I really wouldn’t say the logic is similar, as, as far as I know, absolutely no explanation is offered for those racial stereotypes other than mere observation and anecdotal data. No causal explanation is offered.
The idea with gay people having better gaydar is that, since they have a vested interest in determining whether someone is gay or straight, they have learned to be better at it. Unlike straights, who often have no reason to care. I mean, knowing if your prospective boyfriend is straight is useful. Prospective friend, not so much.
Johnny Depp. I always figured he was gay because he had very, very regular features and the body of a wispy bachelor and seemed kinda emo. I was surprised to find out he was straight but not amazed because I know my gaydar is totally unreliable. I mean… Raymond Burr … gay? He looks like he should be living with a wife named Marge who’s as fat as him. But since I know my gaydar is nonfunctional, I don’t set much store by it, hence am never surprised either way, because I never had much confidence in my judgements on the gay/nongay issue.
She’s Japanese (or JP-American). I read an article a few years but of course now can’t find it that portrayed their home life in a light not inconsistent with his being a bearded (as it were) gaylord. I think he collects porcelain (which again, could be fruity or arty/Asiaphile).
For me, the winner in this category is that guy (think his name’s John Gray) who wrote “Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus”. It’s just such a load of crap, I always figured that it was a result of him struggling to deny his own homosexuality by providing the definitive word on the sexes. Gee, reading that sentence I guess it doesn’t sound logical, but still, that’s how it feels to me. I guess I’m trying to say I felt he was trying to rationalize his inability to dig women by coming up with this whole school of thought where that’s how all “normal men” feel.
Well, of course, by this same thinking, I really never will be convinced that he is not gay.
Paul Shaeffer sat a table away from me at a nightclub for an evening 20 years ago. I am not above being a bit of a celebrity gawker so I did find myself watching him a bit throughout the evening. He definitely seemed interested in women and I don’t think it was an act, at all. Before that, I had not had much reading on him either way.
Ira Glass - My husband and I are longtime “This American Life” groupies. Even before we met him in person, it never occurred to me he could be gay. Now, having met him and conversed with him (we made a big enough donation to NPR to get to meet and hang out with him one evening before one of his local gigs), I definitely say the guy is straight. HE IS JUST NERDY. I am in a very nerdy profession, so maybe I am just used to nerdy guys, like the guys on Big Bang Theory. Except Sheldon - thank god I don’t know anyone like him. But I have known lots of Rajs, Leobards, and Howards.
Um, yeah, I say Sheldon IS gay. And the actor who plays him. just my take.
I’m totally in agreement with you there. I have no idea why, it just feels like he’s gay. His wikipedia entrance is conspicuous in its absence of any reference to a romantic life.
Jonathan Harriswas best known for playing Dr. Smith on the original Lost in Space and because he almost always played effeminate and bitchy characters it was commonly assumed he was gay (and English). The fact he was married and a father didn’t do much to change people’s minds.
The truth- at least according to Joel Eisner (author of a Batman book- if you’re wondering the relevance it’s kind of long and winding) was that far from being a gay English snob, Jonathan Harris was a foul mouthed Jewish guy from the Bronx. He was born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin to impoverished Russian Jews who worked in sweatshops when he was little and his Bronx-Yiddish-lower class accent was so thick that he could not drop it realistically with anything like an American accent, but he could do a sorta-kinda English, so he stuck with that one, and of course since it also sounded gay he got typecast. He got to play Charles Dickens (Bonanza) and some other good guest roles so certainly it was better than working in a garment district sweatshop, but he was irked at the assumption he was gay.
