Brains Differences?

[wooger]

I know about the research that shows gay men have a "female" brain and I have no doubt that I probably think more like a than than a man...

but then I am a submissive bottom. Do other sub bottoms feel this way?

Also, do you think dominant tops would still have the feminine brain? would be interesting to find out!

 

[flanneland]

I know about the research that shows gay men have a "female" brain and I have no doubt that I probably think more like a than than a man...

but then I am a submissive bottom. Do other sub bottoms feel this way?

Also, do you think dominant tops would still have the feminine brain? would be interesting to find out!

I've read similar research too. I have no idea what the truth is, but it seems to be true based on the few guys I've known like that. I can't say for certain, and being well outside that community, all I can say is; the theory seems to fit.

 

[stickygirl]

Hmm... interesting thoughts. 'If one accepts that people are born gay, then does it follow that a gay man feels like a woman brain-wise?' I don't think that stacks up. The component parts of the brain responsible for sexual attraction are not the same as those for that sense of self. All the same, there's no reason why a gay man shouldn't feel feminine without being classically transgender.

I do wish guys would stop equating being submissive with having feminine characteristics - it's kinda cliched and a bit rude Being submissive is a submissive thing not a gender thing

 

[flanneland]

Yeah, your guess is as good as mine. Born or not? Maybe some get into it on their own, while others from birth. Who knows.

 

[oldcalhippie]

I think a gay man feels ...thinks like a gay male

 

[RedStarFic]

I don't know if it's that easy to label folk. Gender preferences, behavioural preferences, and both of those can change and evolve, so I find it hard to accept that someone who's gay has a specific kind of brain...

I consider myself bi, though most folk would label me as textbook, cliche, straight. However, I just happen to have a thing for cock, a think which over the years comes and goes (no pun intended!). Does that mean I have a different brain? Can you pick that kind of stuff up on a brain scan? Is it genetic?

I'm not so sure, it might be hormonal, might be down to how much sex I'm getting at any one time... I get confused by the labels, so I tend to avoid them.

 

[bluesky496]

Hmm... interesting thoughts. 'If one accepts that people are born gay, then does it follow that a gay man feels like a woman brain-wise?' I don't think that stacks up. The component parts of the brain responsible for sexual attraction are not the same as those for that sense of self. All the same, there's no reason why a gay man shouldn't feel feminine without being classically transgender.

I do wish guys would stop equating being submissive with having feminine characteristics - it's kinda cliched and a bit rude Being submissive is a submissive thing not a gender thing

i agree with everything you say , being submissive is not a feminine trait ,it as as you rightly say a different thing altogether and it does not follow that a gay man must think like a female , i know i do but but i think that is more to do with being more comfortable as a woman than as a man and enjoying different things and sexual attraction is certainly not regulated by wether one thinks like a man or a woman .
i am not sure if my thoughts on the subject help at all but i put them out there anyway .

 

[stickygirl]

I don't know if it's that easy to label folk. Gender preferences, behavioural preferences, and both of those can change and evolve, so I find it hard to accept that someone who's gay has a specific kind of brain...

I consider myself bi, though most folk would label me as textbook, cliche, straight. However, I just happen to have a thing for cock, a think which over the years comes and goes (no pun intended!). Does that mean I have a different brain? Can you pick that kind of stuff up on a brain scan? Is it genetic?

There is some evidence to support the left/right brain dominance but it's not entirely clear what characteristics are exhibited by it. I suspect the researchers went in with the preconception that gay men are kinda feminine and Kapow! we found the evidence. It's too simplistic.

I'm not so sure, it might be hormonal...

I'd agree, but the brain and hormones are inseparable - it's just no one really understands, they can simply make observations. I should have a different BSTc in my "grey matter" that accounts for my sense of being female. "Grey matter" - dead scientific huh?!

I get confused by the labels, so I tend to avoid them.

Yup labels have been argued about endlessly at Lit. Labels are useful to academics writing papers because they sound much more clever that "squishy grey matter stuff" but then Fox news gets hold of it and suddenly we're all Labelled.

 

[none2_none2]

I know about the research that shows gay men have a "female" brain and I have no doubt that I probably think more like a than than a man...

but then I am a submissive bottom. Do other sub bottoms feel this way?

Also, do you think dominant tops would still have the feminine brain? would be interesting to find out!

I think the problem with most of this stuff is people want to think in terms of binaries. The older I get the less I think there are clear binary boundaries for many topics. Assuming that there are only two brains (male/female), then begs the question what are gay males? That is assume that there are only two types of brains. However, lets assume that you were doing tests on only straight males or only straight females. Would they all be the same within their same group? Do all straight men love spectator sports? Do all men find the same kind of women attractive? Do all men have the same level of cheating vs faithful wandering eye?

I think the answer would be no. Sure there may be tendencies if plotted in a chart, but I would think there are plenty of areas of gray...

I'm attracted to muscular, hairy, manily, bottoms. My partner fits that bill. If you were to do a "masculinity" test, he would come up ahead of me. For instance, loves fixing things. I seldom like that. I can also be stimulated by a kiss, holding hands. Plenty of guys jump right to sex. Yet I am a top. (So much for the assumption that top is manily and bottom is not.)

Likewise, though I'm stronly attracted to muscle, hairiness, masculinity, I'm least attracted to penises. I never craved having one inside me, or touching one. On the other hand, I wanted to touch men's behinds even before I had heard of the concept of anal sex. So does my lack of penis craving symbolize that I'm tainted with a touch of str8 male brain or a lesbian brain matter?

Some say that gay/str8 is orientation and is hardwired, yet the activities you do are "learned". I didn't "learn" to like anal sex penetration of other guys, nor did I "learn" not to crave oral or hand jobs. It simply was my experience when I started having sex. I took to anal sex toping like a duck takes to water from the very first time. Where as for two years leading up to that point (when I did everything else with men), I was misserable and questioned if I really was gay. (How could I be gay wanting a man's love when the sex SUCKED (pun intended).) I sometimes wonder if what I experienced was whata lesbian probably feels when orced to society's norms to play with penises.

I had looked at male asses and faces since I was a pre-teen -- years before I lost my virginity at 21.5, I just didn't know what I could do with a man's ass. Likewise, I never staired at bulges wondering what they were like underneath the clothes. I remember seeing my grandpa pee when I was young, and thought nothing of it. Same with boys where we peed over the same spot. I remembrer those events, but it means as much as remembering a bunch of guys clapping at the end of a concert. They simply are memories that mean nothing sexual to me.

I think one day science will show that you cannot easily catagorieze everything into simple black/white categories. I can understand the urge to try to find out something, I just think the answer isn't as simple as everybody would like it to be.

Perhaps thinking about another topic, might make this seem a bit clearer. Think of food. Could we ever figure out why someone prefers one main dish or one dissert? I think even if we had a universal cuisine, we still would have MANY different answers for our favorites. I don't see that as a bad thing. Plus at least in the case of food, we allow for changes of tastes without saying that somehow we are in denial.

I don't have one favorite food though things Italian, Indian, Greek are all way up there. My favorite dessert is strawberry-rhurbarb pie. (I tend to like tart foods.) I would think I'm in a minority on tastes; but regardless, I would guess that at least on food we are much more ready to accept the fact that there is no binary for tastes. The same should apply to sexual matters.

 

[stickygirl]

I know about the research that shows gay men have a "female" brain and I have no doubt that I probably think more like a than than a man...

but then I am a submissive bottom. Do other sub bottoms feel this way?

Also, do you think dominant tops would still have the feminine brain? would be interesting to find out!

They've been some interesting points made, but I wanted to come back to this first statement. In the end, how a brain functions: left/ right hemispheres, grey matter only refers to the wiring, not how it is used or how it necessarily interacts outside of the research lab.
Ok, I'm going for controversial but it has to be said. If we're given a particular type of brain from birth, what happens after that is societal. Gay men are often cited as being imaginative, creative sorts much beloved of fashion houses and advertising agencies, yet they have the same 'wiring' as women. So why aren't women achieving that same level of recognition?
However much gay men might want to cuddle up to the idea they have hand-knitted brains with a natural flair for clothes and colour, they still benefit from being men in a patriarchal society.
It's already been suggested that being submissive is a female trait and that's BS. I'm really not sure why bottoms or tops want to feel like maybe they have female brains without considering the rest of the package. I'm not having a pop at anyone, just a bit niggled.

 

[tristantrotsky]

They've been some interesting points made, but I wanted to come back to this first statement. In the end, how a brain functions: left/ right hemispheres, grey matter only refers to the wiring, not how it is used or how it necessarily interacts outside of the research lab.
Ok, I'm going for controversial but it has to be said. If we're given a particular type of brain from birth, what happens after that is societal. Gay men are often cited as being imaginative, creative sorts much beloved of fashion houses and advertising agencies, yet they have the same 'wiring' as women. So why aren't women achieving that same level of recognition?
However much gay men might want to cuddle up to the idea they have hand-knitted brains with a natural flair for clothes and colour, they still benefit from being men in a patriarchal society.
It's already been suggested that being submissive is a female trait and that's BS. I'm really not sure why bottoms or tops want to feel like maybe they have female brains without considering the rest of the package. I'm not having a pop at anyone, just a bit niggled.

No, it's not an either-or, it's a wonderful spectrum that spins out and unravels from one end to the other with every sweet variation and taste catered for. It's only social convention that represses us into tight definitions…

 

[haurni]

As an ex-neuroscientist, though one who hasn't personally done research on this particular issue, here's my take on it:

The brain is an incredibly complicated organ - it may have 100 billion neurons and perhaps 100 trillion synapses to allow communication between those neurons. Each neuron has a unique structure and unique connections with others (though of course general patterns are broadly similar), which are determined by a whole host of factors ranging from each individual's unique DNA, to the unique environment of the womb, to the unique experiences we have during our formative years. Anybody who claims that there is 'a gene' or 'a brain structure' for intelligence or sexual orientation or gender has absolutely no fucking concept of what they're saying. People are... unique.

Biological phenomena that are often thought of as strictly binary do not always work out that way in practice. The idea of being male or female, for example, is one thing many of us consider inviolable - an either/or with no middle ground - but we know that a significant number of people do not have genital morphology (just to take one example) that is unambiguously one or the other (estimates range from 1:25 - 1:5000, depending on how you define 'intersex'; 1:2000 seems to be a reasonable compromise). This is because biology is not always neat and tidy. Even for things for which we may be 'programmed' to be binary, there is a continuum, and even if 95%, or 99%, or 99.9% of individuals do fall on the end of the spectrum, take enough people and you'll get all possible combinations. And how can psychology, which starts from biology but depends on so many other factors, be binary (gender identity, sexual orientation)? Furthermore, though our genetic, gestatational and early environments may predispose us to be 'one or the other', these various influences can also work in contrast. Is it any wonder, then, that we end up with so many different combinations?

In addition, the brain is a highly distributed organ - any thought, action, or memory involves neurons from most if not all parts of the brain, modified by circulating hormone levels, fatigue, mood, etc. The reasons for our behaviour are based in the brain, but many of the factors that influence the expression of any particular behaviour are likely to be widespread, diffuse and difficult to separate from any other.

Finally, although developmental processes may affect the size of certain brain regions to some degree, the size of one or two small and poorly delineated areas in such a complicated organ, which exhibits considerable variation from one individual to another, is probably not significant as many other variables may be partly or entirely responsible for the observed difference. To look at one area and say "this part is bigger in men (or gays, or trans people, or submissives) than that part, therefore it must be responsible for sex (or orientation, or gender identity, or...)" is to confuse correlation with causation.

At our current level of technology I say that it is impossible to point to some part of the brain and say that some poorly defined behaviour, which is due to the intersection of multiple factors that have had a myriad of highly variable and contradictory influences on us throughout our lives, is 'located' there.

 

[stickygirl]

Oh yea, I'd forgotten you were an ex-pro... better be careful what BS I spout in future