The Science of Gaydar

[Jack Scribe]

I draw your attention to a very thoughtful article - rather scholarly with some tongue-in-cheek humor - that is must reading. The author, who is gay, explores and magnifies the facts behind the biological causes for sexual orientation.

 

Here is provocative sentence from this lengthy piece: Politically, there is something very powerful about the notion that sexual orientation is a matter of biology, not choice. In poll after poll, of the one third of Americans who believe homosexuality is socially influenced, in other words

[Conner]

Gay men

[Graeme]

4.95 inches in width??? :wacko:

 

This had better be a typo. Well, either that or I've been substantially short-changed!

 

No, I'm not a size queen.

Conner

I'm guessing that that is circumference, not width....

[Menzoberranzen]

I'm guessing that that is circumference, not width....

 

My thoughts exactly...

 

I shudder to think what something 5 inches in diameter would do a poor boy's body....

[Eddy]

I draw your attention to a very thoughtful article - rather scholarly with some tongue-in-cheek humor - that is must reading. The author, who is gay, explores and magnifies the facts behind the biological causes for sexual orientation.

 

Here is provocative sentence from this lengthy piece: Politically, there is something very powerful about the notion that sexual orientation is a matter of biology, not choice. In poll after poll, of the one third of Americans who believe homosexuality is socially influenced, in other words

[Conner]

I'm guessing that that is circumference, not width....

 

Phew! *wipes forehead*

 

uhmm...I can't get my ruler to bend.

 

One more thing, how can you look at your own whorl??? :wacko:

[MMandM]

Interesting article. I

[Morganx]

Interesting article. I've always been horrible with this whole Gaydar thing. I could never tell who was gay or straight. I was always wrong. One friend of mine use to tell me when another guy was flirting with me, And if he hadn't told me I would have never known.

 

I flirted with you for four months at the gym and you never got it. I had to ask you out before you knew what the heck was going on.

[Adrian Michaels]

I flirted with you for four months at the gym and you never got it. I had to ask you out before you knew what the heck was going on.

 

That's adorable...

 

I've always had a pretty keen Gaydar. I don't know if it really exists or not, but mines pretty good. I've been wrong once.

 

Of courrse, I'm probably looking for certain things that could be all stereotypical, but I've picked out a few of the "straight acting" boys.

 

What the hell is straight acting anyway?? Never mind, don't answer that. its for another topic.

[BeaStKid]

Phew! *wipes forehead*

 

uhmm...I can't get my ruler to bend.

 

Try a measuring tape....lol

 

 

hot_bsk

[ashessnow]

That was a good article. A bit long . . . but good.

[Jack Frost]

My thoughts exactly...

 

I shudder to think what something 5 inches in diameter would do a poor boy's body....

Then I guess it's not meant for a boy.

[Graeme]

I'm coming in late to this discussion, but I haven't had a chance to read the article before now.

 

One thing that struck me is the dichotomy that the researchers implicitly apply to sexuality. They appear to be researching on the assumption that a person is either homosexual or heterosexual. I personally believe in the Kinsey model where there is a spectrum from purely homosexual to purely heterosexual (this was referenced once in the article, but almost in passing). As such, many of the attributes they are researching can be distorted because most of the subjects in question are neither purely homo- nor heterosexual.

 

Of course, the study on the biological reaction of men to pornographic images appears to indicate that there is a dichotomy, at least with males, but what was the sample size tested? Could it just be that there was insufficient numbers to identify those that lie more in the middle of the spectrum?

 

Overall, an interesting read. Thanks, Jack, for posting the link for us.

[Jayne Cobb]

Man I wish I had a gaydar, I always hit on straight guys... always

Edited June 20, 2007 by BoardRider53

[rknapp]

My gaydar has worked only twice in my lifetime. The first time was to point at the one other guy on my dorm floor who was bi-sexual, and he was VERY fey. The other time was when I met one of the managers at my store for the first time, Jerry. He had a touch of fey, so I just guessed. I found out a month later that he has a boyfriend. Also, two weeks ago he and another supervisor were regaling those who cared with tales of a Gay Pride event in New Hope recently, including some game where the winner won a cock clock (clock in the shape of a rooster).

 

Other than that, I throw wood at all the hot guys. There's one who has been to the store the past two days that I worked... he's just right, incredibly cute, but not so much that he doesn't have a brain.

[Ieshwar]

Whoa, that was quite long! (talking about the article )

 

But I'm thinking is that if they show that homosexuality is due to agene, won't they try to 'remove' that gene. Or if a foetus is found containg that particular gene, won't they try to abort it?

 

And if it's biological, was this gene always present in humans? Or is it some kinda evolution? If yes, what caused it?

 

Ieshwar

[Graeme]

But I'm thinking is that if they show that homosexuality is due to agene, won't they try to 'remove' that gene. Or if a foetus is found containg that particular gene, won't they try to abort it?

That's one of the dangers that has been identified. However, if they ever do find a gene (and I doubt they will -- I suspect it is a combination of genes, or that it is a gene that is quite common but needs to be triggered to become active), there is the possibility from the research that the gene is linked to female fertility. Eliminating the gene would have a detrimental impact on female fertililty (ie. it wouldn't be able to be inherited from the male side anymore) -- and there are too many groups that would object to that.

[D Writes]

Whoa, that was quite long! (talking about the article )

 

 

Ieshwar

 

I thought so too

 

But yeah, I was a bit concerned with the genome and hereditary thing. If it were so, I think its gonna be good as well as bad for us. Good- cos then ppl would realize that its not a CHOICE, Bad- cos then researchers and other scientist fellows would TRY to remove that :wacko:

 

But in both ways, atleast it would be confirmed that it has nothing to do with gays being an abomination or as such

[BeaStKid]

I thought so too

 

But yeah, I was a bit concerned with the genome and hereditary thing. If it were so, I think its gonna be good as well as bad for us. Good- cos then ppl would realize that its not a CHOICE, Bad- cos then researchers and other scientist fellows would TRY to remove that :wacko:

 

But in both ways, atleast it would be confirmed that it has nothing to do with gays being an abomination or as such

 

And that, my friend, would be a great success for us!!

[colinian]

I took a look and here's what I found:

 

My hair whorl is clockwise. Shit! That means I must have been faking it all these years!

 

My BF Doug's hair whorl is counterclockwise. That means he's real and I'm fake.

 

My bro Chris's hair whorl is the same as mine, clockwise. That means he's also faking it. He yelled at me and said he isn't.

 

Chris's BF Steve's hair whorl is clockwise. Hmm. So far, three out of four are fakes.

 

I phoned my friend Ron. His hair whorl is clockwise. Foo! That's four out of five. All faking it! WtF is going on here? Maybe living in the SF East Bay puts us too far away from the Castro District and the Gay Vibes are missing us. You think?

 

Ron's BF Eric's hair whorl is counterclockwise. Yea! Two out of six. That's a wee bit better.

 

Oh, yeah, we're all gay, if you were wondering. Or, at least, we thought we were. We acted like we were. We felt like we were. And still do!

 

Doug's uber-straight brother Curtis is home from the University of Pittsburgh. Doug checked out his hair. The whorl is counterclockwise. Whoa! Now our stats are totally in the toilet. Meaningless. All f'ed up. Foo!

 

I phoned my uber-straight cousin Ian in Elk Grove. His hair whorl is clockwise. At least that matches the proposition.

 

Hmm. Hey, wait just a darn minute! All three guys whose hair has a counterclockwise whorl are Chinese (Doug - gay, his brother Curtis - straight, and Eric - gay). All five guys who have hair with a clockwise whorl are Caucasian -- two Irish (me - gay, my cousin Ian - straight), one Irish-English (Chris - gay), one English-Scandinavian (Steve - gay), and one Scottish-Irish-Canuck [French Canadian] (Ron - gay).

 

I think our little experiment was interesting. And funny. Whatever.

 

 

Colin

[ashessnow]

I thought so too

 

But yeah, I was a bit concerned with the genome and hereditary thing. If it were so, I think its gonna be good as well as bad for us. Good- cos then ppl would realize that its not a CHOICE, Bad- cos then researchers and other scientist fellows would TRY to remove that :wacko:

 

But in both ways, atleast it would be confirmed that it has nothing to do with gays being an abomination or as such

Wait - you really think that if tomorrow we prove that being gay is in our genes - that the church would stop seeing us as an abomination? For some reason I disagree.

[Graeme]

Wait - you really think that if tomorrow we prove that being gay is in our genes - that the church would stop seeing us as an abomination? For some reason I disagree.

Some churches won't change, but I believe some would. Not all of them are extreme.

[Adrian Michaels]

We've been able to identify the chromosomes that cause Down's Syndrome (I actually thinks its an extra chromosome... but I could be wrong...)

 

There's been lots of parents that see this and go, "*gasp* we must abort the baby!!"

 

Sorry, but I find this terribly wrong. And I'm super Pro-Choice. If you plan on having a baby, you can't just decide that, oops, you don't want THAT baby.

 

Down's is not the worst thing that could happen. Those kids are sweet.

 

 

BUT, will the same thing happen.

 

"We're sorry Mr. and Mrs. Michaels, but it appears that your child is carrying the gay gene."

"*gasp*, we must abort the baby! We will not stand if it grows up to be super fabulous!"

 

*sigh*. Its sad sad sad.

 

I personally don't think its all genetic. But maybe that's becuase I don't want people trying to cure us.

[Endless Skies]

Interesting article. Though the fact that I have a clockwise whorl and my index finger is decidedly shorter than my ring finger make me doubt their physical observations. As for me sounding gay, I sound nasally at best. And as for being bigger? Thank god no. That's a little too big for me. So ya, I think, as a science nerd, I need to see the numbers and the test groups to actually believe any of this. As for being a different sex? Well, if that were true, how come I had the biggest crush on a straight guy in my class for a year? I'm supposed to be attracted to my own sex, but if I were a different sex it'd be like being attracted to a woman for me. And trust me, he was no woman. Though... I never did end up asking him. Maybe he was. I dunno, my gaydar never has been overly active, though that might be because of my age or the fact that I'm a total prude. From what I can tell, gaydar is just a sensitivity to details that allows certain people to notice things about a person that might make them more inclined to believe the person is gay. I simply have very little attention to detail. Heck, I have a hard time with names.

 

I think it's food for thought, but really sounds just like another 'study' of homosexuality that hasn't produced any real results other than a few interesting tidbits. It also, as Graeme said, did not identify for the possibility of bisexuality, which does exist (as much as people want to refuse it). As for identifying the gay gene, I'm just going to laugh when people realize that, contrary to popular opinion, it isn't pink. What people do with that gene really isn't my care until they start trying to find a cure. Then I join every other stable minded group on how there are quite a few REAL problems that need to be solved before they can start going on their own little petty political ventures. Oh, plus the fact that they aren't even sure it's genetic even now. Nice read, but I think I'll stick to Scientific American for something with a little more substance.

Edited June 24, 2007 by Endless Skies

[Drewbie]

Weird

 

Anyways I have other ways to find out

 

some like vic has some in other topics is wishdar.