No, you don’t have to read the headline twice. Yes, the man who conducted this study actually drew this conclusion.
According to Menelaos Apostolou, a researcher at University of Nicosia, Cyprus, the “evolutionary origins” of same-sex attraction in women lie in “male preferences for opposite-sex sex partners who experienced same-sex attractions.”
Take a moment to digest that. Basically, this man believes lesbians are lesbians because they want to attract straight men.
Now, we’re all for science and progress and open minds. But Apostolou’s study, published in the journal for Personality and Individual Differences, has one teeny tiny problem. It surveys 1,509 people (impressive?) and all of them were…*drumroll*... heterosexual.
No kidding. Not one lesbian in a study about same-sex attraction between women. None. Zilch. Nada.
So essentially, this man assumed that heterosexuality is the ‘natural’ way to be, and homosexuality is something that ‘evolved’ out of it. Is it just me, or can you spot the bias from miles away?
Male respondents in Apostolou’s study apparently also said that they got more sexually excited than women by “same-sex infidelity.” Oh and, this preference was “contingent on the seriousness of the relationships, with same-sex attraction to be preferred more in short-term than in a long-term partner.
Honestly, what is with the all-consuming need to look at women’s sexuality from a male perspective? Thanks guys, but no thanks.
One can’t help but notice how Apostolou has taken men’s preference as a reason for the ‘evolution’ of homosexuality in women, but hasn’t really considered the influence of media and porn on the said ‘preference’ itself. Most of mainstream lesbian porn, or media representations of sexual intimacy between women caters to a heterosexual male fantasy.
Back home, an example is the music video for Lay You Down starring singers Monica Dogra and Anushka Manchanda. Released in December last year, the video was lauded for being ‘bold’ and ‘hot’ and showing two women in love. But at the end of the day, these were “two heterosexual, conventionally feminine and good-looking women, getting hot and heavy with each other.”
You’d think that was enough nonsense for one ‘study’, but there’s more.
Elena Cherubini reported for Pink News that one of the arguments made to explain male preference for women who experience same-sex attraction is that it could “increase their (men’s) certainty of being the father of a potential child if their partner sleeps with someone else.”
I’m trying to find words to express how ridiculous this sounds.
Not only does this reduce lesbian relationships to nothing more than sexual contact between two women, but also feeds into the argument that childbearing is the primary reason two people should get together. It’s an argument which has been used to see non-heterosexual relationships as ‘unnatural’ and ‘devious’ because a child cannot be conceived ‘naturally’ between the partners.
To sum it up, what I’ve understood from this whole endeavour by Apostolou so far is that his study is another manifestation of the threat men feel from women who don’t need them for sexual gratification. In fact, it looks like gay women are having the best sex too.
So, sorry to pop your bubble, but lesbian women’s actions and lives aren’t governed by how well the straight man’s libido is doing. They’ve got plenty on their plates trying live their lives and not be ostracised for the attraction they feel.
(Views expressed are personal opinions of the author.)