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Biased Use of Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Male Homosexuality in Human Sexuality Textbooks

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 1998 by Bruce Rind

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(a) Listed pages contain mentions or discussions of cross-cultural or historical examples of societies with sanctioned forms of homosexuality, or of reviews of these societies.

Stimulus Material

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Analysis of the use of perspective in the textbooks was based on finding all included historical or cross-cultural examples of specific societies or groups of related societies that approved of and practiced transgenerational, transgenderal, or egalitarian homosexuality, and then evaluating the appropriateness of their use. For each textbook, all pages containing these examples were located by (a) searching the index for the key words historical perspective, cross-cultural perspective, homosexuality, and pederasty,; (b) searching the index for well known examples (e.g., ancient Greece, New Guinea); (c) examining the chapters in which these pages were found for further examples; and (d) examining the introductory chapter, the chapter on homosexuality, and the chapter that included coverage of pedophilia. All relevant pages were photo-copied for later evaluation by judges. The textbooks themselves were also used in a separate analysis to establish whether a given textbook presented man-man sex and man-boy sex in our society as morally and conceptually distinct, as Masters et al. (1985) did. If so, then its use of historical and cross-cultural examples of the latter to provide perspective only on the former could then be logically and validly viewed as bias. The chapters on homosexuality and pedophilia were examined to assess whether such distinctions were drawn.

Coding Instrument

A coding instrument was developed to evaluate the use of perspective in the textbooks. A separate standard sheet, consisting of rows and columns, was used for each textbook. On each row, judges recorded information about a mention of a specific society or a group of related societies. Separate mentions of the same example were coded in separate rows. In the first few columns, the names of the examples to be coded along with their location (i.e., chapter, page number) were already provided for the judges. Each remaining column was headed by instructions informing judges how to code a given example. Judges coded the typology of the example (transgenerational, transgenderal, egalitarian, or some combination of these), how it was described (e.g., man-man sex, man-boy sex, not described), how it was labeled (homosexual, pederastic, pedophilic, not labeled), and why it was used (e.g., to provide perspective on gay sexuality, pedophilia, or children's sexuality, or to discuss origins of homosexuality). In the last column, judges answered whether its use was appropriate (yes, no, or mixed). On a separate sheet of paper "appropriate" was defined. If a transgenerational example was used to provide perspective on Western homosexuality, its use was inappropriate. If this example was used to address specific issues deemed to be relevant to Western homosexuality, such as the origins of homosexual orientation, then its use was appropriate (e.g., the Sambians, with their continual same-sex activities from age 7 to their early 20s, are relevant to theories of origin such as learning theory or script theory). If this type of example was used to provide perspective on Western man-boy sex, it was also appropriate. A transgenderal example was recorded as appropriate if used for perspective on Western homosexuality. A mixed rating could be used if the example was perceived by a judge to have both appropriate and inappropriate aspects.

Health Care Industry

Biased Use of Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Male Homosexuality in Human Sexuality Textbooks

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 1998 by Bruce Rind

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