UNews - Lanna Petterson /unews/person/lanna-petterson en Globetrotting U of L sex researchers making a name for themselves /unews/article/globetrotting-u-l-sex-researchers-making-name-themselves <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item even" property="rnews:articlebody schema:articleBody"> <p>If the student researchers in Dr. Paul Vasey&rsquo;s lab aren&rsquo;t out in the field collecting data in far-flung places, they&rsquo;re presenting at international conferences and publishing articles.</p><p>In early July, an article in <em>Playboy</em> called Scott Semenyna and Lanna Petterson, both doctoral students in Vasey&rsquo;s lab, &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of sex research in Canada and termed the 免费福利资源在线看片 of Lethbridge a &ldquo;hotspot&rdquo; for this type of research.<div class="image-caption-container right" style="width:425px;"><img src="/unews/sites/default/files/Scott-SemenynaMain.jpg" alt=""></div></p><p>&ldquo;It feels so unearned to be called a rising star,&rdquo; says Semenyna. &ldquo;I am the beneficiary of a lot of people who have come before me. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m doing anything particularly great. These other people who have come before me and who help and support me, they&rsquo;re the people who really deserve the credit.&rdquo;</p><p>Semenyna studies competition for mates in cultures that recognize a third gender &mdash; same-sex-attracted males &mdash; such as the <em>muxes</em> in the Istmo region of Oaxaca, Mexico and the <em>fa&rsquo;afafine</em> in Samoa. The <em>fa&rsquo;afafine</em> and <em>muxes</em> are same-sex attracted feminine males, what North Americans might refer to as transgender.</p><p>His work in this area has led to attendance at international conferences and he recently returned from the International Academy of Sex Research conference in Madrid. While there, he was part of a symposium of people conducting cross-cultural research on gender and sexual orientation. Semenyna has served as the academy&rsquo;s student representative for the past three years and that has enabled him to attend the conference when it was held in Malm枚, Sweden, Charleston, South Carolina and, next year, Mexico City.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re very cool opportunities,&rdquo; he says.</p><p>Semenyna was also a student presenter at a recent Heterodox Psychology Conference inspired by the Heterodox Academy, an association of politically diverse professors and graduate students dedicated to increasing viewpoint diversity, mutual understanding and constructive disagreement.</p><p>Sex research typically draws a range of opinions, from those who say gender is a result of socialization to those who say biology influences gender. The topics Semenyna addressed included the origins of male sexual orientation, how culture modifies gender expression, and the consequences of more male bisexuality in third-gender cultures.</p><p>In Western cultures, same-sex attracted males are typically gay men who have relationships with other gay men. In third-gender cultures like Samoa, <em>fa&rsquo;afafine</em>&mdash;biological males who are attracted to masculine men&mdash;tend to be feminine in their gender presentation.</p><p>&ldquo;We would argue, based on evidence gathered over the past 15 years, that gay men and <em>fa&rsquo;afafine</em> share a lot in common,&rdquo; says Semenyna. &ldquo;There are a lot of biodemographic and biological markers that are really similar between the two groups. For example, they tend to come from bigger families, they have more older brothers, and it tends to cluster in families. About two to four per cent of the male population in the West is same-sex attracted and, in Samoa, the same exact proportion is <em>fa&rsquo;afafine</em>. For all of those reasons, we argue that this is just what same-sex attraction looks like in males in these cultures. The biological root is the same and the cultural expression is slightly different.&rdquo;</p><p>Semenyna also talked about how third-gender males don&rsquo;t tend to engage in sexual interactions with one another because they&rsquo;re not attracted to femininity, rather they&rsquo;re attracted to masculinity.</p><p>&ldquo;<em>Fa&rsquo;afafine</em> engage in sexual interactions with masculine men in Samoa who otherwise prefer women as partners,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot more male bisexual behaviour in these cultures. Because these third-gender males engage in sexual interactions with men, that means that women not only have to compete with other women, but also with <em>fa&rsquo;afafine</em>, in order to attract the attention of men.&rdquo;</p><p>The cutting-edge work that Semenyna, and other students studying under Vasey, have been doing is adding to the body of knowledge on sexual orientation and is garnering attention from afar.</p><p>Originally from Evansburg, Alberta, Semenyna heard Vasey give a talk when he was an undergraduate student studying at MacEwan 免费福利资源在线看片. Vasey&rsquo;s research and knowledge of evolutionary psychology piqued Semenyna&rsquo;s interest and he made the move to the U of L to pursue further studies with Vasey.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been great,&rdquo; he says.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field-group-format group_related_topics field-group-div group-related-topics block-title-body speed-fast effect-none"><h2><span>Related Topics</span></h2><div class="field field-name-opencalais-organization-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/organization/faculty-arts-science" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/organization/department-psychology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Department of Psychology</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-opencalais-person-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Person:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/person/dr-paul-vasey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Dr. Paul Vasey</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/person/lanna-petterson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Lanna Petterson</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/person/scott-semenyna" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Scott Semenyna</a></div></div></div></div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Globetrotting U of L sex researchers making a name for themselves" class="rdf-meta"></span> Thu, 16 Aug 2018 22:01:04 +0000 caroline.zentner 9860 at /unews Study to examine competition for mates in third-gender cultures /unews/article/study-examine-competition-mates-third-gender-cultures <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item even" property="rnews:articlebody schema:articleBody"> <p>Women in North America typically don&rsquo;t worry about gay men flirting with their boyfriends but in cultures that recognize same-sex-attracted males as a third gender, all bets seem to be off.</p><p>Dr. Paul Vasey, a psychology professor at the 免费福利资源在线看片 of Lethbridge, wants to investigate what happens to women&rsquo;s sexual psychology when they find themselves competing for mates with third-gender males. His proposed research study recently received more than $140,000 over four years from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).<div class="image-caption-container right" style="width:450px;"><img src="/unews/sites/default/files/PaulVaseyMain.jpg" alt=""></div></p><p>&ldquo;The research that I&rsquo;m proposing to do in this latest SSHRC grant takes a different approach,&rdquo; says Vasey. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t ask why same-sex sexuality exists. We&rsquo;re going to take it as a given that individuals who are same-sex attracted exist in the environment and we want to examine the influence they have on the behaviour and cognition of heterosexual individuals.&rdquo;</p><p>Most research in human mating psychology has separated reproductive interactions from non-reproductive encounters but Vasey maintains that sex for procreation and sex for recreation evolve in concert and can influence each other. He conducts research in cultures that recognize a third gender, specifically the muxes in the Istmo region of Oaxaca, Mexico, and the fa&rsquo;afafine in Samoa. The fa&rsquo;afafine and muxes are same-sex attracted feminine males or what could be called transgender in North America. Fa&rsquo;afafine and muxes will engage in sexual activity with masculine men who are bisexual, and bisexual males are quite commonplace in these cultures.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m asking questions about how those third-gender males influence women&rsquo;s behaviour and cognition,&rdquo; says Vasey. &ldquo;When you have these same-sex-attracted, feminine males in the environment and masculine men are willing to have sex with them, this creates a unique mating problem for heterosexual women. In such an environment, heterosexual women not only have to compete with other women like they do here in Canada, but they have to compete with these third-gender males as well.&rdquo;</p><p>Vasey, and graduate students Lanna Petterson, Scott Semenyna and Francisco Gomez, have conducted some preliminary interviews in these cultures, asking heterosexual women if a fa&rsquo;afafine or muxe had approached their boyfriends or husbands. One woman reported trying to compete by offering her boyfriend the same sexual services as the fa&rsquo;afafine, while another reported rejecting her boyfriend after he chose to be with a muxe over her.</p><p>&ldquo;No one has talked about these kinds of competitive mating interactions in the human literature,&rdquo; says Vasey. &ldquo;Ultimately, this research has implications for Darwinian sexual selection theory because sexual selection involves mate acquisition, which results in differential reproduction between individuals.&rdquo;</p><p>Previous research has shown women in North America say they would be more upset if their husbands or boyfriends had a one-night stand with another man, rather than with a woman. Women in Samoa, when asked the same question, say they would be more upset if their husbands or boyfriends had a one-night stand with a woman than with a fa&rsquo;afafine.</p><p>From an evolutionary perspective, Vasey says that a woman in North America interprets the situation and concludes her husband is gay. This is something she can&rsquo;t compete with so she foresees losing her husband. Faced with the same situation, a woman in Samoa likely concludes her husband is bisexual and will eventually return to her because he wants children. A husband who had a one-night stand with another woman would be more upsetting because the chances of her being abandoned would be greater.</p><p>Vasey and his students will conduct interviews, questionnaires and experiments in the lab here in Canada and at their field sites in Samoa and Mexico to obtain their data.</p><p>&ldquo;This research is cutting edge. We are the only lab in the world that has a sustained program of research on third-gender males,&rdquo; says Vasey. &ldquo;Studying non-traditional mating systems such as those that include Samoan fa&rsquo;afafine and Istmo Zapotec muxes can result in transformative new ways of theorizing about the dynamic interplay between reproductive and non-reproductive sex. This can help reconfigure our thinking and help to correct biased, incomplete or erroneous views about human sexual psychology.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field-group-format group_related_topics field-group-div group-related-topics block-title-body speed-fast effect-none"><h2><span>Related Topics</span></h2><div class="field field-name-opencalais-company-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Company:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/company/social-sciences-and-humanities-research-council-sshrc" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council SSHRC</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-opencalais-industryterm-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">IndustryTerm:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/industry-term/faafafine" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">fa&#039;afafine</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/industry-term/muxe" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">muxe</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/industry-term/third-gender-males" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">third-gender males</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/industry-term/transgender" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">transgender</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-opencalais-organization-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/organization/faculty-arts-science" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/organization/department-psychology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Department of Psychology</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-opencalais-person-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Person:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/person/dr-paul-vasey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Dr. Paul Vasey</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/person/francisco-gomez" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Francisco Gomez</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/person/lanna-petterson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Lanna Petterson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/person/scott-semenyna" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Scott Semenyna</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-opencalais-position-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Position:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/position/psychology-professor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">psychology professor</a></div></div></div></div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Study to examine competition for mates in third-gender cultures " class="rdf-meta"></span> Wed, 15 Nov 2017 21:20:12 +0000 caroline.zentner 8958 at /unews Disasters hit close to home for two U of L students /unews/article/disasters-hit-close-home-two-u-l-students <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item even" property="rnews:articlebody schema:articleBody"> <p>After experiencing the earthquake that Mexican authorities have called the largest in the country in 100 years, two 免费福利资源在线看片 of Lethbridge students know the devastation it caused and hope to bolster their own donations to recovery efforts by encouraging others to make a donation, however big or small.</p><p>The shaking and vibrating that caused concrete to move like liquid made Lanna Petterson (BA &rsquo;12; MSc &rsquo;15) and Francisco Gomez Jimenez, both doctoral students under the supervision of Dr. Paul Vasey, think they were being bombed. The magnitude-8.1 earthquake struck around 11 p.m. when they were in their hotel rooms for the night. Petterson and Gomez Jimenez were in Juchit谩n, Oaxaca working on their research projects. They had arrived on Aug. 23 and their data collection was nicely underway when the earthquake hit.</p><p>&ldquo;It was terrifying,&rdquo; says Gomez Jimenez. &ldquo;I was in my room and preparing to go to sleep. I felt a small shake. I thought &lsquo;This is just a small one; it will pass.&rsquo; But then it just got worse and worse and the whole building started moving from side to side. I just panicked. I didn&rsquo;t know what to do. For me, the worst part was how it sounded &mdash; like we were being bombarded.&rdquo;<div class="image-caption-container right" style="width:350px;"><img src="/unews/sites/default/files/VaseyStudents-Unews.jpg" title="Lanna Petterson (left) and Francisco Gomez Jimenez, two U of L graduate students, have put their research projects on hold but they hope to return to Juchit谩n in the future." alt=""><div class="image-caption">Lanna Petterson (left) and Francisco Gomez Jimenez, two U of L graduate students, have put their research projects on hold but they hope to return to Juchit谩n in the future.</div></div></p><p>&ldquo;I was in bed and all of a sudden the room started shaking. Your brain almost can&rsquo;t process what&rsquo;s happening,&rdquo; says Petterson. &ldquo;I kind of figured it was an earthquake but then the whole room was shaking, you hear this loud banging, you hear dogs barking outside. You can&rsquo;t really make sense of what&rsquo;s going on. I didn&rsquo;t know if the building was falling or what was happening.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I went to the corner of the room, braced my arms against the walls and looked at the ceiling. It was going side to side and looked like it was going to break and collapse at any point,&rdquo; says Gomez Jimenez. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how long it lasted. It felt eternal to me. Eventually, the sound was less intense and the lights went out. I ran downstairs from the third floor. The first thing I saw, fortunately, was my colleague. All the people from the hotel were in the lobby.&rdquo;</p><p><div class="image-caption-container left" style="width:250px;"><img src="/unews/sites/default/files/J1.jpg" title="A portion of the church across the street from the hotel where Lanna Petterson and Francisco Gomez Jimenez were staying crumpled during the earthquake that struck Juchit谩n on Sept. 7." alt=""><div class="image-caption">A portion of the church across the street from the hotel where Lanna Petterson and Francisco Gomez Jimenez were staying crumpled during the earthquake that struck Juchit谩n on Sept. 7.</div></div>People started making their way to an open market area where they spent the night. When daylight arrived, they could see the full extent of the damage. Houses had collapsed, a church had been turned to rubble and a third of the municipal palace had been destroyed. Two bars they had visited on occasion were crumpled, as was the copy store they used.</p><p>With no power, shelter, food or water, the pair decided the best course of action was to return to Canada, even though the decision was an agonizing one. They wanted to stay and help but also didn&rsquo;t want to be an additional burden or take supplies away from those who really needed them.</p><p>&ldquo;The next day in Mexico City there were donating centres so we filled a cart full of supplies. Still, they need all the help they can get,&rdquo; says Gomez Jimenez. &ldquo;Right now, we are donating what we can to the people in Juchit谩n, especially of course to friends of ours who need help. It&rsquo;s difficult to put yourself in a situation like this but every little bit that you donate helps. That&rsquo;s what people in these places need to feel &mdash; that they&rsquo;re not alone, that people are thinking about them and that they&rsquo;re willing to help.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Donating to the Red Cross or other organizations that are helping in Mexico and the different relief efforts that are going on in several countries that have experienced massive devastation recently is the best way to help,&rdquo; says Petterson.<div class="image-caption-container right" style="width:250px;"><img src="/unews/sites/default/files/J2.jpg" title="The powerful earthquake that struck Juchit谩n left homes and businesses in a pile of rubble." alt=""><div class="image-caption">The powerful earthquake that struck Juchit谩n left homes and businesses in a pile of rubble.</div></div></p><p>Back in Canada, Gomez Jimenez didn&rsquo;t have long to relax before Hurricane Maria tore through his homeland of Puerto Rico.</p><p>&ldquo;Puerto Rico is devastated,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Friends keep sending me pictures and videos and it just looks so bad. My friends and relatives are OK fortunately, but a lot of people are not. Other people lost their houses. I did feel bad about leaving Juchit谩n, which is why I want to go back to Puerto Rico and help however I can.&rdquo;</p><p>His mother was on a business trip in Brazil when the hurricane hit and she has been unable to get a flight back to Puerto Rico. Many people are staying in refugee centres.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping I&rsquo;m able to get there. After everything that has happened, I just need to see my family now. Earthquakes, hurricanes, it&rsquo;s just a little too much,&rdquo; he says, adding one of the communication towers at the airport was damaged so that&rsquo;s why flights have been hampered.</p><p>&ldquo;Even before this, we were in an economic crisis. There&rsquo;s a huge debt and I&rsquo;m sure this is going to make it a lot worse.&rdquo;</p><p>Gomez Jimenez encourages anyone who&rsquo;d like to help people in Puerto Rico to donate to their preferred disaster relief agency.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field-group-format group_related_topics field-group-div group-related-topics block-title-body speed-fast effect-none"><h2><span>Related Topics</span></h2><div class="field field-name-opencalais-organization-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/organization/department-psychology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Department of Psychology</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/organization/faculty-arts-science" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-opencalais-person-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Person:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/person/lanna-petterson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Lanna Petterson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/unews/person/francisco-gomez-jimenez" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Francisco Gomez Jimenez</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/unews/person/dr-paul-vasey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Dr. Paul Vasey</a></div></div></div></div><span property="rnews:name schema:name" content="Disasters hit close to home for two U of L students" class="rdf-meta"></span> Thu, 28 Sep 2017 19:51:53 +0000 caroline.zentner 9200 at /unews