual will then be more likely to have an offspring who is then homosexual as well. These studies have us believe in the genetic perspective with considerable evidence that suggest homosexuality orientation runs within your families genetics. There also have been evidence that found on the X sex chromosome that may be linked to gay male sexual orientation. While there has been a so called "gay gene" that may be found, researchers have not yet found a particular gene that is specifically linked to a person sexual orientation and neither do scientists know how this potental gene relate to sexual orientation. Also studied, the hormonal influences on our bodies to see if there are any links that determine sexual orientation. To help further this determination there have been studies done on pregnant rats where testosterone has been blocked and the male offspring were likely to show more feminine mating patterns. “It remains possible that imbalances in
prenatal sex hormones may cause brain tissue to be sexually differentiated in one direction even though the genitals are differentiated in the other.” (Rathus, 2011 p. 293) In the psychological perspectives on homosexuality there are two major psychological approaches to understanding the origins of sexual orientation, psychoanalytical theory and analytical theory. Sigmund Freud was one of the originators of psychoanalytic theory. He believed that children are naturally open to all the forms of sexual stimulation. In Freud 's psychoanalytical theory homosexual orientation resulted in a failure to figure out the Oedipus or Electra complex when identifying with the parent of the same sexual orientation. He believed with the successful resolution of the complexes the child will move from an incestuous wants for either mother for boys or fathers for girls and their sexual attractions will then be transferred to the appropriate partner. One of the bigger problems with this theory that he had was that all of these concepts took place at an unconscious level. The learning theory though, agrees that his view and theory on this by the way early experience play an important role in childrens develpmentof sexual orientation. But at the same time, the learning theory focused more on the role of reinforcement of early patterns of sexual behavior rather than unconscious conflicts. The learning theory suggests that people tend to repeat pleasing sexaul activities even if it is with a person of the opposite sex and if it is pleasurable a more definate homosexual orientaion will develop. With learning being a role in the development of a persons sexual orientation, “learning theorists have no identified specific learning experiences that would lead to these orientations.” (Rathus, 2011 p. 296) So when looking over the three different perspectives, each of them have a different view that any homosexual can use to try and explain why it is that they are gay and how they perceive themselves as gay. All of these perspectives are used in either a good way to help them come to the realization that they are homosexual. And then, they can be used in a bad way and cause the person to keep there sexual orientation to themselves and keep it safe from the criticizers. Throughout our history homosexuality has been looked down on and condemned from society and this itself may have helped shape the way that these people think of themselves. Even in the medical field for the longest time homosexuality was considered a disease. All of these things are exact examples as to why these perspectives on homosexuality can help a gay person see themselves. “Because of the backdrop of social condemnation and discrimination, gay males and lesbians in our culture often struggle to come to terms with their sexual orientation.” (Rathus, 2011 p. 306) The process of "coming out" comes in two ways. The first step to being able to come out would be to coming out to yourself. Coming to the realization that you are gay and being comfortable enough with yourself in your sexual orientaion. Once you are able to do the first step it is then easier to move on to the next one, which is coming out to other people. This step is something that is much harder then coming out to yourself for many reasons. One of them is being fearful of what others with think of you and treat you. In their minds there are a lot of things a stake if doing so such as, certain relationships and sometimes jobs. But in this day and age it is starting to become easier for those who are homosexual to come out due to lots of movements in the LGBT communities and them fighting for equal rights. When it comes to my own sexual orientation I don’t think that these perspectives have impacted my life as much as they could a homosexual person. It never really came to my mind when that part of my life start and I starting thinking about the opposite sex. But if there was one theory that I could say influenced my sexual orientaion it would be the learning theory. I grew up in a home with a mother and father and seeing them love each other once had that kind of influences that it was something that I wanted one day. But at the same time I never had the desire to explore the same sex sexually. I was always tough that you should never treat anyone differently then you just because they are different than you. Everyone is equal no matter the race, religion or sexual orientation. So these perspectives haven 't really changed my views on homosexuality because I believe it is something you have from birth and is possibly a genetic situation. In conclusion, this paper is about homosexuality and the different perspectives on the subject.
Everyone have their own perspective that they believe in whether its historical, biological or psychological and in this paper I have described each of them. Each of these perspectives have helped shape the way homosexuals look at themselves and shares how it may be like for them to come out and how they may adjust to there sexual orientaion. Leading into how these perspectives have influenced my own sexual orientaion and how I view homosexuality as well. Homosexuality is something that is becoming the norm in our daily lives and is something that everyone should learn more about, I know that I have learn just as much in this paper
alone.

References:
Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity, Eighth edition, by Spencer A. Rathus, Jeffrey S. Nevid, and Lois Fichner-Rathus. Published by Allyn & Bacon.
Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.