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Animal Lovers: Zoophiles Make Scientists Rethink Human Sexuality

21 points by cwan 17y ago

RevRal 17y ago
This is a great example of unbiased writing. I didn't think I was going to read the whole thing, but I did just to see how the author would handle such a taboo subject.
- mad44 17y ago
  What do you mean unbiased? He took the position that this is a genetic inborn condition. He just said that in effect "it turns out this is an inborn condition", without giving citing scientific research. (Well, I skimmed the article, and this is what I got. Maybe I missed a critical paragraph.)
  - sorbits 17y ago
    I think you missed more than just a paragraph as at least two of them made it clear that the writer is a ‘she’ :p Edit: My bad, as a reply points out, he speaks of having sex with a woman not making him a heterosexual (and the second reference to the female chimp just said “wrong sex”).
    - ugh 17y ago
      Yeah, if you are a very sloppy reader :) (http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/Staff/AcademicStaff/DrJesseBering/ http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/...)
    - prodigal_erik 17y ago
      > After all, the fact that I could, in principle, have sex with a woman—if I were plied with enough alcohol and she were tomboyish enough to create a suitable gender-modifying illusion—doesn’t exactly make me a heterosexual. These are the words of a gay man.
coldnose 17y ago
Kudos, Scientific American!
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
albertcardona 17y ago
Jared Diamond describes a case of a man having "visited the farm" and then being ill with fever. Diamond cited the case as a possible transfer of "crowd diseases", originated in animals, to humans. "Guns, Germs and Steel", Jared Diamond. EDIT: horizontal disease and horizontal gene transfer are very powerful forces in evolution. The distribution of human populations on Earth today owe a lot to such crowd diseases (whatever the means by which they got into humans from animals; inhalation of sprayed out rhinoviruses or eating raw meat has been proven sufficient in cases.)
prodigal_erik 17y ago
I've always assumed our society is made up of people who have reflexive violent overreactions to certain ideas, and people (like me) who just don't have that reaction and can't figure out why it's such a big deal. It's reassuring to see some of the people who feel it can still recognize it's not rational.

21 points by cwan 17y ago

This is a great example of unbiased writing. I didn't think I was going to read the whole thing, but I did just to see how the author would handle such a taboo subject.

mad44 17y ago
What do you mean unbiased? He took the position that this is a genetic inborn condition. He just said that in effect "it turns out this is an inborn condition", without giving citing scientific research. (Well, I skimmed the article, and this is what I got. Maybe I missed a critical paragraph.)
- sorbits 17y ago
  I think you missed more than just a paragraph as at least two of them made it clear that the writer is a ‘she’ :p Edit: My bad, as a reply points out, he speaks of having sex with a woman not making him a heterosexual (and the second reference to the female chimp just said “wrong sex”).
  - ugh 17y ago
    Yeah, if you are a very sloppy reader :) (http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/Staff/AcademicStaff/DrJesseBering/ http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/...)
  - prodigal_erik 17y ago
    > After all, the fact that I could, in principle, have sex with a woman—if I were plied with enough alcohol and she were tomboyish enough to create a suitable gender-modifying illusion—doesn’t exactly make me a heterosexual. These are the words of a gay man.

coldnose 17y ago

Kudos, Scientific American!

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

albertcardona 17y ago

Jared Diamond describes a case of a man having "visited the farm" and then being ill with fever. Diamond cited the case as a possible transfer of "crowd diseases", originated in animals, to humans. "Guns, Germs and Steel", Jared Diamond. EDIT: horizontal disease and horizontal gene transfer are very powerful forces in evolution. The distribution of human populations on Earth today owe a lot to such crowd diseases (whatever the means by which they got into humans from animals; inhalation of sprayed out rhinoviruses or eating raw meat has been proven sufficient in cases.)

prodigal_erik 17y ago

I've always assumed our society is made up of people who have reflexive violent overreactions to certain ideas, and people (like me) who just don't have that reaction and can't figure out why it's such a big deal. It's reassuring to see some of the people who feel it can still recognize it's not rational.