Wade wrote:
>Well, first, this whole discussion is _way_ beyond me. I'm a poor 50's
>lad with a Marilyn Monroe Complex, and, my level of even _understanding_
>gender issues is practically nil.
You don't give yourself enough credit. Although I may be more *interested* in gender, because you are older than I am, you are potentially wiser. Don't get me wrong- knowledge doesn't always come with age (that's hardly the case, it seems), but you are intelligent and have had more experience and made more observations than I. Your input on this issue is just as important as mine is.
>I only offered M. Gatherer's post as
>evidence that _removing_ the taboo should _lower_ the reproduction rate
>of homosexuals, which is a point I made, from only my own anecdotal and
>observational experience, as a brief aside, which is only as far as I
wanted it to go.
And I respectively (sort of) disagreed. I still think it's absurd to say that by wiping out homophobia, you're effectively wiping out homosexuality. That makes it seem like a "fad" or something, which it is not.
>I remain in complete ignorance of people who are gender wonderers. And I
>know that in a situation, hot with the moment, where a homosexual event
>could take place, I would not shy from it, but, in all other scenes,
>every facet of me that makes sense to myself shows me more 'maleness' in
>myself. I have never been gender-ignorant, and indeed, self-knowledge has
>been tied, almost directly, to exploring the issues of maleness.
It's great that you're not fundamentally confused about what you are. Unfortunately, many people are. I'm just saying that the definition of "maleness" differs for most people. You don't have to defend being heterosexual to me!
>And I remain, also experiencially and observationally, within the
>knowledge that I am attracted, in a very deep sense from the pit of my
>groin, only to a woman who is equally at knowledge, or tracking that way,
>with her 'femaleness'.
>
>What does all this mean?
>
>I don't know.
I think attraction is more mental then it is physical. It's the messages that someone else chooses to send to your brain that determines whether you are 'hot' for them or not. If a female who *feels* very feminine in the sense that *you* define it and makes herself look that way, and chooses to convey her own type of "femaleness" to you, then the sparks fly. I'd say that means you are very un-confused. Congradulations.
>To make this even more confusing, the whole
>feminist/gay/homosexual/gay/queer/androgyne/hermaphrodite/celibate/neutral/
>society/biology/environment/therapy/etc... veneers on all this are, yes,
>maddening.
>
>Where is that knockwurst?
Sorry, I lent it out to Charlton Heston just earlier today.
~kjs