At 12:31 PM 11/24/2005, Walt Byars wrote:
Why does this imply its a choice? I can't see why something being environmentally determined necessarily makes it more of a choice than being biologically determined (or determined by processes in utero). Also, just because someone thinks one thing (aristocracy) is environmentally and not biologically determined, doesn't mean they think everything is.
I don't think it implies it's a choice. Rather, it comes from a larger Christian tendency to believe we're born bad anyway (human) and part of being a Christian is to deny those bad behaviors, thoughts, instincts, desires. The thing that's interesting is the focus on gays and that stems from the tendency in our culture to believe that gays have an uncontrollable sexual drive that can't be tamed as easily as it can among straights can tame their impulses. It's like I always ask members of Testosterone Central (my kid and the boys I've other mothered over the years). They will often say, "Gay people don't bother me. Be gay, just stay away from my ass." I say, "So, what? I take it you look at girls and want to screw them, right? do you act on that desire, right then and there or do you try to get to know her first? And do you really want to screw someone who doesn't want you and makes clear she has no interest? Why do you think gay men are like this?" Methinks, when I'm being ungenerous and in amood to overgeneralize and not respect straight mens claims about their sexuality, that they're just projecting. i.e, they've been taught that being straight is founded on being NOT gay. In order to exorcise themselves of any lingering possibilities of homoerotic desire, they pour into their stereotypes of gay men: total horn dog, 24/7, who'd screw anything that moves. Which is pretty much how young people feel at certain hormonally charged times. As they are taking on their sexual identity, they are alarmed by their fantasies (which may include things like knot holes in trees, pillows, shoes, pies in the face (see LBO) or whatever. They are alarmed b/c we're taught that those things are too weird for words. So, you must exorcise the fantasies -- because they're bad. Gay men get to bear them: they're the ones who fuck anything that moves. In order to preserve straight horn dog for themselves, they have to both aggressively resist anything vaguely gay and aggressively display their heterosexuality. Aggressive may be too strong a word, but for some of the more manly types it fits pretty well: the guys with the sexy posters of women all over the place, etc. Beats me, but I thought I'd riff on it a bit, much to the dismay of the anti-Freudians on the list, no doubt. :) Bitch|Lab: "Come for the animal porn, stay for the cultural analysis" --Michael Berube http://blog.pulpculture.org
