They also manifested higher internalized homophobia-essentially the degree of self-loathing linked to their homosexual desires.
(3) Tops were more likely than both bottoms and versatiles to reject a gay self-identity and to have had sex with a woman in the past three months. In a 2008 issue of Sexual and Relationship Therapy, these scientists reported that tops were more likely to be the insertive partner in everything from sex-toy play to verbal abuse to urination play. In fact, this finding of the generalizability of top/bottom self-labels to other types of sexual practices was also uncovered in a correlational study by David Moskowitz, Gerulf Reiger and Michael Roloff. For example, tops also tend to be the more frequent insertive partner during oral intercourse. (2) Compared to bottoms, tops are more frequently engaged in (or at least they acknowledge being attracted to) other insertive sexual behaviors. That is to say, based on self-reports of their recent sexual histories, those who identify as tops are indeed more likely to act as the insertive partner, bottoms are more likely be the receptive partner, and versatiles occupy an intermediate status in sex behavior. (1) Self-labels are meaningfully correlated with actual sexual behaviors. Among the group’s major findings- reported in a 2003 issue of The Journal of Sex Research -were these: Several years ago, a team of scientists led by Trevor Hart at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta studied a group of of 205 gay male participants. These are the so-called “Men Who Have Sex With Men” (or MSM) who are often in heterosexual relations as well. Still other men refuse to self-label as tops, bottoms, versatiles or even “gay” at all, despite their having frequent anal sex with gay men. For a small minority, the distinction doesn’t even apply, since some gay men lack any interest in anal sex and instead prefer different sexual activities. In fact, survey studies have found that many gay men actually self-identify as “versatile,” which means that they have no strong preference for either the insertive or the receptive role. submissive”) and others not-well, not for Scientific American, anyway. People who derive more pleasure (or perhaps suffer less anxiety or discomfort) from acting as the insertive partner are referred to colloquially as “tops,” whereas those who have a clear preference for serving as the receptive partner are commonly known as “bottoms.” There are plenty of other descriptive slang terms for this gay male dichotomy as well, some repeatable (“pitchers vs. What’s more, the study of self-labels in gay men has considerable applied value, such as its possible predictive capacity in tracking risky sexual behaviors and safe sex practices. The ubiquity of homosexual behavior alone makes it fascinating. Whether we’re talking about a penis in a vagina or one in an anus, it’s human behavior all the same. But the great thing about good science is that it’s amoral, objective and doesn’t cater to the court of public opinion. I’m very much aware that some readers may think that this type of article does not belong on this website. But like most aspects of human sexuality, it’s not quite that simple. Rather, the distinction concerns gay men’s sexual role preferences when it comes to the act of anal intercourse.
No, I’m not referring to the relative generosity or gift-giving habits of homosexuals. It’s my impression that many straight people believe that there are two types of gay men in this world: those who like to give, and those who like to receive.