Some speculation on homophobia

[Lorizael]

I'm vaguely bisexual now but when I was much younger I was fairly well disgusted by homosexual acts. Not the people, but the acts themselves. I just found the images and thoughts to be completely the opposite of attractive.

Thinking about it now, it's essentially akin to the feeling I get when I think about having sex with old people or animals (that might sound entirely offensive to gays (or old people) but remember that I feel differently now). It was just a matter of... my brain not even recognizing men to be sexual in any way, and so being very confused when forced to do so.

I think it's that confusion, fear of the unknown sort of thing that gets a lot of people.

[Cyclotron]

Re: Some speculation on homophobia

Originally posted by Elok
Well, tomorrow's May Day, my college's gigantic nude bacchanal...

Wait, wait. Your college has a "gigantic nude bacchanal?" We just have marches for "International Workers' Day." Where is this college and how can I transfer?

[Dis]

Well the OP kind of puts it in a strange way. Though it may be true.

But if it is. Then you have to deal with it. It's only fair that men should have to deal with what women have had to put up with for many many years. Horny men who only want to screw them.

I'm perfectly fine knowing every gay man out there wants to have sex with me.

But seriously. I have many of those thoughts of women. But I still do respect women. And I know the kinds of **** they have to put up with. That's why I rarely say anything offensive to women (I just think it). It's only fair that men should have to endure some of what women have to put up with.

there is no excuse for homophobia, just as there is no excuse for women to hate men.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Cyclotron

-I've never met a really, virulently homophobic woman. Or even a homophobic woman at all. They may exist, but I haven't encountered them.

Boy, I sure have. I'm not sure this can be used as a basis for an argument.

mostly it tends to be older people. Most of my older relatives such as my mother don't like gay people.

[Dis]

Originally posted by DaShi
Homophobic men don't like gay men because they are afraid that they'll be treated the same way that they treat women.

Which was the point I was trying to make, but you said it in much better words than me.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Old people by and large are some of the more cliched bigots. Old dogs new tricks as it were.

Get them into an old folks home where they all get to b1tch unmercifully to each other and it turns into a regular propoganda machine.

[Tattila the Hun]

But homo's are scary! Just like spiders. Though, they bite less.

[DRoseDARs]

Or do we...

[Dis]

long as it isn't during fellatio.

I'm okay with all other forms of biting.

[Elok]

Re: Re: Some speculation on homophobia

Originally posted by Cyclotron
Wait, wait. Your college has a "gigantic nude bacchanal?" We just have marches for "International Workers' Day." Where is this college and how can I transfer?

Eh, it began at midnight last night with an outdoors party...this was my first time attending, since last year Orthodox Easter fell on May 1 and "it was public-nudity day" is not a valid excuse for missing the greatest feast day of the year. I'm not going to positively try to go to hell. Anyway, it was a disappointment.

See, it generally is supposed to start with everyone (generally drunk and/or stoned) gathering on the Campus Green. Around midnight everyone gets naked and runs around the flagpole, acting like a fool and loving it. The night passes in a blur of loud parties indoors (I suspect I wouldn't have slept much if it weren't for vodka). The next day, everyone is at liberty to walk around naked, but few people now dare, this being the information age with cell-phone cameras and such. Nobody wants their picture circulating around the internet for years for forty-year-old men to jerk off to. But that wasn't what was disappointing.

I went outside at 11:50. People were already starting to dance around the flagpole, but the rest of the massive crowd of idiots, fresh from the bar, were just standing there in a mob taking pictures and yelling crap. Since I had a generous tot of vodka in me at this point, I guessed this was some weird part of the May Day tradition and densely went into the crowd of nude dancers to ask them to explain how this system worked. I would have asked the big crowd of gawkers, but they were busy making dumb cat-call type noises.

Aside from insisting that I at least take my shirt off if I was going to join them, the naked people didn't really pay attention to me. I irritably tugged my shirt off, but they just went back to dancing and yelling at the crowd that was yelling at them. I was plastered enough that I would have shucked my pants too if it weren't for two things:

A. It was frigging FREEZING out (for a May night in MD), and
B. I didn't want the jerk fratboys in the crowd stealing my wallet and dorm keys as a joke or something.

Really, May Day isn't all that sexual. It's more about a celebration of the college spirit, I think, wherein scads of young people get together and do something supremely stupid just for fun, knowing there will be no real consequences. That was the impression I got from the dancers, many of whom were whooping, playing musical instruments, or spinning around in circles until they fell down. My prudish side objects to orgies, but making an ass out of yourself while drunk is one of the most fun things to do in life, and I approve of it.

However, the crowd did not seem to be getting that impression of the activity. When they weren't taking pictures, they repeatedly yelled "******s, ******s," noting that most of the dancers were guys. Because, obviously, dancing around while possibly too drunk to sustain a woody is a form of sex. Every once in a while a guy would streak into the dancing crowd and stay there, to try and encourage the ladies. It didn't work, though. I suspect the women were not shy for lack of company, it was just something about the gigantic army of people staring and taking pictures. Eww. So I eventually stumbled back indoors and gave up. Everyone in my dorm assured me that this year's May Day was really lame. I imagine it's only going to get worse too.

I wanted to yell, "honestly, people, I don't mind seeing some boob myself, I've been single all my life; but you don't see me standing there and yowling like I'm at a strip club. This is a night for drunken revelry. Getting to see the jigglies that have been 'hidden' under tank tops in our classes all year happens to be a side benefit. Grow up."

[Dis]

mmm jigglies

[Lorizael]

But it's always more fun to see the jigglies of people you know than those of complete strangers.

[Elok]

I concur with those statements. But I really can't blame the girls for being shy when there was a whole army of psychos just standing there, taking pictures and gazing expectantly like a dog hoping his master will drop a snausage. "We're staring like the Children of the Corn, and they're STILL not comfortable taking their shirts off? WTF?"

Besides, all they had to do was chuck an article of clothing and joined in, and they could have seen all of it up close. Morons. Ruining a perfectly good night of drunken hijinks plus the opportunity to see their classmates hopping au naturale. I got irritated enough to form a Facebook group titled "May Day is not a @#$% strip club, genius!" just to blow off steam. We'll see how it does on membership.

[Lorizael]

Reminds me of most rock concerts I've been too. Any girl that gets on her boyfriend's shoulders is expected to be topless. And if she's not, she's goaded or booed as appropriate.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Lorizael
Reminds me of most rock concerts I've been too. Any girl that gets on her boyfriend's shoulders is expected to be topless. And if she's not, she's goaded or booed as appropriate.

I'm okay with that. If they are blocking my view, then they should at least be providing a view of their own.