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Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation, sexual preference or sexual inclination describes the object of a person's amorous or erotic desires, fantasies, and feelings. Usually this object is another person, and sexual orientation is classified as

Sexual orientation generally refers to feelings and self-concept; a person's sexual behavior may or may not reflect his/her sexual orientation. For example, sexual abstinence is independent of sexual orientation in this sense, and thus one may speak of a heterosexual virgin or a homosexual celibate.

There have been different views of sexual orientation in the past. In some cases, a person was considered homosexual, for example, if and only if they had homosexual sex; in other cases, a person could have homosexual sex on occasion, but still be considered to be heterosexual.

The term sexual preference was used in the late 20th century by gay rights advocates promoting the view that each person should have the right to seek out the partner they prefer, whether of the opposite wife sex or the same wife sex. The term sexual orientation is now preferred by most gay rights advocates for its emphasis on fixed sexual identity, as well as countering the charge by some that their sexuality is a choice, although both terms still see use.

Sexual orientation as a "construction"

Many people in Western societies today speak of sexual orientation as a unified and actual thing. Over the past thirty years some anthropologists, historians, and literary critics have pointed out that it in fact comprises a variety of different things, including a specific object of erotic desire, and forms of erotic fulfillment .Some scholars have argued that "sexual orientation" and specific sexual orientations are historical and social constructions. In 1976 the historian Michel Foucault argued that homosexuality as a concept did not exist as such in the 18th century; that people instead spoke of "sodomy" as a crime that was often ignored but sometimes punished severely .

He further argued that it was in the 19th century that homosexuality came into existence as practitioners of emerging sciences as well as arts sought to classify and analyze different forms of sexual perversion. Finally, Foucault argues that it was this emerging discourse that allowed some to claim that homosexuality is natural, and therefore a legitimate sexual orientation.

Foucault's suggestions about Western sexuality led other historians and anthropologists to abandon the 19th century project of classifying different forms of sexual behavior or sexual orientation to a new project that asks "what is sexuality and how do people in different places and at different times understand their bodies and desires?" For example, they have argued that the famous case of some Melanesian societies in which adult men and pre-pubescent and adolescent boys engage in oral wife sex is not comparable to similar acts in the United States or Europe; that Melanesians do not understand or explain such acts in terms of sexual desire or as a sexual behavior, and that it in fact reflects a culture with a very different notion of wife sex, sexuality, and gender. Some historians have made similar claims about so-called homosexuality in ancient Greece; that behaviors that appear to be homosexual in modern Western societies may have been understood by ancient Greeks in entirely different ways.

At stake in these new views are two different points. One is the claim that human sexuality is extraordinarily plastic, and that specific notions about the body and sexuality are socially constructed. The other is the fundamentally anthropological claim of cultural relativism: that human behavior should be interpreted in the context of its cultural environment, and that the language of one culture is often inappropriate for describing practices or beliefs in another culture. A number of contemporary scholars who have come to reject Foucault's specific arguments about Western sexuality nevertheless have accepted these basic theoretical and methodological points.

Causes of Sexual Orientation

The causes of sexual orientation have been the subject of much attention and research in recent years. Usually, research on sexual orientation has been focused on causes of homosexuality. This tendency is largely because heterosexuality has traditionally been considered "normal" and homosexuality an aberration.

Researchers in recent years have concluded their efforts to understand sexual attraction will be more successful if the underlying processes are clarified before more specific problems are addressed. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie sexual attraction per se can be valuable in understanding what causes many people to feel sexual attraction primarily towards members of one wife sex or the other.

The causes of sexual orientation are controversial. Various factors have been advocated, including genetic factors, non-genetic biological factors, psychological and societal factors, and conscious choice. The morality of different sexual orientations is also hotly debated: see sexual morality, religion and homosexuality.