Sexuality:
We all evolved to have a sexual driving force. This much seems obvious. Without it, our cars would have never
been able to make the long evolutionary journey. Our targeting mechanism for that force, preference, I believe
operates in a spectrum. I think that our preferences for who or what we have sex with are influenced by evolution,
but only to a certain degree. A preference for younger women, for instance, is a general trend with males
throughout the world for good evolutionary reason (a higher likelihood of successfully giving birth to a healthy
child and passing on one’s genes), but that doesn’t mean that every man wants a younger woman. Indeed, it is
quite possible to impregnate women who possess a wide variety of characteristics; there is no reason why a
twenty year old man cannot impregnate a thirty year old woman. The point is that there is a range that one’s
preferences can lie within and still be able to reproduce. The only essential ingredient once you’re within that
range is the desire to have sex, which I think is a fairly predominate quality in humans.
People’s preferences, on the other hand, in how they go about expressing these sexual desires, vary quite
considerably across the human spectrum. This implies that humans are inherently sexual, not heterosexual or
homosexual, but simply sexual. This is why people masturbate in spite of the fact that it has no reproductive or
evolutionary value. Also, it accounts for why many prisoners who do not consider themselves gay engage in
homosexual activity. It also explains studies which have shown that many teenagers have had homosexual
thoughts at some point during their maturation. I believe that our preferences have been greatly shifted towards
the heterosexual end of the spectrum because that is the only way to reproduce and pass on one’s genes, but
once you are pointed generally in that direction, you will probably reproduce and pass on your genes. This is
particularly true if societal pressures exist to promote heterosexuality and deter homosexuality.
Evolution occurs due to genetic mutations (without which progress could never be made), so parents who
possess some degree of homosexual preference, however slight, could quite possibly have a child whose
preference is shifted even farther down the spectrum towards homosexuality. I believe that this is why
homosexuality still exists in today’s world, because otherwise, it would have been weeded out as it is the ultimate
evolutionary dead end. The fact that we are merely sexual, as opposed to either heterosexual or homosexual,
also explains homophobia. It is understandable that someone who thinks that there are only two clear-cut
options, gay or straight (or possibly bi-sexual, which seems to me to be more accurate than the two extremes),
might be frightened when they encounter a little glimpse of themselves that is attracted to the same sex. Sex is
very important, and this would challenge their existing view on the subject. So they must either adjust their mental
framework which is not an easy thing to do for most people, or start to worry that they might be gay and in turn
take steps to try and resist that. This is particularly true when there exists increased societal pressures regarding
sexuality. Society obviously plays a big role in helping shape our sexual preferences, as well as any other
preferences that we have for that matter. Sexuality is quite possibly our most significant evolutionary urge, and
for all intents and purposes, the vast majority of us are what traditionally would be viewed as ‘straight’, but in the
end, to one degree or another, we are all a little bit gay.