#25 – Do Women have a Sexual Orientation?

In episode 25, Dr. Zhana and Joe talk to J. Michael Baily about sexual orientation: What is it and do women have one?

Sexual orientation, although widely agreed upon to exist, is still disputed by some in the scientific community. Specifically, women’s sexual orientation has been questioned based on the assumption that women are more likely to be able to “change” their sexual orientation. Speaking with us about his work on sexual orientation on this episode is J. Micahel Bailey.

About Our Guest

J. Michael Bailey has been involved in research in a wide variety of fields and has one of the most diverse research programs of anyone in Canada. Currently he has over 8200 citations in Google Scholar, over 500 from the last calendar year. These are in fields as diverse and divergent as herpetology, space biology, and human sexuality. Most of Bailey’s research now is in psychology and health. An important part of his life has been as a science communicator. For ten years, he was a columnist on the TV science news show “Daily Planet” as well as “Scientist-in-Residence” for an additional five years for the Canadian Discovery Channel. While at Dalhousie University, he received the two major science communicator awards available in eastern Canada.

Don’t Miss this Week’s Foreplay…

You’ve heard of “ghosting,” but you probably haven’t heard of “mosting.” The term was first coined by MEL Magazine back in January and has been trending on social media in recent days. Journalist Tracy Moore wrote, “Mosting is when someone goes overboard on the fluff job and then vanishes. It’s not just someone being complementary and flattering; it’s someone faking being totally smitten when they aren’t.” She later clarified to the Huffington Post, “Mosting is ghosting, but where before you ghost, you completely love bomb the person with praise, compliments and faux perfect soulmate-type stuff.”

Male birth control might be a reality sooner than we thought. A new, small study presented in Chicago at the annual Endocrine Society meeting found an experimental drug called dimethandrolone (or DMAU), is both safe and effective. In a month-long trial involving 83 men, the drug was found to lower hormone levels without signs of testosterone deficiency or excess. Study authors said there was “marked suppression” of testosterone and of two hormones necessary for a man to produce sperm for those who took 400mg of DMAU, the highest dose. More research is needed before DMAU becomes a viable option for male birth control, but this drug is considered “a major step forward in the development of a once-daily “male pill.”

Afterglow

Porn Hub announced that it’s offering a $25,000 grant to fund a “human sexuality research project” to support university professors and researchers who supervise student fieldwork. The creation of the Pornhub Grant for Sexual Wellness coincides with the relaunch of the site’s Sexual Wellness Center (which I am featured on!), where users can read hundreds of articles on all aspects of sexual health. The grant aims to advance sexual research, whether it be “technological, medical or sociologically rooted,” according to a press release that boasts 85 million-plus visitors per day.

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