outlawroad: lunasspecto: acesecrets: [Black...

12th November 2011

Photo reblogged from Attempted Danger with 22 notes

outlawroad:

lunasspecto:

acesecrets:

[Black and white image of a scientist holding test tube rack. The liquid in the test tubes is the colour of the Ace Flag. Text to the right of his head: “Sometimes I half wish there was some kind of test so I’d know for sure.” Text to the left of his head: “Other times I can think of nothing more frightening or degrading than bringing this to medical science.”]

This hints at an interesting conundrum: as we pursue a greater understanding of the etiology and mechanisms of sexual attraction, we also provide fodder for those who seek ways to “correct” non-heteronormative sexualities.

You’re right, although I doubt that there’s an actual biological method for altering sexual orientation. We don’t even have a viable way of lowering sex drive, although that’s probably because nobody in the medical/scientific community believes that lowering sex drive is something we should want or be able to do. I don’t know where science would even begin to figure out why we’re attracted to a particular gender instead of another or both or neither. We can certainly map out what happens in the brain when we feel sexual attraction or romantic attraction, but the cause? That’s really tough. And until they figure out that cause, there’s really nothing science can do to influence the attraction one way or another.

The bolded portion is completely untrue. Setting aside drugs like SSRIs that have decreased libido as a common side effect but aren’t usually prescribed for that reason, cis male sex offenders commonly receive injections of Depo-Provera, testosterone blockers, or other hormone treatments to eliminate their sex drives. See, for example, this article about voluntary use of SSRIs and testosterone blockers for pedophiles in the UK, a Polish law mandating chemical castration for pedophiles, and a similar law in Louisiana.
Of course, the same drugs have also been used as a “treatment” for homosexuality — most famously for Alan Turing, who ultimately committed suicide because of it. Run a Google search on Aubrey Levin for a more recent example. Plenty of people in the medical and scientific communities think that lowering sex drive is something we should want to do, and they’ve been doing it to cis men — and, in some cases, using it as a weapon of institutionalized heterosexuality — for the better part of a century.

lunasspecto:

acesecrets:

[Black and white image of a scientist holding test tube rack. The liquid in the test tubes is the colour of the Ace Flag. Text to the right of his head: “Sometimes I half wish there was some kind of test so I’d know for sure.” Text to the left of his head: “Other times I can think of nothing more frightening or degrading than bringing this to medical science.”]

This hints at an interesting conundrum: as we pursue a greater understanding of the etiology and mechanisms of sexual attraction, we also provide fodder for those who seek ways to “correct” non-heteronormative sexualities.

You’re right, although I doubt that there’s an actual biological method for altering sexual orientation. We don’t even have a viable way of lowering sex drive, although that’s probably because nobody in the medical/scientific community believes that lowering sex drive is something we should want or be able to do. I don’t know where science would even begin to figure out why we’re attracted to a particular gender instead of another or both or neither. We can certainly map out what happens in the brain when we feel sexual attraction or romantic attraction, but the cause? That’s really tough. And until they figure out that cause, there’s really nothing science can do to influence the attraction one way or another.

The bolded portion is completely untrue. Setting aside drugs like SSRIs that have decreased libido as a common side effect but aren’t usually prescribed for that reason, cis male sex offenders commonly receive injections of Depo-Provera, testosterone blockers, or other hormone treatments to eliminate their sex drives. See, for example, this article about voluntary use of SSRIs and testosterone blockers for pedophiles in the UK, a Polish law mandating chemical castration for pedophiles, and a similar law in Louisiana.

Of course, the same drugs have also been used as a “treatment” for homosexuality — most famously for Alan Turing, who ultimately committed suicide because of it. Run a Google search on Aubrey Levin for a more recent example. Plenty of people in the medical and scientific communities think that lowering sex drive is something we should want to do, and they’ve been doing it to cis men — and, in some cases, using it as a weapon of institutionalized heterosexuality — for the better part of a century.

Source: acesecrets

somewhere different now