On November 10, 2018, my graduate student, Kevin Hsu, gave an invited presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) in Montreal. The occasion was his receipt of the society’s annual “Ira and Harriet Reiss Theory Award” for “the best social science article, chapter, or book published in the previous year in which theoretical explanations of human sexual attitudes and behaviors are developed.” His paper was on gynandromorphophilic men, or men attracted to transwomen who have not had vaginoplasty but have penises (Hsu, Rosenthal, Miller, & Bailey, 2016).
According to numerous sources, the talk was interesting and the audience was interested. However, an attendee repeatedly and aggressively interrupted the presentation. This person, the psychologist Christine Milrod, is closely associated with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and with the position that more and younger persons should more easily obtain medical treatment to change their sexes (Milrod, 2014; Milrod & Karasic, 2017; 4thWaveNow, 2017). Milrod also strongly objects to the scientifically well-studied idea that gender dysphoria that begins after puberty in natal males is caused by autogynephilia, or a male’s sexual arousal by the fantasy of being a woman. Milrod was asked repeatedly by the audience and the moderator to let the presenter continue. Milrod failed to ask any questions during the period reserved for them.
SSSS officials and membership discussed the incident. On November 15, 2018 the SSSS Executive Committee sent a mass e-mail entitled “Important Message to SSSS Members & Annual Meeting Attendees.” The message expressed concern, not about Milrod’s behavior, but about Hsu’s presentation:
The SSSS Executive Committee is aware of past and more recent incidents of language and behavior that has [sic] made transgender persons and other attendees feel unwelcome, unsupported, marginalized, or attacked at our Annual Meetings. We apologize. We want to assure all Members and attendees that we fully support you and stand with you. We are trans-allies.
Although I was shocked by the SSSS statement, I should not have been. It is emblematic of recent trends (Akresh & Villasenor, 2018). I believe it is also a terrible statement: poorly reasoned, cowardly, and exactly opposite of what it should have been. To the extent that the SSSS statement reflects the direction of that organization, SSSS is headed toward ruin, or at least ruin as an organization ostensibly supportive of scientific sex research.
In this Guest Editorial, I adopt the (hopefully) rhetorical assumption that the SSSS wants to ruin sex research, and offer advice—most of which the statement appears well on its way to enacting—about how to do so. Do not assume, however, that SSSS is uniquely swayed by the forces I identify and decry. They are also present, for example, in the International Academy of Sex Research, the organization associated with the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Indeed, they are ascendant in academia generally. I focus here on sex research, because that is what I know, and also because sex research is uniquely vulnerable right now.
Advocate for Marginalized Groups
Sex
researchers often feel sympathy for marginalized groups, especially
when the groups have been marginalized due to irrational intolerance of
sexuality. I have sympathized with various marginalized groups
throughout my career, starting with homosexual people (back when they
were marginalized), then transsexuals, and recently pedophiles, among
others.1
Members
of sexually marginalized groups are human. This means that they will
sometimes be tempted to make unreasonable demands on scientists and
accusations against scientists who resist those demands. I have
occasionally angered members of sexually marginalized groups. For
example, during the 1990s some gay men disliked the idea that there is
an association between homosexuality and gender nonconformity. I have
devoted considerable effort to studying this association, which I now
consider beyond reasonable doubt. I have written about
autogynephilia—also beyond reasonable doubt and a common reason why
Western natal males become transsexual (Lawrence, 2012)—despite
the livid reactions of some transsexuals. I have angered bisexual men
by publishing research suggesting that some do not have bisexual arousal
patterns (Rieger, Chivers, & Bailey, 2005), while conceding bisexual identity and behavior clearly exist.
I
have offended sexually marginalized group by prioritizing the goals of
sex research—putting forward plausible hypotheses, collecting and
publishing data, drawing conclusions from data rather than my
preferences, and making clear and correct arguments to the best of my
abilities—over advocating for anyone, including marginalized groups. I
have done so even when some groups insisted that my sex research harmed
them. If I had prioritized advocacy, I likely would have refrained from
conducting, or at least publishing, the offending research. That would
have harmed sex research and would not have benefited the offended
groups in any defensible way.
Thinking
about groups can mislead one into ignoring important variation within
groups. Many gay men embrace gender nonconformity—witness the success
(twice) of the U.S. television show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”
And some—we do not know what proportion—of males who fantasize about
being female not only admit their autogynephilia, they embrace it and
express relief that they are not alone (Lawrence, 2012; Saotome-Westlake, 2016).
Supporting transgender persons who oppose autogynephilia theory is
failing to support (or more accurately silencing) those who support the
theory. What to do? An advocate would go with the majority, I suppose,
although it would be difficult to get an accurate survey count. A
scientific sex researcher would open discussion, weigh in with knowledge
and data, and feel no compunction. To the extent that some members of a
marginalized group require that plausible or even factual ideas not be
discussed, they need therapy more than advocacy.
---
Full text at the link above.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment