Viewing time measures of sexual orientation in Samoan cisgender men who engage in sexual interactions with fa'afafine.

Lanna J Petterson,Anthony C Little,Paul L Vasey,Barnaby J Dixson,Cheryl Mccormick

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0116529

Lanna J Petterson, Anthony C Little + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0116529

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Abstract

Androphilia refers to attraction to adult males, whereas gynephilia refers to attraction to adult females. The current study employed self-report and viewing time (response time latency) measures of sexual attraction to determine the sexual orientation of Samoan cisgender men (i.e., males whose gender presentation and identity is concordant with their biological sex) who engage in sexual interactions with transgender male androphiles (known locally as fa’afafine) compared to: (1) Samoan cisgender men who only engage in sexual interactions with women, and (2) fa’afafine. As expected, both measures indicated that cisgender men who only engaged in sexual interactions with women exhibited a gynephilic pattern of sexual attraction, whereas fa’afafine exhibited an androphilic one. In contrast, both measures indicated that cisgender men who engaged in sexual interactions with fa’afafine demonstrated a bisexual pattern of sexual attraction. Most of the cisgender men who exhibited bisexual viewing times did not engage in sexual activity with both men and women indicating that the manner in which bisexual patterns of sexual attraction manifest behaviorally vary from one culture to the next.

Highlights

In many cultures, worldwide, more than two genders are recognized beyond the binary of “man” and “woman”
Calculations of the discrepancies in self-reported sexual attraction to images of men and images of women revealed a mean score of M = 4.15, SD = 1.39 for fa’afafine; M = -3.23, SD = 1.55 for men who only engage in sexual interactions with women; and, M = -1.38, SD = 2.65 for men who engage in sexual interactions with fa’afafine
The current study employed measures of self-reported sexual attraction and viewing time to determine whether Samoan cisgender men who engage in sexual interactions with fa’afafine exhibit a bisexual, gynephilic, or androphilic pattern of sexual attraction when compared to: (1) Samoan cisgender men who only engage in sexual interactions with women, and (2) fa’afafine

Summary

Introduction

Worldwide, more than two genders are recognized beyond the binary of “man” and “woman” (the terms male and female refer to an individual’s biological sex, regardless of the individual’s gender role presentation as a boy/man, girl/woman, or otherwise). It is possible that the cisgender men in question are truly gynephilic (i.e., sexually attracted to adult females), but they have sex with transgender androphilic males when they are unable to access adult women Such a compromise may seem perplexing from a Western cultural perspective, in cultures where transgender male androphilia predominates, a substantial number of cisgender men may prefer sex with women whenever they are given the choice, but may exhibit relatively little sexual aversion to the idea of engaging in certain types of same-sex sexual interactions with transgender males if women unavailable [14]. If the cisgender men who engage in sexual interactions with fa’afafine are androphilic, they should exhibit patterns of self-reported sexual attraction and response latencies that are similar to those of fa’afafine

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