Gay or Not

[Tomcat]

(alan1chef @ Nov. 06 2007,09:07) I do not agree with the premise of categorization, period. I believe that categorization is discrimination.

The whole point of the Humanities is to study social groups and categorize..like the social class system for example. How the hell can you have an Academic forum without recourse to Acedemia...

Society is complex so you have to break it down in small bits to understand it. The point of an Academic forum i thought was to discuss the finer points of recent studies etc etc .

How can you study society without breaking it down. You cant, period. I doubt if all the studies that have been done are for the benefit of people who think they are Gay or not...The pink pound or dollar is big bucks and thats one good reason for winkling out the finer points of Homosexuality...queers are big spenders..

[Monkey]

(Tomcat @ Nov. 06 2007,08:35) ...queers are big spenders..

Mostly because they don't have a money grabbing ex-wife and a bunch of kids running about spending their hard-earned for them.

That's my theory anyway....

[newwriter]

Have we not thrashed this to death? I've realised I can enjoy sex with femboys and CD's just as much as I ever did with women and then with big-boobed LB's. I've moved along the continuum and I feel much the same as I ever did. I still struggle with confessing these urges to family and long time friends but I am at ease with myself and if that means I am a bit gay then I wish I'd had the realisation earlier in my life.

Let's leave it be. As a group we are (or mostly are) a fairly tolerant and lucid bunch and we should just accept each other's peccadilloes, recognise that even on this forum we are all a little different and enjoy what's left of our lives in the realisation we have opened up a whole new range of sexual fun that is denied to those who can't or won't think outside the straight box.

[alan1chef]

Well Tomcat, you are right about the driving force behind these types of studies....money. Sociologists will study anything if someone is willing to fund it. Our hope here is that these studies will help society as a whole become more tolerant and accepting of the fact that while the world is full of different people...in the end they are all people and different is a good thing. Dr. Stephen Covey, in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, discusses this very idea. It is good to seek out different people because in understanding why they are different, we expand our knowledge and acceptance.

[Tomcat]

As for myself i think that the humanities , social sciences  and Philosophy have not much left to offer in the way of understanding how people work. As far as i am concerned we are just a long molecule called DNA which produces a brain that reacts with the enviroment in various ways..

The smart Supermarket groups employ neuroscientists to study peoples traits now not sociologists.

[Guest]

The anthropologists and sociologists help us understand how we got here, so it helps a bit in maybe seeing where we're going.

While I know it's a really tough slog, the Boswel book is really good. And what I can say is it did help me get a better grip on how society became polarized between majorities (=good) and minorities (=bad). There is a historical logic to it in how societies developed. I don't know if this is true, but it seems the internet is making minorities stronger, so some of this is starting to reverse. However, by and large this is society today if you think about it, i.e., majorities good, minorities bad.

I don't really think categories create discrimination. Discrimination is there before you give names to it. The categories merely help give a language to use to be able to talk about something. Without that language it's pretty much impossible to talk about any topic.

It might be that in 25 years, neuroscientists will be telling the sociologists why things happen the way they do, because the mind will be more fully mapped. So on this one I agree with TC.

[Tomcat]

Another point of view comes from the well respected Anthropologist , Edward O Wilson. His book , called "Consilience"( The Unity of Knowledge) published around 2000, is an attempt to link the Humanities , Philsosphy with the Natural Sciences in what he termed a coming together of knowledge.

His main ideas is that all the differnet strands of investigation should be united to bring forth a different kind of understanding instead of being just cold reductionist as Neuroscience ect etc  somestimes is.

I must admit that i re read Wilson book around two months ago and it does offer a differnet angle. As for categorization , Wilson is trying to categorise every living thing on the planet and as he is about 98 years old he may fail.

Whatever your views on how we are what we are this book is one that i beg anybody to read. Its not a cold read either and Wilson does have a sense of humour.
The Academic world will be a lot poorer when he passes away. Wilson is no armchair theorist and all his studies have been peer reviewed. One of the greats...........

[Guest]

i don't like guys, i like girls, but i also like ladyboys! i don't like labels, but unfortunately thats life!

[stogie bear]

but unfortunately thats life...

No it isn't. A 'label' is an artificial attribute that you can choose to adopt or not.

Most people on this forum are smart enough to know that labels simply don't work in the context and complications of sexual preference.

[Guest]

'No it isn't. A 'label' is an artificial attribute that you can choose to adopt or not.
Most people on this forum are smart enough to know that labels simply don't work in the context and complications of sexual preference.'


I agree with you, but that doesn't stop people putting a label on you, regardless of what you or me think?

[69billy]

(ajdon @ Jan. 15 2008,13:30) I agree with you, but that doesn't stop people putting a label on you, regardless of what you or me think?

Who gives a flying fuck what they think...And this is the only time SB made any sens for a long time...

[vangough05]

(69billy @ Jan. 16 2008,04:32)

(ajdon @ Jan. 15 2008,13:30) I agree with you, but that doesn't stop people putting a label on you, regardless of what you or me think?

Who gives a flying fuck what they think...And this is the only time SB made any sens for a long time...  

I agree with you Billy, fuck what is happening to me

[CHRIME]

I am not gay.
In my real life I have a girlfriend many years. On holiday in Thailand I have many fun with girls and ladyboys. With gays I have little bit problems. I don't like gays.

[kahuna]

(CHRIME @ May 07 2008,06:13) I am not gay. On holiday in Thailand I have many fun with girls and ladyboys. With gays I have little bit problems. I don't like gays.

That's about the most homophobic statement I've had the pleasure of reading here...

Watch out it's contagious...you hang around here you just might be infected with the gay disease....

[Guest]

...you don't like like gays?