Dear Sappho,
You said that the ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a form of social identity as Western societies have done for the past century. In this post racist world wouldn’t it be nice to look at each person separately and not think in terms of race, color, sex, gender, or creed but the human being inside.
What a different world it would be if we did not have to see it in such strict terms of duality: male, female, butch, fem, boy, girl. I mean are there really differences between straight and gay people? That got me thinking about gaydar, sexual identity and how to tell the difference. Do you have gaydar and how do you define your sexual orientation?
Dear Defining Sexual Orientation
ReplyDeleteSexuality is fluid but sexual orientation is usually discussed in terms of three categories: heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, though asexuality is increasingly recognized as a fourth. The current consensus among scholars is that sexual orientation is not a choice.
Research has found some statistically significant physiologic differences between homosexual and heterosexual individuals. For example, homosexuals are more likely to be either ambidextrous or left-handed. Homosexuals also emit different underarm odors than heterosexuals. Gay males more commonly have counterclockwise hair whirls and increased ridge density in the fingerprints on the left pinkies and thumbs. Most researchers have concluded that sexual orientation is a complex multifaceted issue in which biological, social and psychological factors combine to play a role in the ultimate sexual orientation of an individual. Scientists found that lesbian women have a greater difference in length between their ring finger and index finger than straight women do. In women, the ring finger and index finger tend to be about the same length. In men, however, the index finger is usually the shorter of the two digits. What the study showed was that lesbian women also tended to have shorter index fingers.
The American Psychiatric Association wrote the following in a May 2002 article titled "Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Fact Sheet," published on its website Psych.org: "No one knows what causes heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. Homosexuality was once thought to be the result of troubled family dynamics or faulty psychological development. Those assumptions are now understood to have been based on misinformation and prejudice. Currently there is a renewed interest in searching for biological etiologies for homosexuality.’
Unlike other phobias like the extreme fear of crowds, homophobia is not a psychological condition but a socially and institutionally conditioned fear. It is a fear created and cultivated primarily in men, and to a lesser degree in women, by society. Aug. 3, 2006 - Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance "[W]e explore the characteristics of persons who perpetrate pain and injustice on others through racism, sexism, or homophobia. We propose that those who engage in such harmful behaviors are in fact displaying a type of psychopathology that deserves its own particular category... In other words, behind racism, sexism, and homophobia, there seems to be a common core of intolerance that supports and contributes to these attitudes or mindsets in their various manifestations. The traits associated with this form of intolerance, when taken as a whole, seem to be descriptive of a personality disorder. This is a disorder that deserves full acknowledgment as a psychological problem unto itself. It is not enough to merely note the harm or lament the damage. Researchers and therapists need to develop treatment approaches that have the capacity to alleviate it."
Gaydar is a blend of the words gay and radar, it is the intuitive ability to assess someone's sexual orientation. Gaydar relies almost exclusively on non-verbal clues. These include (but are not limited to) the sensitivity to social behaviors and mannerisms; for instance, acknowledging flamboyant mannerisms, overtly rejecting traditional gender roles, a person's occupation and grooming habits. I think I have very good gaydar and try to tune into frequencies and vibrations that can transcend duality or strict sexual role modeling. I can easily detect higher (soul) love signals that do not relate to heterosexual mating rituals. I was born a Lesbian but consider myself to be a woman who has balanced my male and female qualities and energies into a cohesive whole complete complex person. My gaydar tells me that you are interested in doing the same.
Good Luck with That!
Love Sappho