"Totally Straight"

An article published on November 5^th by the BBC dovetails nicely with the video Venus Boyz.  The University of Essex studied the level of sexual arousal that 345 women had towards the gender they identified with being attracted to.  While studies have been done in the past on this, it has never been conducted with women who identify as lesbian. 

Here is where the study gets interesting, researchers overwhelmingly found that women who were attracted to the same sex had “sexual arousal patterns … similar to men…” (Therrien).  While not fully understanding why 68% of the gay women react like men, it was suggested by Dr. Rieger that perhaps these females received more testosterone while “in the womb” (Therrien).  This theory had been corroborated in studies using animals.

Of the straight women who were tested, the results show only 28% of the women who identified as straight were aroused by only images of men.  The remaining straight women were aroused by both sexes, in varying degrees.  So, while the larger proportion of women identified as being straight they really travel a sexual spectrum or bridge and we can no longer “ignore the shades of gray in favor of binarism” (Reeser; 153). 

Reeser, Todd W. Masculinities in Theory: An Introduction. West Sussex: Wiley- Blackwell, 2010

Therrien, Alex.  Nov. 2105. BBC News, Health.  No Woman ‘totally straight’, study says.  http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34744903  Web. 11 November, 15