Ah ha ha ha. Smiles. I am loving this video. Reblogged from one of the blogs that I follow; Unreasonable Faith. I love anything that illuminates.
It had me thinking about myself. The point is made; many straight people go along with their lives, assuming gay people must choose to be that way, while never connecting that assumption to their own sexuality. Interestingly enough, I think I have thought about it. I probably would answer just like a lot of those folks "I think its part choice, part nature", but when asked when I chose to be straight I would not be befuddled. I would answer "well I assumed I was straight, then I realised maybe I wasn't, but now I choose to be".
Of course its not that simple. All I mean is that I choose to live a straight lifestyle.
I have always been very conscious of my sexuality. I am straight because I choose men who I am attracted to. I also choose how to react to and enact my sexuality. But, its clear to me that this is possibly unique to my person. I CHOOSE my sexual orientation, but maybe others don't. Actually its obvious that others dont, whether straight or gay.
Also maybe I wont always live in a way that I would so simply describe as straight.
This is so important to me. Even uncomfortable. I feel kinship with queer people. Probably more accurately solidarity. Regardless of how I wrangle in my sexuality, pinning it down for a moment. I would hate to live in a world where I couldn't make a choice, where I felt I had no choice.
I can't see how anyone can associate sexual attraction with choice at all. It has always seemed kind of irrelevant to the question. I remember arguing with what some might term "fundamentalists" (of the pseudo-Christian persuasion) about this very question: it must be a choice, they said. There was very little I could make out in their attempt to articulate their position that made any sense what so ever.
ReplyDeleteEven if we accept (as I do quite firmly) that heterosexuality is normative and that any deviancy from it is, well, deviancy...choice seems to have nothing to do with it at all (except, of course, any related free act of the will). I think the whole "choice vs. nature" (which is, I think, a caricature of the dispute between the "reasonable people" and "people of faith" - and not really accurate) is really inept. Doesn't it make more sense to speak of nature vs. nurture (and I'm convinced that it is a little of both)? Self-discovery and self-acceptance are another thing - one can certainly choose to embark upon those journeys!
Anyway. I didn't find the video particularly illuminating. I was far more interested in what you had to write! :)
-tony
I commented on your comment, and then deleted it... because something was bugging me, and then I was thinking that I had no idea what you were saying, or getting at Tony. So, yeah.
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