I read this very interesting article the other day.
It states that gay and straight men have significant differences in facial shapes. This is an interesting observation and seems to point out that homosexuality is inherently caused by biological and biochemical differences and has nothing to do with choice. I guess the article seems to suggest what Lady Gaga has been singing about all this time.
It’s an interesting observation as I’ve found members of this forum wondering if their sexual activities may have impact on their sexual orientation (http://cure-erectile-dysfunction.org/sexual-orientation-and-its-relation-to-masturbation and it seems that anything that may impact your internal organism’s biochemistry can and very probably do have an effect.
/BrianWolfe/
Definitely interesting but I’m not sure I agree with the study’s actual methodology. Let’s see the results repeated a few dozen times, then it will convert me to a believer. I’m sure biochemistry has something to do with gender preference, but that’s not all that there is to it.
There are quite a few studies about whether or not sexuality is biological, and none of them are perfect. But I think that there is quite a bit of evidence that suggests that’s true. For example, there is a study saying the “gay gene” or whatever you’d like to call it may travel on the maternal side. So, according to this study, homosexual men have a better mix of masculine and feminine features, maybe this would be because of homosexuality coming from the maternal side, if this is true.
Still, I have issue with this study for two reasons. One is that the sampling size is incredibly small. Forty men? Seriously? Also, it reeks of phrenology a little bit — thinking you could read the morality of a person based on measuring their head size.
I could find a few articles arguing against this just like with any topic but an interesting theory nonetheless.
I do believe it is quite easy to spot if somebody is homosexual from their facial structure.
This is something we are all predisposed to.
Very interesting article.
I don’t think we should conclude that the born gay thing is true though, because there should more studies and with more people involved, not only 80 people.
This study should include more than 80 people, you are absolutely right. But there are other studies that have been done that suggest homosexuality is a combination of genetic and hormonal factors. Genetic as in genes. As in the genes you are born with. As in gay isn’t a choice.
The sample size is extremely small. I believe there are many factors that affect our sexual orientation and sexual expression. I am willing to bet that the author of the article is more interested in getting attention than anything else. Either way, it’s very interesting science.
I genuinely can understand how genes that are (theoretically) responsible for making people homosexual would be capable of altering the facial shape of someone. I’m not doubting that in itself it could be a genetical thing, just that it’s somehow related to the facial shapes of people.
However, the sample size is EXTREMELY small to be considered anything more than a novelty experiment.
That nose you have that looks like your mother’s? In your genes. The way you react to spicy food just like your father? In your genes.
What’s interesting about this study isn’t that it’s trying to say “all gay people have a certain look” but that with a mix of feminine and masculine features, it raises the question that maybe a gay man got a bit more from his mother’s side than just his looks — maybe sexual attraction, too.
But, once again, this study is far too small. It may raise interesting questions if it’s done better.
This study to me is vague and sounds like a stab in the dark and i’m sure facial features are sure to the genes. And that’s pretty much stereotyping gay and straight people and you would need much more to convince me that this study is true
I do not believe this study as some have stated here more studies will need to be made. Of all the gay people I have seen I would never be able to say just by looking at their face that they are gay. People are definitely born gay, as are some animals. It is a natural and normal occurence in nature as scientific studies have shown in animals that this is true.
Are you guys reading the full study? As in… more masculine faces tend to have more chances of being gay?
This more than anything confirms that gay or homosexual is anything but feminine.
Everyone jumps out of the water when presented by “socially unacceptable” preferences and it shouldn’t matter at all. I mean, sex is something that is done and enjoyed in private, there’s no need to take it out of the bedroom unless you’re considering a potential sex partner. There is no need to know if the guy or girl by your side is homosexual.
If you’re not homosexual, you shouldn’t be considering anyone of the same sex as a sexual partner so you shouldn’t care if somebody is homosexual because it’s out of your target. The same way you shouldn’t be embarrassed or disgusted if someone of the same sex confuses you. That study suggests that there’s no way of pointing out any person’s sexual preference just by looking at it so there’s no way but to ask.
Having that information (sexual preference) when not needed is a way of alienating people. It’s not like they’re sick or contagious. That’s something that people doesn’t understand. If you’re not going to fuck it, you shouldn’t care what’s he or she into.
Well, although that study is interesting.. and I think it might also be true, I think there is another side to this issue. We know that mental state affects our facial expression and in the long term a tendency towards certain emotional states can change your outlook (clinically depressed people are an extreme example.. but also, I think, a pretty good one). Now I think that a gay person is more inclined towards certain emotional states, due to social conditioning and also possibly biological attributes, than a straight person (the same way women are more likely to suffer from depression). So, I don’t think it would be that absurd to say that the average gay man might have a different look to him than the average straight man.
I find this study rather disturbing, they were analyzing the pictures of 80 gay men and 40 women + 40 men and they draw generalistic conclusions, really?
Although this is an interesting thing to study, I think more research would be needed. Sample sizes are, in my opinion, often too small to be drawing conclusions about the data collected. People of different ethnicities have different face shapes – data would need to be collected from people all over the world in order to see if this morphology holds true. The question: Does this person look gay? and its answer are so subjective that I think responses probably say more about the person responding than the image in front of them.
If true, and the results are somewhat reliable, where do we go with that? Would people get an abortion based on the face shape in an ultrasound?
I am not knowledgable about the facial differences between gay and straight men but there is an anatomical part of the brain called the sexual dimorphic nuclei. It has been proven that homosexual men have this nucleus smaller than heterosexuals! The subject hasnt been researched thoroughly yet though!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexually_dimorphic_nucleus
This might be partially true.
I always had the talent to recognize gay men.
My female friends were amazed by how often I was right about other guys’ sexualities. Maybe it has something to do with facial shape?
I don’t know, but everything is possible.
Since homosexuality is still in the process of getting globally accepted, I believe more studies will come in the future, and they’ll reveal a lot of things we don’t believe right now
I agree, the main give away would be the slightly feminine behavior.