Comments on: Queers, Foucault, truth, justice and the law: guest post by Lorenzo

By: Lorenzo

Lorenzo — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:33:45 +0000

The queer folk are disproportionately intellectually creative/artistic is a long-time cross-cultural observation. It occurs in Amerindian cultures, for example (see book reviews here and here). Bruce Bawer expresses it vividly:

Western civilization, far from being threatened by homosexuality, is to a staggeringly disproportionate degree the creation of gay men and women. "Do you want to protect your children from gay influence?" I imagine [Allan Bloom] writing. "Very well. Destroy the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, silence Messiah and Swan Lake, and burn Moby Dick and The Portrait of a Lady. Gay culture is all around you — and it belongs to everybody."

By: John

John — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:44:29 +0000

Lorenzo,

Yes, my impression is the same as yours. Strange mixture, fascinating and directly implies sex hormones influences on cerebral maturation. Makes me wonder if it provides a clue as to the creative potential seen in some homosexuals, both artistically and intellectually. I became interested in this a long time when I noted that Newton(probably gay), Wittgenstein(god yes), Turing(yes), Keynes(gay-bi), were ground breakers in their fields. Not to mention in the arts … . Interesting.

By: Lorenzo

Lorenzo — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:07:13 +0000

John
As I understand it, there are various studies which indicate homosexuals to be cognitively cross-matched. That is, gay women tend to have various cognitive traits more characteristic of men and gay men tend to have various cognitive traits more characteristic of women. On reflection, not such a surprising result.

By: Lorenzo

Lorenzo — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:05:11 +0000

JJ
Strangely enough, I got the same score

By: Jayjee

Jayjee — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:26:14 +0000

Here’s the Liddle Homophobia Test. Take it. It’s very short.

My result?

i18 – Your score rates you as “high-grade non-homophobic.”

Given some of the queens I know, I think Mr. Liddle’s quiz overstates my case!

http://genderandhealth.ca/en/modules/sexandsexuality/gss-homophobia-01.jsp?r=

By: John

John — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:10:47 +0000

Oh and I forgot, would be great to see studies on the hypothalamic nucleir INAH3(not sure if is 3, might be 2). There are differences there and in general there are a number of surprising differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals. For example, homosexual men display verbal iq that is higher than in controls and accords generally with female verbal iq.

By: John

John — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:08:31 +0000

Jayjee,

The reason I qualified my statements are:

The studies I saw did not exclude possible other causes. For example, homophobes may generally be more easily sexually aroused. Are there any studies indicating that homophobes become open homosexuals to a greater extent than controls? The differential CNS activation in homosexuals also points to a potential problem.

If the first eg is positive, good, if the second is positive, good, if the third is positive, good. Then the argument can move forward. Unfortunately people see studies like this and immediately conclude: you don’t like homosexuals eh … . I don’t know about women but most hetero men find the idea of homosexual sex repugnant so it is not surprising that people, extrapolating from the above studies, go on to assert that a great many are latent homosexuals.

If only human behavior were that simple!

By: Jayjee

Jayjee — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:10:36 +0000

Having studied a bit of neuroscience and physiology, and having conducted even more “field” research myself, I long ago concluded that “scientists” never get anywhere near understanding these issues. The above is another example. There is more wisdom in a line I remember from an old gay porno flick. It was about a couple of American “redneck” types driving around the south picking up “queers”. Not to bash them, but to fuck them. At the end of one scene, the picked up queer says to the two “straight” rednecks. “Huh, you call us queer, you’re no different”. The redneck responded, “sure we are; we do this because we’re horny, you do it because you’re a sick queer”.

Make of that wisdom against the “peer-reviewed” scientists what you will.

By: Legal Eagle

Legal Eagle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:15:55 +0000

No, jc, I’m sure I’ve read about it too, and it wasn’t a hoax. They had some kind of apparatus around…er hmm…yeah.

By: jc

jc — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:54:59 +0000

John:

This study has to be a parody, no? It sounds awfully like a Sokal hoax.

I’m not trying to sound snarky by the way.

Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli.

There wasn’t a good looking nurse carefully measuring circumferences? It sounds like a bad plot for a porno movie. LOl