Hi Jeffery. When you said that I right away thought of the Kinsey Scale. While that is a much simplified graph of sexual experience and desire, we all have varying degrees of what we like and at one point or another in our lives. And it's good that the variables can be a topic of discussion. Being fully heterosexual or fully homosexual i…
Hi Jeffery. When you said that I right away thought of the Kinsey Scale. While that is a much simplified graph of sexual experience and desire, we all have varying degrees of what we like and at one point or another in our lives. And it's good that the variables can be a topic of discussion. Being fully heterosexual or fully homosexual is part of the picture for some, I feel. But we all know ourselves. And who can really fit into any of those graphs or boxes anyway?
There are the aspects of attraction like intellectual and social and such that can be a bit like falling in love with the moment with someone. Doesn't necessarily mean you're interested in sex or care what their body parts are. I find that attraction from a variety of angles is a great way to be more tuned into the moment.
Kinsey used terrible methodology. I do not remotely assume he offered a good model of understanding. His estimates of the percentage of people who are same-sex or both-sexes attracted have been contradicted a bunch of times, be it by Simon LeVey working on a physical model (a neural scientist who's a gay political activist) as well as people doing surveys, such as the gay advocacy group the Marshall Institute (UCLA) and others.
To re-post from above.
I know a whole bunch of people who came through a crucible at the same time, we were part of the anarchist/left communist milieu in the SF Bay Area in the mid/late '70s. Bisexuality was put forth by many in that milieu as being the norm, and someone was deemed not truly liberated till acknowledging this "fact." I went through some of the same pressures in the anarchist/post-modernist Berkeley scene in the '90s. Anyone who cannot accept my heterosexuality can kindly fuck off.
Well, yes, Kinsey had some serious flaws. But at that time to actually say out loud and with research behind it to say there are more people experiencing and desiring homosexuality than society wants us all to believe was pretty groundbreaking.
But as far as percentages? Who really knows. Survey and research are a small segment of how the real world is living. I don't care how elaborate or well funded the research is. Generally when there's big money behind it, there's that pesky agenda lurking in the shadows, no matter the research topic.
A bunch of studies have been made, they've all reached very similar figures, despite starting from totally different places, be they physical, cultural or psychological. Why would gay advocacy people and centers understate the numbers?
To clarify, my earlier "kindly fuck off remark" was in the context of what i experienced in those communities and may experience in dissent communities in the future. Not at all personally directed at either you or Eric.
Thanks, Iva, i wanted to make sure readers were clear on that too. I guess i've accumulated a lot of bad feelings about being pressured about that matter from all sorts of directions, be it from the correctness anarchists/"Situationists" i described being around, or from my father, who kept saying back when i was in college that he'll send me to a psychiatrist to see if i was gay (he used a different term) because i wasn't dating girls (try doing that while being an asocial engineering student in uptight late 60s New York outside the East Village or the like), or those who threatened me with gay bashing on UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza for jeering speakers at a Fundi Christian rally who were using extreme homophobic language in their rants.
Hi Jeffery. When you said that I right away thought of the Kinsey Scale. While that is a much simplified graph of sexual experience and desire, we all have varying degrees of what we like and at one point or another in our lives. And it's good that the variables can be a topic of discussion. Being fully heterosexual or fully homosexual is part of the picture for some, I feel. But we all know ourselves. And who can really fit into any of those graphs or boxes anyway?
There are the aspects of attraction like intellectual and social and such that can be a bit like falling in love with the moment with someone. Doesn't necessarily mean you're interested in sex or care what their body parts are. I find that attraction from a variety of angles is a great way to be more tuned into the moment.
Kinsey used terrible methodology. I do not remotely assume he offered a good model of understanding. His estimates of the percentage of people who are same-sex or both-sexes attracted have been contradicted a bunch of times, be it by Simon LeVey working on a physical model (a neural scientist who's a gay political activist) as well as people doing surveys, such as the gay advocacy group the Marshall Institute (UCLA) and others.
To re-post from above.
I know a whole bunch of people who came through a crucible at the same time, we were part of the anarchist/left communist milieu in the SF Bay Area in the mid/late '70s. Bisexuality was put forth by many in that milieu as being the norm, and someone was deemed not truly liberated till acknowledging this "fact." I went through some of the same pressures in the anarchist/post-modernist Berkeley scene in the '90s. Anyone who cannot accept my heterosexuality can kindly fuck off.
Well, yes, Kinsey had some serious flaws. But at that time to actually say out loud and with research behind it to say there are more people experiencing and desiring homosexuality than society wants us all to believe was pretty groundbreaking.
But as far as percentages? Who really knows. Survey and research are a small segment of how the real world is living. I don't care how elaborate or well funded the research is. Generally when there's big money behind it, there's that pesky agenda lurking in the shadows, no matter the research topic.
A bunch of studies have been made, they've all reached very similar figures, despite starting from totally different places, be they physical, cultural or psychological. Why would gay advocacy people and centers understate the numbers?
To clarify, my earlier "kindly fuck off remark" was in the context of what i experienced in those communities and may experience in dissent communities in the future. Not at all personally directed at either you or Eric.
did not even consider the thought that you directed anything about your comment at me or Eric. I am not judging your sexuality at all.
Thanks, Iva, i wanted to make sure readers were clear on that too. I guess i've accumulated a lot of bad feelings about being pressured about that matter from all sorts of directions, be it from the correctness anarchists/"Situationists" i described being around, or from my father, who kept saying back when i was in college that he'll send me to a psychiatrist to see if i was gay (he used a different term) because i wasn't dating girls (try doing that while being an asocial engineering student in uptight late 60s New York outside the East Village or the like), or those who threatened me with gay bashing on UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza for jeering speakers at a Fundi Christian rally who were using extreme homophobic language in their rants.
not taking it personally - this is sensitive territory