fallout from "the gay bomb"

[metaphorge]

Inspired by the discussion here:
[Poll #1000850]
My thoughts: of course it is... with the use of extreme enough conditioning techniques, you can condition almost anyone into almost anything (note: this is not saying that it is necessarily easy or ethical to do so).

Making a statement such as "sexual orientation is not changeable" vastly oversimplifies the matrices of to whom and what and why we're attracted to an offensively cartoonish degree.

Just because something about a person can be altered does not mean that it should be.

I vehemently disagree with the tactic of defending equality for queer people on the grounds of "I was born this way, I can't help it." Why do we need to argue that we have justification to fuck whatever person in whatever way we choose as long as all parties are both consenting and qualified to give consent?

We don't need to apologize and we aren't broken. Our orientations don't have to be carved into our genes for us to get to be who we are. This is just the sort of essentialist thinking that is the root of almost all oppression.

I am not a victim of being queer.

Wow, OMFG, I made an LJ post with actual content.

Comments

[green-fae.livejournal.com]

I think people are pre-programmed.
You can coerce, train, repress, or force a person to do things that are not in their nature, but
a kissing a girl on screen did not make Rock Hudson straight any more than my female friend who went on a date and kissed a girl (when strongly goaded by her fellow art-class friends to "liberate" her)could become gay. That was her first and last gay kiss, she honestly prefers the cock.

I am no more a victim of being bisexual than of being 5'3, I could wear heels,
I could try to be lesbian, but it would not change how the gods made me.
People could blame it on going to a "liberal" college, but looking back I played doctor with
little boys *and* little girls.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

My controversial (and not completely certain) opinion: people only become monosexuals through conditioning.

[twopiearr.livejournal.com]

I dunno...not that my own life is statistically significant, but my own memories are of not really finding anyone attractive until i was about 7 or so, and then finding women attractive.

All of this was before I really became consciously aware of sexuality vis gender roles. But when I was about 9 I discovered that my "Uncle Chris" (a friend of my mother's from her graduate program) was gay. My response was...oh, that's interesting. (Ironically my not-being-weirded-out-ness so weirded HIM out that that was the last we saw of him. Ah well.) And then there was Uncle Don and Uncle Joe, who my parents just treated like any other married couple, so it never occurred to me to wonder but that such combinations existed.

This is not to say I've never found men attractive, but I've never really fantasized about men, nor have I ever really been driven to.

Saw a pre-op MTF with really well done breasts have sex with a woman in a porn film once. I wasn't repulsed but I wasn't turned on. Never really watched any all-male, so no data there.

[uber-pochacco.livejournal.com]

Actually, Freud said something similar. He said that bisexuality was the default position for people, and anything else was just a conditioned specialization of sexual object.

I guess that doesn't really make it less controversial, though, *grin*.

[green-fae.livejournal.com]

Well, monosexuality is a head-scratcher for me, I have definate turn-offs
and deal-breakers, but they are not based on gender.

On the other hand, I have known people who are actually totally stright or gay and
although it boggles my mind, who am I to question their lack of interest in the other sex
any more than I want them to question my interest in both?

But yes, that was part of my point, with enough incentive or coercion, you can entice or force people to behave any way you want. Maybe people believe they must choose one side or the other and repress their innate bi potential. But that sounds too pretentious to ponder aloud.