a straight cisgender male is most likely primarily attracted to persons with vulvas, whether they identify as men or women. He might secondarily prefer women, but that’s a lesser “hurdle”. [..] I don’t think the attraction is “exclusive to men” as much as it is “exclusive to people with specific genitals.”
Huh.
So George, a straight cisgender male, walks into a dance club and sees Janey dancing. He can tell she presents as female from the way she dresses, her hair, her body shape, etc. He talks to her for a while, and he can tell she identifies as female—or at least claims to—from the things she says.
But her pants are still on.
If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying George does not know at this point whether he’s sexually attracted to Janey, because the “primary hurdle” hasn’t been crossed yet?
If so, you and I have very different understandings of how sexual attraction works. It seems relatively clear to me that George makes that determination within the first few minutes of seeing her, based on a variety of properties, many of which are components of gender.
If not, then I’m not really sure what you’re saying.
It seems relatively clear to me that George makes that determination within the first few minutes of seeing her, based on a variety of properties, many of which are components of gender.
Yes, he does. And you’re right: he is attracted to her even though he doesn’t know what her genitalia are like. He’s probably making an assumption that might or might not be correct, and this assumption is based on the gender properties he observes. If he’s not correct, this may change his attraction. Or not.
My mistake was using the word “attracted” in the quoted portion of my comment. What I should have said was “capable of sexual satisfaction with,” “sexually compatible,” or “genitally compatible,” which aren’t the same thing. While he may be initially attracted, he still doesn’t know whether or not he’s sexually compatible with her (though he assumes he is, which inspires the attraction).
I think you are also right that genitalia is not the most important thing for all monosexuals. I would bet it is for most, though. And at some point this is just a matter of how we define ‘monosexual’ (or ‘straight’, or ‘gay’). We could think of a 2-D version of the Kinsey scale, similar to what you discuss in an earlier comment, where gender is one axis and genitalia is another.
What I should have said was “capable of sexual satisfaction with,” “sexually compatible,” or “genitally compatible,” which aren’t the same thing.
I’m not sure that helps. Many people, even entirely monosexual people, are perfectly capable of sexual satisfaction with one another despite injury to or loss of their genitalia. So I would similarly object to defining “capable of sexual satisfaction with” and “sexually compatible” primarily in terms of genitals the way you do.
I’ll agree with defining “genitally compatible” that way, though.
If you’re willing to define people for whom genital compatibility is not primary as not-really-monosexual, then your claim is trivially true. That said, at that point you have also defined a lot of people as not-really-straight who would disagree vehemently with you.
I think that given that not all traits are observable, we make assumptions about common ones. Someone who doesn’t know that a female-appearing person has a penis is attracted to a false image of what that person’s like, said false image not completely matching the real person.
It seems unjustified to claim that in this case, they are attracted to that person because of their (false) belief that this person lacks a penis, or that they are attracted to that person because of their (false) belief that this person has a vulva, without further data.
I think “genetalia” is being used as shorthand for all sexual characteristics, both primary and secondary. Otherwise the idea of slowly going from women to futnari to men would be nonsensical, right?
I don’t know how to make that interpretation compatible with, for example, Blueberry’s claim that a straight cis male would not be attracted to a pre-op MtF, given that many sexual characteristics typical of women are present in a a pre-op MtF. (And, indeed, my understanding of the real world is that straight cis males are not infrequently attracted to pre-op trangender MtF people.)
But I would certainly agree that the claim that the “primary hurdle” for sexual attraction is the set of all sexual characteristics, both primary and secondary, is a much more sensible claim than the one I understood Blueberry to be making.
Blueberry’s claim that a straight cis male would not be attracted to a pre-op MtF, given that many sexual characteristics typical of women are present in a a pre-op MtF.
Did they actually make that claim? I saw you say it followed from their claim...
Well, whatever. As you say, it’s a more sensible claim regardless of whether anyone was actually making it :-P
For instance, a straight cisgender male is most likely primarily attracted to persons with vulvas, whether they identify as men or women. He might secondarily prefer women, but that’s a lesser “hurdle”. that is, there would be a possibility of sexual attraction to a FtM (gender = man, bio-female) but not a pre-op MtF (gender = woman, bio-male) because of genital incompatibility.
I’m pretty sure “a straight cis male would not be attracted to a pre-op MtF” is reliably implied by that quote, though of course I could be wrong.
This is precisely why I asked them to clarify the claim in the first place.
Huh.
So George, a straight cisgender male, walks into a dance club and sees Janey dancing. He can tell she presents as female from the way she dresses, her hair, her body shape, etc. He talks to her for a while, and he can tell she identifies as female—or at least claims to—from the things she says.
But her pants are still on.
If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying George does not know at this point whether he’s sexually attracted to Janey, because the “primary hurdle” hasn’t been crossed yet?
If so, you and I have very different understandings of how sexual attraction works. It seems relatively clear to me that George makes that determination within the first few minutes of seeing her, based on a variety of properties, many of which are components of gender.
If not, then I’m not really sure what you’re saying.
Yes, he does. And you’re right: he is attracted to her even though he doesn’t know what her genitalia are like. He’s probably making an assumption that might or might not be correct, and this assumption is based on the gender properties he observes. If he’s not correct, this may change his attraction. Or not.
My mistake was using the word “attracted” in the quoted portion of my comment. What I should have said was “capable of sexual satisfaction with,” “sexually compatible,” or “genitally compatible,” which aren’t the same thing. While he may be initially attracted, he still doesn’t know whether or not he’s sexually compatible with her (though he assumes he is, which inspires the attraction).
I think you are also right that genitalia is not the most important thing for all monosexuals. I would bet it is for most, though. And at some point this is just a matter of how we define ‘monosexual’ (or ‘straight’, or ‘gay’). We could think of a 2-D version of the Kinsey scale, similar to what you discuss in an earlier comment, where gender is one axis and genitalia is another.
I’m not sure that helps. Many people, even entirely monosexual people, are perfectly capable of sexual satisfaction with one another despite injury to or loss of their genitalia. So I would similarly object to defining “capable of sexual satisfaction with” and “sexually compatible” primarily in terms of genitals the way you do.
I’ll agree with defining “genitally compatible” that way, though.
If you’re willing to define people for whom genital compatibility is not primary as not-really-monosexual, then your claim is trivially true. That said, at that point you have also defined a lot of people as not-really-straight who would disagree vehemently with you.
I think that given that not all traits are observable, we make assumptions about common ones. Someone who doesn’t know that a female-appearing person has a penis is attracted to a false image of what that person’s like, said false image not completely matching the real person.
That’s certainly true.
It seems unjustified to claim that in this case, they are attracted to that person because of their (false) belief that this person lacks a penis, or that they are attracted to that person because of their (false) belief that this person has a vulva, without further data.
I think “genetalia” is being used as shorthand for all sexual characteristics, both primary and secondary. Otherwise the idea of slowly going from women to futnari to men would be nonsensical, right?
I don’t know how to make that interpretation compatible with, for example, Blueberry’s claim that a straight cis male would not be attracted to a pre-op MtF, given that many sexual characteristics typical of women are present in a a pre-op MtF. (And, indeed, my understanding of the real world is that straight cis males are not infrequently attracted to pre-op trangender MtF people.)
But I would certainly agree that the claim that the “primary hurdle” for sexual attraction is the set of all sexual characteristics, both primary and secondary, is a much more sensible claim than the one I understood Blueberry to be making.
Did they actually make that claim? I saw you say it followed from their claim...
Well, whatever. As you say, it’s a more sensible claim regardless of whether anyone was actually making it :-P
Quoth Blueberry:
I’m pretty sure “a straight cis male would not be attracted to a pre-op MtF” is reliably implied by that quote, though of course I could be wrong.
This is precisely why I asked them to clarify the claim in the first place.
Ah, right. I probably read that as including hormones and breast implants, but yours is certainly the simpler interpretation.