Scientific constructions, cultural productions: Scientific narratives of sexual attraction

Abstract

<p>People are assigned to the male and female sex according to the morphology of their genitalia. On the basis of this division there is an assumed biological underpinning which not only causes a host of secondary, physical differences between the sexes, but is assumed to cause sex differences in behaviour as well. Equally doubtful, therefore, must be the commonly held assumption that sexual attraction in heterosexual relationships results entirely from sex characteristics of the opposite sex. It has long been known by artists of Eastern and Western cultures that the mix can be exploited very effectively in just about any art form. Breeches roles for women and transvestite roles for men began to become part of the repertoire in Western culture once theatre was permitted and freed from the church’s influence in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.</p>