The following five paragraphs are quoted from Imprinted Sexual Fantasies.
To see the wider context, go to the table
of contents.
This section begins on page 134.
C. The Quest for Genetic Explanations of Sex-Scripts.
Another bias in sex-script research will be
genetic assumptions:
Unchangeable differences must be caused by genes.
The mass media love genetic explanations because of their simplicity.
If 100 studies describe non-genetic origins of sexual fantasies
and one study suggests that sexual responses are transmitted by DNA,
the media will report the one genetic study.
In part, the bias toward genetic assumptions
can be explained by the internal experience of sexual fantasies:
We just discover ourselves to be possessed by our sex-scripts.
We do not know where our imprinted sexual fantasies came from.
But we know we have ‘always’ had these responses.
So we easily assume that our sex-scripts were encoded in our DNA.
Human sex-scripts are clearly the descendants
of animal instincts.
Therefore it is very reasonable to search for human sexual instincts.
As more and more aspects of human life (for example, diseases)
are found to have some genetic component,
some people jump to the conclusion
that eventually everything will be explained by looking at our genes.
Sex-and-gender minorities such as homosexuals,
who have been persecuted,
might also favor genetic explanations for political reasons:
If their particular variation can be traced to genetic causes,
then they are not themselves responsible for how they feel sexually.
And it would be just as unreasonable to persecute homosexuals
as to persecute people born with red hair.
But the sex-script hypothesis suggests the
same moral conclusion:
Even if our sex-scripts are imprinted rather than given by DNA,
we did not choose our particular patterns of sexual response.
Nevertheless, we are always responsible for our sexual behavior.
134 IMPRINTED SEXUAL
FANTASIES: A NEW KEY FOR
SEXOLOGY by JAMES PARK
{four paragraphs omitted from this Internet version}
The analogy of a human being’s first language
might be helpful.
All of us experience our native languages as natural to our beings.
Whenever we think, we are using our mother tongue.
We do not remember ever learning our first language.
Our words have been in our brains for as long as we can remember.
Chapter
X
RESEARCHING HUMAN
SEX-SCRIPTS
by JAMES
PARK
135
And yet, no genetic scientists seek the place on the
human genome
where the English language is encoded (or any other language).
From the vast diversity of human languages,
we know that there is no natural language.
(And from the vast diversity of human sexual fantasies,
we know that there is no natural sex-script.)
However, it is natural for all human beings to have some language.
So the capacity for language must ultimately reside in human genes.
(Likewise the capacity for sexual imprinting must reside in our genes.)
But just which language gets imprinted in the first few months of life
depends entirely on the language spoken by the adults around the infant.
(And what sex-scripts get imprinted in an individual’s sex-file
depends on critical experiences within the first two decades of life.)
According to the hypothesis of this book,
there are no ‘hard-wired’ human sex-scripts.
The capacity to be imprinted with any sexual fantasies
must reside ultimately in our genes:
Human genes cause every human brain to develop in such a way
that sexual fantasies can be imprinted.
But our specific sex-scripts must be like our specific languages:
Both native language and sex-scripts are imprinted early in life.
We acquire both very quickly and without effort.
Both native language and sex-scripts remain in our brains thru-out life,
no matter what later education or experiences we have.
And we do not remember the process by which either was imprinted.
(This hypothesis of sexual imprinting is explored more completely in
Chapter 1.)
Because language is universal in human beings,
there must be a genetic basis for language capacity
(a genetically-given ‘language-file’).
But there are no genes for the English language.
Likewise there must be a genetic basis for sex-script capacity
(a genetically-given ‘sex-file’).
But there are no genes for fantasies of raping or being raped.
As we learn more about the processes that
create sex-scripts,
we will discover genetic, physiological, & neurological bases
for the possibility of sexual imprinting,
but we will find no such bases for specific sexual fantasies.
According to the sex-script hypothesis,
the empty sex-file is genetically given (like the empty language-file),
but the specific contents of each sex-file are imprinted after birth,
probably during critical periods in the first two decades of life.
136 IMPRINTED SEXUAL
FANTASIES: A NEW KEY FOR
SEXOLOGY by JAMES PARK
The 2 pages quoted above come from Imprinted
Sexual
Fantasies: A New Key for Sexology by James Park.
The complete table of contents will appear if you click the title above.
The page numbers appear at the bottoms of the pages.
Several words have bold face in the printed version.
These additional features do not appear in this Internet version.