How Useful is the Concept of Sexual Orientation?
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I often find myself bemused at our insistence on using sex (i.e., male or female) as the defining thing that describes our sexual orientation. We are homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual, right? These words supposedly mean that we are sexually attracted to the same sex, the other sex, or both. Right?No! Not by a long shot! Essentially no one is attracted to men, for example, no matter what their sexual orientation. I’m straight and female, but I am attracted to a very, very, very small subset of men. I’m generally only attracted to men within a certain age range, with kind faces (I find the chiseled look a bit intimidating); also, I prefer them to be relatively clean. If I can add non-physical characteristics, then being aggressive with buddies or rude to waitstaff or prone to jealousy are all turn-offs, as are certain politics. I’ll stop here. Suffice to say, suggesting that I’m attracted to men is a vast overstatement. Sexual orientation, as we think of it, simply doesn’t describe my proclivities. I suppose this is true for most of us.
I was reminded of this idea when I came across an OK Cupid post. Christian Rudder drew on the profiles of over 250,000 heterosexual users, discovering that a large percentage of them had (positive) sexual experiences with people of the same sex, or wanted to (source).
Thirteen percent of self-identified straight men have had a sexual encounter with another man. Seven percent of them enjoyed it. Another 5% haven’t had the pleasure, but they would like to.
For more of OK Cupid’s data, see our posts on the racial politics of dating, what women want, how attractiveness matters, age, gender, and the shape of the dating pool, older women want more sex, and the lies love-seekers tell.
Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
NM just now
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Gay high school kids rule prime-time TV
Maybe Dark Shadows was to spooky eh
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I don't know who they are and if they are confirmed homosexuals but I suspect they are. Number 20's body language in the way he grabbed the other guy's hand look like he was into the other guy. It looks romantic. Doesn't look like a friend's only type of affection.
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I thought it was kind of funny.
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Then they can play with four balls!
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Pedophilia was almost unheard of when the gay behavior was illegal.
When will this deviant behavior end?
"However, it is still illegal in Holland to produce child pornography and to engage in pedophilia. This may soon change. The newly formed Charity, Freedom and Diversity party advocates reducing the legal age for sex from 16 to 12. Dutch pedophiles are also demanding that child pornography and sex with animals should be legal. Moreover, the party insists that citizens should be allowed to go naked in public."
"A ban just makes children curious," Ad van den Berg, one of the party's founders, told a Dutch newspaper. "We want to make pedophilia the subject of discussion," he said.
"We want to get into parliament so we have a voice. Other politicians only talk about us in a negative sense, as if we were criminals," Van den Berg told Reuters.
Read more: Pedophiles launch
own political party http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=36...
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The Catholic church once attempted to link pedophilia with homosexuality and it turned out that there was no correlation. All of that money spent trying to pin it on "the gays" only to find out there's no connection.
Pedophilia was "almost unheard of" because the Catholic church was covering it up. Incidentally, when an old man kidnaps a young *GIRL* and rapes her repeatedly and forces her to bear him children, where's the "gay?"
http://www.psychologytoday.co...
The biggest misunderstanding many people have is that pedophilia and homosexuality are one and the same. But to say that all homosexuals are pedophiles, or that all pedophiles are homosexual, is like comparing apples to rat poison. "They certainly are two distinct things," says James Hord, a psychologist in Panama City, Fla., who specializes in treating sexually abused children.
http://www.webmd.com/sex-rela...
The distinction between a victim's gender and a perpetrator's sexual orientation is important because many child molesters don't really have an adult sexual orientation. They have never developed the capacity for mature sexual relationships with other adults, either men or women. Instead, their sexual attractions focus on children ...
The Catholic church once attempted to link pedophilia with homosexuality and it turned out that there was no correlation. All of that money spent trying to pin it on "the gays" only to find out there's no connection.
Pedophilia was "almost unheard of" because the Catholic church was covering it up. Incidentally, when an old man kidnaps a young *GIRL* and rapes her repeatedly and forces her to bear him children, where's the "gay?"
http://www.psychologytoday.co...
The biggest misunderstanding many people have is that pedophilia and homosexuality are one and the same. But to say that all homosexuals are pedophiles, or that all pedophiles are homosexual, is like comparing apples to rat poison. "They certainly are two distinct things," says James Hord, a psychologist in Panama City, Fla., who specializes in treating sexually abused children.
http://www.webmd.com/sex-rela...
The distinction between a victim's gender and a perpetrator's sexual orientation is important because many child molesters don't really have an adult sexual orientation. They have never developed the capacity for mature sexual relationships with other adults, either men or women. Instead, their sexual attractions focus on children – boys, girls, or children of both sexes.
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu...
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Just know that your way of thinking is why people are still oppressed...
And you are still wrong
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Either way, there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, and regardless of what you say, your attitude is still completely negative and ignorant.....
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** BOOM! ** (the sound of a gay promoter's head exploding)
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Then they can play with four balls!
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Or, more logically, pedophilia, which is a sexual attraction to CHILDREN independent of sexual attraction to peers, could be seen as a separate class.
And I am not disagreeing with you that homosexuality is outside of the norm. However, so are certain ethnic backgrounds. We treat them as normal human beings, however. Interesting how that works, right? Albinos are genetic abnormalities, too. Hermaphrodites are genetic abnormalities. So while you're sitting here attacking individuals who behave as normal human beings simply because the 'sex of the individuals they love is not like the others' you should keep in mind that there're plenty of genetic abnormalities that, according to you, deserve your scorn.
A pedophile's behavior isn't really normal. Cisgendered heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered hetero/homo/bisexuals all are attracted to their peers depending on their sexual orientation. Pedophiles are not. This is basic science.
"You can't fool mother nature."
- Which is why there are over 1500 observed cases in "nature," right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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Spin all you want, but normal people don't buy into the perv program. Pervs will always be deviants and deviant will always be nasty. The homo perversion is like a turd. Sugar coating the deviant crap does not make it candy. Can any of you @zzwipe homo promoting freaks explain to me how you can pick up a greasy turd by the clean end? Do your poor embarrassed mothers approve of your gay games? Why are you so interested in promoting deviant practices? Homo promoters are domestic terrorists bent on destroying society by brainwashing the weak minded and liberals into believing that perversions are normal or acceptable. They obviously are sociopathic deviants attempting to destroy the family unit, which is the basis for civilization. Perversion can never be acceptable. You can pick up that greasy turd, paint it and polish it, but it's still just a smelly, rancid TURD.
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:)
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