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Bringing children up without knowledge of the opposite gender?

Hypothetically, if you raised a group of boys/girls in a carefully determined environment where they were without knowledge of the opposite gender, where do you think their sexual desires would lie? Do you think they would become homosexual?

This is morally unjustifiable and seemingly unfeasible though it does raise some interesting points on the whole nature/nurture issue.

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Reply 1

Nelo Angelo

Yes seeing as homosexuality occurs in the animal kingdom where there are no mates available.

As for seemingly unfeasible, we could always ask Josef Fritzl to build a basement for us.

Reply 2

ourlastmemory

I reckon they'd have a sexual desire but would perhaps lack the social information to know where to direct it to. Assuming humans still work by biological instinct when it comes to sex, you'd have the desire to mate but wouldn't know what to mate, you probably wouldn't know that it WAS the desire to mate although I guess you'd figure out your pleasure zones at some point. The homosexuality is a point, maybe their sexuality would have to be chanelled towards each other since they know nothing else.

Reply 3

death.drop

I reckon they'd gay it up big style.

Reply 4

moomin_love

ed_jnr

That would be an epic study. Shame about the number of ethical issues with it though! lol

Reply 5

ttx

ed_jnr

No. See the experience of feral children.

Reply 6

caroline147

Well, I went to an all-girls school and there was a disappointingly low level of lesbianism :dontknow:

Reply 7

Nick_000

caroline147

Well, I went to an all-girls school and there was a disappointingly low level of lesbianism :dontknow:

Lies. You were all muff divers :yes:

Reply 8

beautifulbigmacs

based on my own observation, i think it's possible for them to be confused and it can be a slow learning curve once they get out of the sheltered envirnonment but ultimately I would say that the confusion caused by sexual segregation can be very unhealthy. I used to think that all men were predatory as a result of being told to avoid boys throughout my adolescent life

Reply 9

ed_jnr

ttx

No. See the experience of feral children.

Can you explain to me how their experience would shed light on the question?

I'm only talking about depriving the children with the knowledge of the other gender. Everything else would be as close to normal as possible - think the Truman Show.

Reply 10

Toffee_Kid

ed_jnr

I think they would develop homosexual behaviour, but I think that many of the children would become bi/heterosexual upon entering the real world. The homosexual behaviour would only really exist to relieve sexual tension whilst the opposite sex isn't around.

It makes me think of the case where a baby boy had its penis removed after accidentally being destroyed during circumcision and was brought up as a girl. Things were OK until the child hit puberty, and then it became frustrated as it just didn't feel right in its own body. I guess it would be similar for some of the straighter teens out of the bunch, who would feel that although they were gaining sexual pleasure, there was something not quite right about fiddling with the same gender.

Reply 11

caroline147

Nick_000

Lies. You were all muff divers :yes:

Ha, if only. I swear all-boys/all-girls school just make the kids slags instead of gay. Your sig is hilarious by the way, I just tried typing it into Google again and one of the new ones is "can i get aids from a cat" :eyebrow:

On the other hand, OP, apparently after WW1 a lot of women turned gay as there weren't enough men to go around so maybe you're onto something?

Reply 12

The Harlequinn Mask

Homosexuality occurs when there are no mates available/to decrease population sizes. Everybody wants a little loving. . .

Either that or they would be very confused with any sexual emotions not knowing where to direct them

Reply 13

Zungie

Can't be bothered to find the citation, but in the Roman era (pre-dating christianity), it was commonplace for men to have sex with other men. It is a matter of 2,000 years of conditioning that makes us so homophobic by default.

Prison gay

I would say men would be more likely to turn gay then woman but I'm not really sure why.
I think it's because men have a desire penetrate something whereas women can get similar pleasure from masturbation as they would a gay relationship in terms of climaxing and without sexual attraction they may not see a purpose in using a partner. Obviously you can’t perform oral on yourself but you probably wouldn't even think of doing that if you had no knowledge of sex and no real sexual attraction to other people. But then maybe to desire to be touched and pleasured would over ride that... =/

I'm confused... methinks we should just get a group of people and see what happens.

hmmmm

Reply 16

ed_jnr

Zungie

Yeah, it was called pederasty (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty). That does work as evidence towards human bisexuality and so supports the idea that our own present day sexualities may be conditioned.

I wonder how much of that was socially forced however (e.g. teenage boys I think were often expected to be courted by older men).

Reply 17

JW92

death.drop

I reckon they'd gay it up big style.

This.

Their sexual desire wouldn't just go away.

The Hatman

Prison gay

This too.

Reply 18

mipegg

ed_jnr

Its not evidence towards human bisexuality at all, its evidence that in roman times it was thought socially correct to **** guys...

Reply 19

Blátönn

I don't think they'd turn gay. Frankly the thought of even kissing another man makes me feel physically sick. If I was stranded on a desert island and had the choice of sex with guys or celibacy I'd be celibate. The natural instinct is to reproduce, not simply to screw.