A Life History Approach to the Female Sexual Orientation Spectrum: Evolution, Development, Causal Mechanisms, and Health

Archives of Sexual Behavior
Severi LuotoMarkus J Rantala

Abstract

Women's capacity for sexual fluidity is at least as interesting a phenomenon from the point of view of evolutionary biology and behavioral endocrinology as exclusively homosexual orientation. Evolutionary hypotheses for female nonheterosexuality have failed to fully account for the existence of these different categories of nonheterosexual women, while also overlooking broader data on the causal mechanisms, physiology, ontogeny, and phylogeny of female nonheterosexuality. We review the evolutionary-developmental origins of various phenotypes in the female sexual orientation spectrum using the synergistic approach of Tinbergen's four questions. We also present femme-specific and butch-specific hypotheses at proximate and ultimate levels of analysis. This review article indicates that various nonheterosexual female phenotypes emerge from and contribute to hormonally mediated fast life history strategies. Life history theory provides a biobehavioral explanatory framework for nonheterosexual women's masculinized body morphology, psychological dispositions, and their elevated likelihood of experiencing violence, substance use, obesity, teenage pregnancy, and lower general health. This pattern of life outcomes can create a feedback l...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 23, 2018·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Aurelio José FigueredoMateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre
Nov 21, 2019·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Severi LuotoIndrikis Krams
Jan 12, 2020·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Kenneth J Zucker
Oct 11, 2019·Journal of Research on Adolescence : the Official Journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence·Gu Li, Jacqueline T M Davis
Jun 1, 2020·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Severi Luoto
Dec 24, 2018·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Indrikis KramsMarkus J Rantala
Dec 20, 2019·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Severi LuotoIndrikis Krams
Jul 17, 2020·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Itztli Trejo-SánchezGabriel Gutiérrez-Ospina
Dec 5, 2018·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Siobhán M MattisonKatherine Wander
May 24, 2019·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Severi LuotoMarkus J Rantala
Aug 10, 2020·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Andrew B Barron
Sep 5, 2020·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Lindsay A CoomeDoug P VanderLaan
Oct 10, 2018·Scientific Reports·Tuesday M WattsGerulf Rieger
Nov 22, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Markus J RantalaIndrikis Krams
Jan 2, 2021·Data in Brief·Severi Luoto, Andreas van Cranenburgh
Jan 10, 2021·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Markus J RantalaIndrikis Krams
Feb 28, 2021·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Severi Luoto
Mar 24, 2021·Psychoneuroendocrinology·Severi LuotoIndrikis A Krams
Apr 6, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Severi Luoto, Marco Antonio Correa Varella
Apr 9, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Marco Antonio Correa VarellaJaroslava Varella Valentova
Apr 30, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Adam Bode, Geoff Kushnick

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