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The Guardian
p. 1 15 February 2007
The Guardian
G2 p. 28
27 March 2007
The Guardian
Money p. 1
20 December 2008
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2008/12/20/
pdfs/gdn_081220_mon_1_21498956.pdf
28 August 2004
Ex-policy chief says party hijacked
A senior
adviser
to the Liberal Democrats who quit his role
as chairman of its working
group on employment
claims the party has been "hijacked
by
a coterie of laissez-faire economists"
determined to reject
EU minimum standards
in the workplace.
Headline and
§1
G
23
September 2004
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/sep/23/
uk.society1
voila UK
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2009/mar/13/
paris-top-looks-and-trends
vérité USA
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/
too-much-relationship-verite/
voyage
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2005/oct/30/
art
espionage
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/world/
espionage
chanteuse
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/28/
arts/music/marlena-shaw-dead.html
coiffure
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/dec/03/
populism-is-all-about-hair-
what-rightwing-leaders-are-trying-to-tell-us-with-their-wild-coiffures
ingredients
USA
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/27/
1152155481/meal-prep-made-easy
triage
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/27/
stress-exhaustion-1000-patients-a-day-english-gp-nhs-collapse
melee
USA
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/18/
544521100/gun-carrying-protesters-create-tricky-question-for-aclu
intrigue
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/
world/middleeast/al-masri-abdullah-qaeda-dead.html
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/19/
544580016/what-trumps-increasing-isolation-could-mean-for-his-presidency
debut UK
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/sep/08/
arts.mercuryprize2004
debut
USA
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/09/19/
349847465/examining-bill-cosbys-legacy-as-the-cosby-show-turns-30
détente
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/
world/asia/china-us-fentanyl-iran-north-korea.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2018/02/10/
584863661/amid-olympic-d-tente-pence-snubs-north-koreans-
in-visit-to-pyeongchang
auteur
USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/
arts/bernadette-lafont-actress-in-new-wave-films-dies-at-74.html
concierge
USA
http://www.npr.org/2017/10/12/
557040239/in-the-age-of-concierge-apps-real-life-concierges-tout-the-human-element
bric-à-brac
USA
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/28/
530362673/why-the-sgt-peppers-cover-art-matters-as-much-as-the-music
tranche
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/
opinion/letters/us-politics-civil-war.html
contretemps
UK
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/15/
martin-amis-arguing-prince-charles-rushdie-fatwa
contretemps
USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/02/
books/andre-schiffrin-publishing-force-and-a-founder-of-new-press-is-dead-at-78.html
charade
USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/28/
opinion/guantanamos-charade-of-justice.html
la crême de la crême
> crême de ma crême USA
http://www.npr.org/2016/07/31/
487902853/second-acts-heather-headley-is-back-on-broadway-
after-a-15-year-intermission
émigrés
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/
nyregion/syracuse-teens-sheriff-shooting.html
fusillade USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/nyregion/
gunman-kills-20-children-at-school-in-connecticut-28-dead-in-all.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/us/
10green.html
vaudeville USA
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/02/04/
461942790/making-science-teaching-more-than-a-backup-plan
métier USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/
arts/09jacques.html
manoeuvre UK
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/10/
rosetta-space-probe-mission-farewell-collision-course-comet-67p-philae
troubadour USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/nyregion/
the-man-up-the-hill-in-his-log-cabin-who-sang-and-sailed-to-save-his-river.html
mardi gras USA
http://www.npr.org/2016/02/08/
465758335/for-mardi-gras-les-bon-temps-rouler-in-mobile-ala-too
grandeur UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/17/
solemn-grandeur-thatcher-funeral
sobriquet USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/
education/mariam-chamberlain-womens-champion-dies-at-94.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/16/
nyregion/ella-fitzgerald-the-voice-of-jazz-dies-at-79.html
camaraderie UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/interactive/2012/dec/25/
best-photographs-2012-in-pictures
camaraderie USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/
sports/basketball/at-these-pickup-games-the-camaraderie-never-gets-old.html
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/26/
307150142/at-the-nra-meeting-come-for-the-guns-stay-for-the-camaraderie
en masse UK
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/apr/24/
royal-wedding-princess-diana-grief
en masse
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/
opinion/teachers-quitting-education-crisis.html
en route to N
USA
https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2021/01/19/
958436585/biden-bids-emotional-farewell-to-delaware-
en-route-to-the-presidency
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/21/
516464644/elusive-bull-is-apprehended-in-new-york-city
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/
28soldier.html
soirées UK / USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/
style/oscar-parties-celebrities.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/19/
showgirl-silvio-berlusconi-bunga-bunga-parties
morose USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/
opinion/blow-the-morose-middle-class.html
blasé USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/
opinion/sunday/dowd-a-past-not-past.html
anecdote UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/10/
politicians-thatcher-anecdotes
detour USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/
politics/26bai.html
pied-à-terre
UK / USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/
opinion/shadows-over-central-park.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/
greathomesanddestinations/
a-spirited-game-of-musical-rooms-
on-the-upper-west-side.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/16/
knightsbridge-flat-sold-for-136m
avant-garde UK
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/29/
fragments-of-paradise-review-
broadly-sketched-portrait-of-film-maker-jonas-mekas
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/24/
barney-rosset
extraordinaire UK / USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/
obituaries/alan-abel-dies.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/03/
iain-banks-my-fife-friend
immense UK
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2023/nov/30/
the-secret-plan-to-hook-the-developing-world-on-oil-podcast
enfant terrible UK
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/
arts/music/peter-maxwell-davies-contrarian-british-composer-dies-at-81.html
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/27/
jake-dinos-chapman-come-and-see-review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/13/
damien-hirst-painting-exhibition-art
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/feb/15/
highereducation.topstories3
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/apr/29/2
exploit USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/
world/africa/23cables.html
esprit de corps USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/14/
business/vintage-cars-great-race.html
ruse USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/nyregion/
convicts-escape-prison-in-upstate-new-york.html
brouhaha USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/
opinion/19collins.html
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/
when-were-equal-well-be-happy/
potpourri USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/
arts/dance/30fall.html
malaise UK / USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/
us/politics/pandemic-politics-malaise.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/04/
rebuild-faded-towns-britain
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/
has-zuckerberg-like-frankenstein-lost-control-of-the-monster-he-created
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/
opinion/a-global-economic-malaise.html
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/
the-glass-floor-problem/
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/07/07/
is-egypt-evolving-or-collapsing/how-egypt-can-avoid-becoming-the-next-pakistan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/06/
why-is-britain-becoming-intolerant
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/oct/26/us
news.motoring
louche
grotesque USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/
opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html
impromptu UK
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/08/
margaret-thatcher-death-party-brixton-glasgow
camouflage
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/
business/29shrink.html
carte blanche UK
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/
hungary-jail-for-coronavirus-misinformation-viktor-orban
éminence grise UK / USA
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=7SAPxYpoHXw -
RT UK - 27 March 2018
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/nyregion/
in-wake-of-newtown-shootings-nra-leader-faces-big-challenge.html
bête noire USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/
books/michael-thomas-dead.html
film noir
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/28/
after-the-maltese-falcon-how-film-noir-took-flight
femme fatale
UK / USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/
opinion/dowd-man-in-the-mirror.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/sep/22/
tourist-trailer-johnny-depp-angelina-jolie
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/31/
film.filmfestivals
gamine (adjective) UK
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jan/16/
susannah-york-dies-battle-cancer
grande dame UK / USA
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/11/
angela-lansbury-the-smart-scene-stealing-grande-dame-of-our-screens-for-75-years
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/arts/design/eve-arnold-photographer-dies-at-99.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/25/claire-tomalin-biographer-charles-dickens
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/arts/16gibson.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/02/beryl-bainbridge-dies
grand guignol USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/theater/reviews/04swee.html
cul-de-sac UK / USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/opinion/cul-de-sac-poverty.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/01/benefits-fraud-investigators
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/business/05house.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/23bethone.html
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/oct/08/research.highereducation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/jul/17/communities.homes
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/nov/01/architecture.regeneration
outré UK
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/oct/18/
britishidentity.travelnews
fanfare UK
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/oct/20/
waitrose-ad-heston-blumental
gaffe UK
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/19/
christine-odonnell-church-and-state-gaffe
coup de grace
farce UK
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/mar/11/michaeljacksontrial.music
tirade UK
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/23/
war-islamism-hatred-violence-blair-cameron-toxic
clique UK
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/20/uselections2004.comment
fracas UK / USA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/16/adam-boulton-interview
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/weekinreview/19steinhauer.html
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/oct/19/realitytv.broadcasting
bizarre UK
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/12/
coronavirus-stress-lockdown-dreams-vivid-scientists
bizarre USA
https://www.propublica.org/article/
wisconsin-legislative-maps-bizarre-are-they-illegal - November 17, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/
sports/baseball/in-a-bizarre-finish-the-cardinals-stumble-into-a-victory.html
nonchalance USA
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/
coronavirus-advice-from-mexicos-president-live-life-as-usual
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/nyregion/
panicked-evacuations-mix-with-nonchalance-in-hurricane-sandys-path.html
rapprochement USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/us/cuba-exiles-at-miami-
rally-denounce-obama.html
finesse USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/
opinion/03sat1.html
connaisseur / connoisseur
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/sep/19/
features.magazine37
bouquet UK
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/sep/19/
features.magazine37
elite UK
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/05/
quango-lobby-cuts-welfare-state
detente
doyenne UK
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/oct/21/
dailymail.pressandpublishing
protege / protégé
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/11/
1197958770/we-unpack-diddy-hip-hop-and-me-too
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/
arts/music/prince-death-judith-hill-plane.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/world/middleeast/
protegee-of-arafat-offers-in-show-ironic-take-on-a-conflict.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/magazine/what-timothy-geithner-really-thinks.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/us/16lipscomb.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/sports/baseball/21vecsey.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/oct/16/arts.artsnews
etiquette UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/oct/18/britishidentity.travelnews
noblesse oblige
crème de la crème
soufflé UK
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/may/16/
moonrise-kingdom-review
largesse
terrain
badinage
bourgeois
nouveaux riches
nom de guerre USA
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/13/
1205448988/hamas-military-mohammed-deif-gaza-israel
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/
world/middleeast/al-masri-abdullah-qaeda-dead.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/world/europe/
jovanka-broz-titos-widow-is-dead-at-88.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/world/europe/
raymond-aubrac-a-leader-of-the-french-resistance-dies-at-97.html
nom de plume USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/
t-magazine/le-corbusier-japan-modernism.html
deluge USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/
nyregion/ny-coronavirus-hospitals.html
avalanche (figurative)
UK / USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/
opinion/inflation-disinflation-economists.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/
us-us-senate-healthcare-tax-idUSTRE7347K120110405
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/17/
obama-campaigns-to-avert-defeat-in-elections-next-month
avalanche > avalanche of criticism
USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/business/yourmoney/27deal.html
Je ne regrette rien
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/sep/16/
conservativeparty.theeuro
laissez-faire UK
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/20/
the-more-children-you-have-the-more-laissez-faire-you-get-mick-jagger-
on-ageing-rage-and-missing-charlie-watts
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/21/
just-7-per-cent-of-stockholm-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/16/
regulation-banking-finance-madoff-business
fin-de-siècle USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/
arts/design/25vienna.html
bonhomie USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/world/middleeast/
netanyahu-rushes-to-repair-damage-with-obama.html
comme ci comme ça USA
http://www.npr.org/2017/04/30/
525739624/ladies-and-gentlemen-the-revolution-princes-band-on-reuniting-and-healing
risqué UK / USA
http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/
theater/helen-hanft-master-of-camp-way-off-broadway-dies-at-79.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/apr/19/
beyonce-risque-world-tour-outfits
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/apr/10/
broadcasting.uknews
fiancé
cliché / clichés / cliche
UK / USA
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/26/
five-myths-contemporary-classical-music
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/
opinion/brooks-that-other-obama.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/19/
action-cliche-expendables
fêted
poignant
raison d'être
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/
opinion/15herbert.html
cause célèbre / celebre
UK / USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/
nyregion/john-artis-dead.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/18/
925198663/black-man-serving-life-sentence-for-stealing-hedge-clippers-granted-parole
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/10/
khadija-siddiqi-case-fight-all-pakistani-women-courts-stab-victim
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/us/
jailed-ex-army-officer-has-support-but-not-from-his-platoon.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/
sports/rubin-hurricane-carter-fearsome-boxer-dies-at-76.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/douthat-justice-after-troy-davis.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/15/woman-attempted-suicide-pregnant-accused
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/feb/28/serge-gainsbourg-20-scandalous-moments
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/us/07norfolk.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/us/05moose.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/27/iraq.alqaida
dilettantes
UK
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/jun/18/art.politicsandthearts
à la carte USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/
business/cbs-to-offer-web-subscription-service.html
trompe-l'oeil
amateur UK
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2023/dec/11/
best-of-2023-dark-waters-how-the-adventure-of-a-lifetime-turned-to-tragedy-
podcast - Guardian podcast
genre
reconnaissance UK
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jan/20/
july-7-london-bombings-trial
billet-doux
cherie amie
petite
pas de deux
reservoir USA
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/11/
1148421818/heavy-rain-is-still-hitting-california-
a-few-reservoirs-figured-out-how-to-captu
déjà vu
/ deja vu UK / USA
https://www.propublica.org/article/
the-enraging-deja-vu-of-a-third-coronavirus-wave - Nov. 13, 2020
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/06/20/
621972727/for-some-japanese-americans-border-separations-are-deja-vu
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/31/
547568681/harvey-feel-like-katrina-d-j-vu-not-so-fast
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/11/09/
501445793/the-outlook-on-race-after-trump-victory-fear-resignation-and-d-j-vu
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/
magazine/its-clinton-deja-vu-new-hampshire-brings-snow-
and-rumors-of-campaign-implosion.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/dec/15/
denzelwashington.actionandadventure
par excellence UK
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2004/09/02/
the-other-president
entente
entente cordiale
premiere
naïveté
denouement UK
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/aug/31/
tomcruise
panache USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/
arts/design/07pace.html
provocateur UK / USA
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/08/
1230024588/tucker-carlson-putin-interview-video
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/10/
1181536076/brittney-griner-airport-alex-stein-right-wing-provocateur
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/us/
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... Whether he's rich or white,
whether he went to an ivy or a safety,
whether he lives in a family compound
or a pied-à-terre...
Doonesbury
by Garry Trudeau
GoComics
February 26, 2012
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2012/02/26
The Guardian p. 18 20 October 2004
Corpus of news articles
Language >
French words used in English
Pas de Deux of Sexuality
Is Written in the Genes
April 10, 2007
The New York Times
By NICHOLAS WADE
When it comes to the matter of desire, evolution leaves little to chance.
Human sexual behavior is not a free-form performance, biologists are finding,
but is guided at every turn by genetic programs.
Desire between the sexes is not a matter of choice. Straight men, it seems, have
neural circuits that prompt them to seek out women; gay men have those prompting
them to seek other men. Women’s brains may be organized to select men who seem
likely to provide for them and their children. The deal is sealed with other
neural programs that induce a burst of romantic love, followed by long-term
attachment.
So much fuss, so intricate a dance, all to achieve success on the simple scale
that is all evolution cares about, that of raisingthe greatest number of
children to adulthood. Desire may seem the core of human sexual behavior, but it
is just the central act in a long drama whose script is written quite
substantially in the genes.
In the womb, the body of a developing fetus is female by default and becomes
male if the male-determining gene known as SRY is present. This dominant gene,
the Y chromosome’s proudest and almost only possession, sidetracks the
reproductive tissue from its ovarian fate and switches it into becoming testes.
Hormones from the testes, chiefly testosterone, mold the body into male form.
In puberty, the reproductive systems are primed for action by the brain. Amazing
electrical machine that it may be, the brain can also behave like a humble
gland. In the hypothalamus, at the central base of the brain, lie a cluster of
about 2,000 neurons that ignite puberty when they start to secrete pulses of
gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which sets off a cascade of other hormones.
The trigger that stirs these neurons is still unknown, but probably the brain
monitors internal signals as to whether the body is ready to reproduce and
external cues as to whether circumstances are propitious for yielding to desire.
Several advances in the last decade have underlined the bizarre fact that the
brain is a full-fledged sexual organ, in that the two sexes have profoundly
different versions of it. This is the handiwork of testosterone, which
masculinizes the brain as thoroughly as it does the rest of the body.
It is a misconception that the differences between men’s and women’s brains are
small or erratic or found only in a few extreme cases, Dr. Larry Cahill of the
University of California, Irvine, wrote last year in Nature Reviews
Neuroscience. Widespread regions of the cortex, the brain’s outer layer that
performs much of its higher-level processing, are thicker in women. The
hippocampus, where initial memories are formed, occupies a larger fraction of
the female brain.
Techniques for imaging the brain have begun to show that men and women use their
brains in different ways even when doing the same thing. In the case of the
amygdala, a pair of organs that helps prioritize memories according to their
emotional strength, women use the left amygdala for this purpose but men tend to
use the right.
It is no surprise that the male and female versions of the human brain operate
in distinct patterns, despite the heavy influence of culture. The male brain is
sexually oriented toward women as an object of desire. The most direct evidence
comes from a handful of cases, some of them circumcision accidents, in which boy
babies have lost their penises and been reared as female. Despite every social
inducement to the opposite, they grow up desiring women as partners, not men.
“If you can’t make a male attracted to other males by cutting off his penis, how
strong could any psychosocial effect be?” said J. Michael Bailey, an expert on
sexual orientation at Northwestern University.
Presumably the masculinization of the brain shapes some neural circuit that
makes women desirable. If so, this circuitry is wired differently in gay men. In
experiments in which subjects are shown photographs of desirable men or women,
straight men are aroused by women, gay men by men.
Such experiments do not show the same clear divide with women. Whether women
describe themselves as straight or lesbian, “Their sexual arousal seems to be
relatively indiscriminate — they get aroused by both male and female images,”
Dr. Bailey said. “I’m not even sure females have a sexual orientation. But they
have sexual preferences. Women are very picky, and most choose to have sex with
men.”
Dr. Bailey believes that the systems for sexual orientation and arousal make men
go out and find people to have sex with, whereas women are more focused on
accepting or rejecting those who seek sex with them.
Similar differences between the sexes are seen by Marc Breedlove, a
neuroscientist at Michigan State University. “Most males are quite stubborn in
their ideas about which sex they want to pursue, while women seem more
flexible,” he said.
Sexual orientation, at least for men, seems to be settled before birth. “I think
most of the scientists working on these questions are convinced that the
antecedents of sexual orientation in males are happening early in life, probably
before birth,” Dr. Breedlove said, “whereas for females, some are probably born
to become gay, but clearly some get there quite late in life.”
Sexual behavior includes a lot more than sex. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at
Rutgers University, argues that three primary brain systems have evolved to
direct reproductive behavior. One is the sex drive that motivates people to seek
partners. A second is a program for romantic attraction that makes people fixate
on specific partners. Third is a mechanism for long-term attachment that induces
people to stay together long enough to complete their parental duties.
Romantic love, which in its intense early stage “can last 12-18 months,” is a
universal human phenomenon, Dr. Fisher wrote last year in The Proceedings of the
Royal Society, and is likely to be a built-in feature of the brain. Brain
imaging studies show that a particular area of the brain, one associated with
the reward system, is activated when subjects contemplate a photo of their
lover.
The best evidence for a long-term attachment process in mammals comes from
studies of voles, a small mouselike rodent. A hormone called vasopressin, which
is active in the brain, leads some voles to stay pair-bonded for life. People
possess the same hormone, suggesting a similar mechanism could be at work in
humans, though this has yet to be proved.
Researchers have devoted considerable effort to understanding homosexuality in
men and women, both for its intrinsic interest and for the light it could shed
on the more usual channels of desire. Studies of twins show that homosexuality,
especially among men, is quite heritable, meaning there is a genetic component
to it. But since gay men have about one-fifth as many children as straight men,
any gene favoring homosexuality should quickly disappear from the population.
Such genes could be retained if gay men were unusually effective protectors of
their nephews and nieces, helping genes just like theirs get into future
generations. But gay men make no better uncles than straight men, according to a
study by Dr. Bailey. So that leaves the possibility that being gay is a
byproduct of a gene that persists because it enhances fertility in other family
members. Some studies have found that gay men have more relatives than straight
men, particularly on their mother’s side.
But Dr. Bailey believes the effect, if real, would be more clear-cut. “Male
homosexuality is evolutionarily maladaptive,” he said, noting that the phrase
means only that genes favoring homosexuality cannot be favored by evolution if
fewer such genes reach the next generation.
A somewhat more straightforward clue to the origin of homosexuality is the
fraternal birth order effect. Two Canadian researchers, Ray Blanchard and
Anthony F. Bogaert, have shown that having older brothers substantially
increases the chances that a man will be gay. Older sisters don’t count, nor
does it matter whether the brothers are in the house when the boy is reared.
The finding suggests that male homosexuality in these cases is caused by some
event in the womb, such as “a maternal immune response to succeeding male
pregnancies,” Dr. Bogaert wrote last year in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. Antimale antibodies could perhaps interfere with the usual
masculinization of the brain that occurs before birth, though no such antibodies
have yet been detected.
The fraternal birth order effect is quite substantial. Some 15 percent of gay
men can attribute their homosexuality to it, based on the assumption that 1
percent to 4 percent of men are gay, and each additional older brother increases
the odds of same-sex attraction by 33 percent.
The effect supports the idea that the levels of circulating testosterone before
birth are critical in determining sexual orientation. But testosterone in the
fetus cannot be measured, and as adults, gay and straight men have the same
levels of the hormone, giving no clue to prenatal exposure. So the hypothesis,
though plausible, has not been proved.
A significant recent advance in understanding the basis of sexuality and desire
has been the discovery that genes may have a direct effect on the sexual
differentiation of the brain. Researchers had long assumed that steroid hormones
like testosterone and estrogen did all the heavy lifting of shaping the male and
female brains. But Arthur Arnold of the University of California, Los Angeles,
has found that male and female neurons behave somewhat differently when kept in
laboratory glassware. And last year Eric Vilain, also of U.C.L.A., made the
surprising finding that the SRY gene is active in certain cells of the brain, at
least in mice. Its brain role is quite different from its testosterone-related
activities, and women’s neurons presumably perform that role by other means.
It so happens that an unusually large number of brain-related genes are situated
on the X chromosome. The sudden emergence of the X and Y chromosomes in brain
function has caught the attention of evolutionary biologists. Since men have
only one X chromosome, natural selection can speedily promote any advantageous
mutation that arises in one of the X’s genes. So if those picky women should be
looking for smartness in prospective male partners, that might explain why so
many brain-related genes ended up on the X.
“It’s popular among male academics to say that females preferred smarter guys,”
Dr. Arnold said. “Such genes will be quickly selected in males because new
beneficial mutations will be quickly apparent.”
Several profound consequences follow from the fact that men have only one copy
of the many X-related brain genes and women two. One is that many neurological
diseases are more common in men because women are unlikely to suffer mutations
in both copies of a gene.
Another is that men, as a group, “will have more variable brain phenotypes,” Dr.
Arnold writes, because women’s second copy of every gene dampens the effects of
mutations that arise in the other.
Greater male variance means that although average IQ is identical in men and
women, there are fewer average men and more at both extremes. Women’s care in
selecting mates, combined with the fast selection made possible by men’s lack of
backup copies of X-related genes, may have driven the divergence between male
and female brains. The same factors could explain, some researchers believe, why
the human brain has tripled in volume over just the last 2.5 million years.
Who can doubt it? It is indeed desire that makes the world go round.
Pas de Deux of Sexuality
Is Written in the Genes,
NYT,
10.4.2007,
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/
health/10gene.html
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