Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology Online

Extract

Nowhere in our intimate lives is there greater expression of gender difference than in our sexual relationships. “She” may make love “just like a woman,” as Bob Dylan famously sang, but “he” would make love just like a man. Though we often think that sexual orientation is the great dividing line in our sexual expression – that being gay or straight is all we need to know about a person's sexuality – the evidence points decisively the other way, towards an understanding that gender, not sexual orientation, is the dividing line along which sexual expression, desire, and experience is organized. Gay men and straight men think and act in sexually similar ways, as do lesbians and straight women. In that sense, sexually speaking, gay men and lesbians are gender conformists.How do we explain the different sexualities of women and men? How different are men's and women's sexualities? Have men's sexualities changed over the last 100 years?Many people believe that the differences between male and female sexuality are the simple reflection of biological differences. Some point to different evolutionary imperatives, brain chemistry and organization, or endocrine differences to explain these differences. And while these are no doubt important, biological differences tend to assume the very questions we might seek to answer. For example, hormone levels may influence the intensity of the sex drive, ... log in or subscribe to read full text