Regarding this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=153120&perpage=50&pagenumber=1#
I don’t know how to put what I’m about to say into words, so try to bare with me.
Some of the contributing parties listed their gender/rating, and then explain why they rated themselves the way they did. Some of these people, judging from their short explanations, I would rate just a LITTLE higher than how they rate themselves. However, I understand that I do NOT know --anywhere NEAR-- every factor that comes into play when they rate themselves. I know I am not them, and have no idea what they take into account.
Perhaps they had certain feelings that faded in time. Perhaps they tried homosexual acts and didn’t get grossed out by it, but weren’t at all “pleasured” by it either. Maybe I read their what they were trying to say wrong. Or, Perhaps everyone has their own unique take on SEX, and their perception on homosexuality shouldn’t compare to my take on it. It could be all of these things. When I say I would rate them a ‘little higher’, I mean I would as 1 or 0.5. Nothing drastic. To me, it’s interesting, that even though I would only add on a half a point or a point. I DO NOT mean to offend anyone, and question their judgment on THEIR OWN sexuality. In fact, if anything it makes me question my opinions on sexuality.
Here’s a question inspired by the thread:
Is it at all possible that a female may be inclined to generally rate themselves a little lower because, (IMHO), a female’s attraction to another female might be a little bit more “normalized” than a males attraction to another man? When I say “normalized”, I mean displayed more often in many different forms of art and entertainment. Not to mention, (also IMHO), females in general are often perceived as beings of beauty, where men, for the most part, aren’t.
I wrote out a more ‘in depth’ explanation. It was sort of getting lengthy and had little to do with the “Poll: Dopers quantify your sexuality please” thread. So I left out. I might just whip it out to explain myself a little more. On thing I did want to make clear is that I’m not implying that female homosexuality gets 'BETTER" press than male homosexuality. I know some people who HATE how females who are attracted to other females are often portrayed in the media. It’s often used to increase viewers. It’s often made to look sexy, and not loving… or serious. In the real world, a F/F sexual relationship is often just about being ‘kinky’, or ‘sexy’. Of course, that’s also often NOT the case. If film makers and television writers didn’t have lesbian relationships in their stories to increase their audience, I think you would see a lot more M/M relationships as well.
I also would like to add that I personally don’t think people look at females as being more beautiful, or more pleasing to look at, because they necessarily ARE more appealing to the eye. I think we are just brought up in a world that happens to see women that way, but we are sort of ‘taught’ to. That’s IMHO.
I created this thread to get other opinions on the subject. I REALLY am open to other peoples thoughts. If anything I said was a little offensive or ignorant, please, for my sake, tell me you take on it.
) When I’m working with my own system of quantifying sexuality, I have eight axes, which is about as simple as I can get it and not feel I’m missing something important.