Twerpette (named for my dachshund Molley, the original twerpette or "goofy girl") seeks to tweak the long nose of life with humor, affection, and gravitas. Topics include dating and relationships, faith and spirituality, language and writing, journalism, technology, arts, academe, whimsy and humanity. Cheeky and tweaky, Twerpette is rated PG13 for mature language and themes. This weblog began May 10, 2005. Copyright 2005-2016 Steve Deyo.
When I think back, the only time I have ever feared, felt threatened by, or been propositioned by gay men was while I attended a Catholic high school or college. Why is that, I wonder?
posted by Twerpette @ 3:06 PM
1 comments
Technology journalist, strategic communications consultant, speaker, teacher, author, poet, musician; known to friends and associates as "the voice of reason."
1 Comments:
There could be a number of factors. However, I wonder - did you attend public high school and public college in your youth? If you did attend both, say public and Catholic high schools, and felt uncomfortable re: gays only in the Catholic high school, then there certainly would be something about that environment that must have made a difference (e.g., if a same-sex school or something about the population or other environmental issue). On the other hand, if you only attended a Catholic high school, then it is much harder to say that the Catholicism of the high school (verses high school in general)had any effect since there would be nothing to compare it to.
However, in general, I would suspect that men feel most threatened/uncomfortable about gays in their youth (high school and college), wherever they go to school for at least two reasons: 1) they are formenting and solidifying their own sexual identity in those years (so "gayness" of others is threatening to heterosexuals for fear of being seen as "one of them" ); and 2) frankly, they are probably propositioned more in their youth. Just as women are hit on more in high school and college by hormonally driven males than most other times in their lives (and during the peak "mating/dating" time of life of college especially when there is such a large, single, readily available, dating pool), I presume gay men likewise proposition proportionally more potentional partners in their sexually active youth.
I suspect that as both heterosexuals and homosexuals grow into their adult years and "settle down," both factors - sexual identity and sexual promiscuity (in the sense of seeking out many partners for romantic encounters) - stablize. So it seems perfectly logical to me - regardless of the type of school attended - that a man in his late adolescence/early adulthood would have more concerns about (and propositions from) gay men during that time of his life.
Post a Comment
<< Home