A possible solution to the gay issue

[GernBlansten]

Defining sexuality as only behavior is like thinking being left handed is only a behavior. Left handed people must choose to be left handed. They could easily be right handed if they just altered their behavior.

[packsaddle]

Gern, my mom was left handed due to a childhood injury. It wasn't exactly a choice but she did switch. This doesn't negate your point. I'm just attempting to show the weakness in relying too heavily on analogy. There's no good evidence that handedness and sexuality are the least bit related.

[GernBlansten]

Pack, losing my genitals in an industrial accident would not cause me to alter my sexuality. I'm pretty sure about that.

[packsaddle]

Are you now opposing a return in industrial growth?

Anyway, I would think that sexuality would be somewhat pointless in that case. Am I wrong?

[Trevorum]

Absolutely, you're wrong! A person's sexuality is much more than their genitals.

[packsaddle]

OK, what IS the point to sexuality, if one has no genitals?

[Trevorum]

ahhh ... you must escape from the trap of form-follows-funtion linearity, grasshopper ...

 

Human sexuality exists in a broad suite of behaviors and emotional states. Ultimately driven by hormones, the behaviors often - but do not always - involve genitals. A simple example is flirting. This behavior is clearly sexual in nature but does not (or perhaps more accurately, rarely) involve genitals.

[packsaddle]

Trev, in biology at least (probably everything else) form and function are closely linked. But we can debate that another time. I'm commenting on the 'point' of sexuality. Yes, I understand all of the social 'glue' stuff that you're describing. But those are the details. The 'point' of sexuality is simple: reproduction. If that can't happen, all the social glue in the universe is going to vanish in a generation.

We're not really at odds here. You're trying to bring to light the details of the role that the complex system we call 'sexuality' plays in social interactions and systems. I'm just saying that without the function of reproduction, all of that other stuff eventually comes to an end. In the long run, if it's all coming to an end because the system lacks a critical element, what's the point of the rest of it? And to the extent that a individual is also a discrete system, what's the point of flirtation if there's no chance of anything more? To me such a flirtation would constitute a lie.

[Eagledad]

// To me such a flirtation would constitute a lie.//

Flirtation to a large degree is instinctive and you don't even know you are doing it. Women in their minstrel cycle talk different, walk different and have many other physical signs that are so small that we don't consciously know that it is happening. Men unconsciously pick up on these signs of natural flirtations and react in their own instinctive acts of flirtation. Instinctively women have the ability to unconsciously determine if they are physically compatable from the signs that man unconsciouly give off.

 

Man has the ability to flirt even when instinct is not triggering the action or reaction. Many times that leads to a slap in the face.

 

A man who looses his testicles changes his sexuality. He will be different both in sexual self desires and in his instinctive actions. Mostly he will lack in both. If he were an animal, he would likely die young for lack of aggressiness to hunt and protect himself. Man has the added trait of compassion, which gives him the will to consciously protect the weak.

 

Barry

[packsaddle]

Sexuality aside, if a woman in her minstrel cycle approached me, I'd probably sing along (or maybe just hum quietly) without much thought to anything else.

 

"A wandering minstrel I,

a thing of threads and patches,

of stories songs and snatches,

of dreamy lullabies..."(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[acco40]

A man who looses his testicles changes his sexuality.

 

Is that why married men seem to have their sexuality changed so dramatically? Or is it because of those singing minstrels?

[Trevorum]

I should have known ... a bio-determinist.

[skeptic]

Just how do you "loose" your testicles? Is there an operation, a stretching process, or are they off running around somewhere, somehow? CPWTK