Homosexual experiences
It is generally assumed that a person’s sexual experiences during childhood and adolescence can play an important role in the development of sexual orientation. In particular, it has been suggested that recurrent and gratifying sexual contacts with members of the opposite sex predispose a person toward a pattern of heterosexual responsiveness; recurrent, gratifying contacts with members of the same sex, by contrast, have been thought to encourage homosexual responsiveness. Adult sexual preference, then, has been viewed as a continuation of the “habits” of sexual responsiveness that were established during childhood or adolescence.
Thus, it can be hypothesized that homosexual women are more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to recall having had pleasurable sexual contacts with other females while they were growing up. One researcher has suggested that at a relatively early age prehomosexual girls usually experience being in love with another female, romantic fantasies and genital sensations involving other girls, and what he described as “compulsive” homosexual sex play. Other researchers have reported a much greater tendency for homosexual women to have formed early romantic attachments with strong sexual undertones to other females (usually schoolmates and friends but often female teachers or other adults). In addition, the lesbians in that study recalled having had homosexual feelings at earlier ages than the heterosexual women recalled having had heterosexual feelings. Unlike the men in that study, however, relatively few of the homosexual women had had sexual contact with other girls before mid-adolescence, and those who did reported that it took place on the average of less than once a month.
Comparison of homosexual and heterosexual experiences
Some theorists have suggested that it is not so much a matter of whether a girl has homosexual or heterosexual experiences per se that is important but the relative constellation of homosexual and heterosexual experiences — i.e., which type occurred earlier or which was more enjoyable. In this line of thinking, one might expect girls to be influenced toward preferring the type that occurred first and/or proved more enjoyable.
Among those who recalled having been sexually aroused both by a male and by a female before they reached age 19, the homosexual and the heterosexual women did not differ in which type of arousal occurred first.
Age at puberty, masturbation, and orgasm during sleep
As with males, one may suppose that early-maturing females may have different kinds of sexual experiences than do those who reach puberty at later ages. Early maturers, for example, might become the targets for sexual advances on the part of males at an age when they are ill prepared for them. Resentment at being singled out as sexual objects might result in a general aversion toward heterosexual contacts at later stages of their development. At the same time, it could be speculated that sexual precocity might lead to the emergence of sexual fantasies involving close female friends and, together with relatively early masturbatory experience, might help to establish a pattern of sexual arousal and interest in a homosexual direction. Given such possibilities, we ascertained the ages at which our respondents reached puberty as well as other evidence of sexual precocity that might explain differences in their sexual orientation.
In order to explore such issues, we used the age at which respondents began to menstruate as a measure of physical maturation. We also considered their reports about their experiences regarding menstruation as possible indicators of how much difficulty they might have had in dealing with their “womanly” status. Finally, masturbation and orgasm in sleep are considered also as possible indicators of sexual precocity or level of sexual interest.
Parents’ sexual attitudes
Our interview schedule did not contain any open-ended questions about parents’ sexual attitudes; hence no illustrative quotations are provided.
Some theorists have suggested that in many cases female homosexuality may result directly or indirectly from extremely negative sexual attitudes on the part of parents. Such attitudes, it has been argued, may lead girls to inhibit heterosexual feelings and may prompt parents to shelter their daughters to such an extent that they block the daughters’ opportunities to establish heterosexual relationships. In this regard, one study found that psychiatrists described both the fathers and the mothers of their homosexual female patients as sexually “puritanical”. In addition, it has been suggested that if a girl has been repeatedly warned against sexual contact with boys and then finds her first such contacts unpleasant, she may consider her parents’ attitudes as justified and avoid further heterosexual experiences.
*27/158/5*
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.