Gender and

Sexuality
Gender and sexuality
● Homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder in the DSM until 1973
● Psychology’s relationship with gender and sexuality is one filled with strife,
discovery and a whole lot of pain
● Outside of psychology the world of gender and sexuality was, and a lot of the
times still is, a halestorm of misunderstanding, fear, ostracization, and hatred
Ellen DeGeneres
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CsN6ZYgp2Y
Identities to know
● Heterosexual- Attracted to the opposite gender
● Lesbian-Woman attracted to exclusively women
○ Lack of women in psychology extends to lesbians
● Gay- Attracted to one’s own gender
● Bisexual- Attracted to two or more genders
● Transgender- Identifying as a gender different than the one assigned at birth
○ Non-binary- an umbrella term that contains a multiplicity of varying gender identities that are
entirely or partially separated from the gender binary
● Asexual- Does not experience sexual attraction
Gender Binary
● The gender binary is seen as male and female, girl and boy, etc.,
● However while these two genders are the most common they are not the only
identities people use
● Gender does not equal sex
● Gender-deeply personal, definition and understanding can differ culture to
culture
● Sex- Genitalia, gonads, hormones, chromosomes, and primary/secondary sex
characteristics
○ Not strictly binary either
○ Intersex-people are born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including
chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that do not fit typical definitions of male and
female bodies
Gender differences
On average

● Females
○ Enters puberty two years later, lives 5 years longer, and carries 70% more fat
○ expresses emotions more freely, can smell fainter odors and has 10 times the chance of
developing an eating disorder, doubly vulnerable to depression and anxiety
● Males
○ 4 times more likely attempt suicide or develop alcohol use disorder
○ More likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, colour blindness, ADHD as a child,
antisocial personality disorder as an adult
Gender and aggression
● In surveys men admit to being more aggressive than women
○ Refers to physical and violent aggression as opposed to indirect aggression like spreading
rumours and verbal antagonization
● Violent crime rates illustrate this difference even more clearly
○ The male to female arrests for murder in the U.S are 9 to 1, and in canada the ratio is 8 to 1.
● Across the world men took the position as hunters and fighters, and men often
show more support for wars
● These are not indicative of all men and women
Gender Roles
● Culture is everything shared by a group and transmitted across generations.
We can see cultures shaping power in gender roles--the societal expectations
and rules men and women are expected to base their behaviour around
● These roles change over time and place, In North America during the 1950s it
was a given for a respectable woman to stay home and care for the children and
upkeep the home, whilst her husband went to work
● Even in recent years men spend, on average, an hour and half more on the job
and about one hour less household activities and caregiving
Gender roles cont’d
Other societies have different expectations

● In nomadic, food gathering people, there is little division of labour based on sex
and boys and girls receive similar upbringings
● In agricultural societies of a more hunter-gatherer nature, the gender roles are
more heavily enforced and distinct
In your textbooks ‘Gender Identity” is described as ‘Our sense of being male or
female’

We are going to use this instead:

Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender

Gender Socialization
● Social Learning Theory assumes that children acquire their identity by
observing and imitating others’ gender linked behaviour and by being rewarded
or punished for acting in certain ways themselves
● Boys don’t cry!
● Speak like a lady!
● Many critics object to this idea, claiming that gender typing, the way some
children seem to be more attuned than others with either a more traditionally
feminine role or a more masculine role, is not explained by it
Gender Socialization cont’d
● Cognition also matters
● In childhood you form your gender schema, your framework for organizing
gender characteristics and differences which later becomes a lense through
which you view your experiences
● This particular schema develops early on, by age 1 you can discriminate
between male and female voices and by age 2, language has guided you into
categorizing your world on the basis of gender
○ In english, pronouns can differentiate gender and in languages like spanish and french all nouns
are gendered, creating an even more narrow organization of the world
Trans people and gender
While most people feel generally comfy with our more modern gender roles (some
even advocating the return of more traditional gender roles) there are some who
feel an intense dissatisfaction and detachment from their assigned gender. Trans
people reject the gender falsely applied to them at birth at may choose to exist
outwardly in whichever way is most comfortable for them

Some may simply change their name and pronouns, whilst others, a majority, will
undergo Sexual Reassignment Surgery, which is a broad term that covers many
cosmetic medical procedures that a trans person may choose to undergo to relieve
themselves of their Gender Dysphoria
Gender dysphoria
● Whilst being transgender in and of itself is NOT a mental illness, gender
dysphoria is.
● Gender dysphoria is a condition most trans people suffer from. Its an intense
detachment and discomfort of one's own assigned sex ad can be split into 2 sub
categories
● Social dysphoria is when a trans person experiences dysphoria because of
outward influences, not all intentionally malicious
○ Being referred to with the wrong pronouns, having to decide which bathroom to use and various
other situations many of us never worry about
● Body dysphoria is what more people are familiar with. A trans person can have
severe dissociation from their sex characteristics that do not fit their gender
○ This can range from genitals to hair
Hot Tip: Gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia are two separate disorders!! Get
this into your brain now before its gets all mixed up because they are commonly,
mistakenly, used interchangeably. You do not need to be trans to experience body
dysmorphia and in fact they have some distinct differences in their diagnostic
criteria!!
Sexual Orientation
● Sexual orientation
○ An enduring sexual attraction to one's own gender, the opposite gender, multiple genders or no
attraction at all
○ Most cultures have been predominantly heterosexual and many civilizations and societies have
condemned all other relations at one point or another, writing discriminatory laws threatening
imprisonment, torture and death
○ It's hard to find a reliable statistic of how many in our population are gay as studies widely vary
with some suggesting only 10% and others saying 25%
○ The most accurate figure suggests 3% of men and 1-2% of women although perhaps a tad more
as we should account for underreporting
Sexual orientation
For a lot of people sexuality is fluid, many heterosexual participants in studies
reported having the occaisonal less than hetersexual fantasy but still felt
comfortable with labelling themselves as straight
The history of gender & sexuality and
psychology
● Because homosexuality was seen as a psychological disorder many sga people,
in particular gay and bisexual men were sent to mental health hospitals were
the received ‘treatment’
● Many doctors and scientists believed that homosexuality was a willing choice
and therefore, could be willfully changed
● They implement aversion therapy which included the use of electric shocks, or
drug induced nausea when shown images of naked men
○ This created a mental association of pain/illness and ‘homosexual desire’
○ The goal was to make gay men straight
History cont’d
● These people were kept in brutal condition, one man recounted of the time he
was forced to lie in a cot of his own feces and urine, listening to graphic gay
pornagraphic audio
● The big Shock: Aversion therapy DIDN'T WORK!
○ Severe depression, anxiety and in some cases people took their own lives as the trauma was so
great
Being gay is not a mental disorder
● The big idea behind a diagnosis of a mental disorder is if it causes the individual
an immense amount of distress and affects their day to day lives
● Being gay doesn't fit the bill
● Any distress lgbt people face is due to outside influence and internalization of
minority stress
● Minority stress- Explaining that stigma, prejudice, and discrimination create a
hostile and stressful social environment that causes mental health problems
● Due to intense and public hate and discrimination many lgbt people then (and
now) struggled with depression, anxiety, ptsd, alcohol abuse, family
estrangement and illness
Shifting Views
In the late 70’s early 80’s psychological understanding LGBT identities began to
shift, despite public and political opinions.

Answer yes or no to the following questions and see if you can

guess the general consensus of hundreds of research studies
Yes or no
1. Is homosexuality linked with problems in a child’s relationships with parents,
such as with a domineering mother and an ineffectual father, or a possessive
mother and a hostile mother?
2. Does homosexuality involve a fear or a hatred of people of the other gender,
leading individuals to direct their sexual desires towards members of their own
sex?
3. Is sexual orientation linked with levels of sex hormones currently in the blood?
4. As children, were many homosexuals molested, seduced, or otherwise sexually
victimized by an adult homosexual?
Resounding NO!!!
Sexual orientation is not the result of improper child rearing

Early beliefs around sexual orientation drew up LGBT people in particular gay and
bisexual men as sexual predators which is factually untrue and ultimately a
dangerous misconception
Kinsey Institute
● Interviewed nearly 1000 homosexuals and 500 heterosexuals to assess nearly
every possible psychological cause of homosexuality
● Investigated parental relationships, childhood sexual experiences, peer
relationships, dating experiences.
● Backgrounds were found to be similar, apart from lgbt peoples somewhat
greater non-conformity to gender roles and societal expectations early on in
childhood
● Homosexuals were no more likely to have been smothered by motherly love,
neglected by their father, or sexually abused
● Things are still very black and white, bisexuality is seen as anomaly
○ Idea of sexuality not being as stagnant as scientists thought is just starting to percolate in small
psychological circles
● Erotic plasticity is extremely common in women
○ Women become aroused when shown provocative images of any gender whilst men only
became aroused at images of their gender preference
Where are we now?
● Most of today's scientists understand that sexual orientation is neither willfully
chosen nor willfully changed, although conversion therapy still exists its is
generally condemned by psychologists
● Things still arent perfect, LGBT people still face elevated risks of mental health
problems. A 2009 survey of lesbian, gay and bisexual people found that 28-
40% suffered from depression, 20-25% had self-harmed and 20-40% had
attempted to kill themselves (compared to 2-6% of the general population).
● Most children raised by gay and lesbian parents have now been found to be
completely well adjusted and predominatly hetersexual--nature vs nurture
we’ve come back to you
Sexuality through a biological lense
If it is not environmental it may be biological

● Everything psychological is simultaneously biological

● Researchers are currently looking at the following has potential influences of
sexual orientation:
1. Evidence of homosexuality in species
2. Gay-straight brain differences
3. Genetics
4. Prenatal hormones
Evidence in the natural world
● Gay penguins!!!
● Grizzlies, gorillas, monkeys, flamingos, and owls have all been observed
participating in less than heterosexual behavior
● Some degree of homosexual behaviour seems a natural part of the animal world
Gay straight brain differences
Researcher Simon LeVay (1991) studied sections of the hypothalamus-linked to
emotion-of deceased heterosexual and homosexual people

● To avoid biased results he performed a blind study and for nine months
examined hypothalamus clusters under his microscope, that seemed to come in
different sizes
● After consulting the donor records he found that the cell cluster was reliably
larger in heterosexual men than in women homosexual men
Gay straight brain differences cont’d
● Where do these differences begin? At conception? During childhood
adolescence? Did experience produce the difference? Or was it genes or
prenatal hormones?
● Leevay does not view these clusters as on off buttons but rather an important
part of a brain pathway that is active during sexual behaviour
● Whilst sexual behaviour might influence brain structure LeVay believes it to be
more likely that our brain structures influence our sexual behaviour
● His hunch seems to be confirmed when we look at sheep. The same cell cluster
difference can be found in the 7 to 10 percent of sheep who displayed
homosexual behaviour and the 90+ percent of sheep attracted to females
Relevancy today
Trump already retracted transgender rights in schools, bathrooms, prisons, military

Now the Donald Trump administration is considering revoking civil rights

protections for transgender people and requiring Americans to identify as the
gender listed on their birth certificates.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) outlined the proposed policy
in a memo which stated gender would be determined by a “biological basis that is
clear, grounded in science, objective, and administrable”.
SOGI 1-2-3
he Minister of Education announced on September 8, 2016 that all British
Columbian boards of education and independent school authorities were required
to reference sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in district and school
codes of conduct by December 31, 2016.

Currently there is a fight to dismantle sogi from schools

Globally
● Restriction of rights
● Currently 27 countries recognize and perform same sex marriage
● Gay relationships are illegal in 74 countries-punishable by death in about 12