Why this obsession...

Indeterminate
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Why this obsession...

I was reading back back through some old threads, and I saw some comments which bought to mind something that I've often wondered. Whenever homosexuality (or most other sexual ethics for that matter) comes up in discussion, why do people get so obsessed about the act of sex? Would it not be better to focus on social structures implied by same-sex relationships (oh wait, they're the same), or the validity of certain emotional states?

Now, it does tend to be the 'Homosexuality is sin' lot that get fixated like this. Maybe they're just a loveless bunch who think everything in the world boils down to sex. Maybe there's nothing to argue if the terms in which you speak don't let you introduce some artificial requirement for procreation or make an argument from fear about STIs.

I think I may have answered my own question, unless someone has some other insight. I just wish people could talk about this in terms of "Why would it be more valid to have romantic feelings for one gender than for another?" instead of "Why you should put your thing in one hole instead of another?".

 

God: "Thou Must Go from This Place Lest I Visit Thee with Boils!"
Man: "Really? Most people would bring a bottle of wine"


smartypants
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Romance and sex are not the

Romance and sex are not the same thing. There are four aspects to (human) sexuality: Sexual orientation, romantic attraction, gender identification, and biological sex. Although they tend to group together in some ways for the majority of people, in the larger spectrum they each operate entirely independently. The old saying "women: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em," spoken by a man who doesn't really LIKE women, is the perfect example of sexual orientation being incongruent with romantic attraction. The speaker of this would much rather hang out with his drinkin' buddies than with his girlfriend, in whom he is nonetheless sexually interested.

I'd say their fixation with the sex acts boils down to at least three motivations. A) The confusion and primal fear of a man being emasculated by penetration (lesbians sex doesn't tend to bother nearly anyone, in fact plenty of ragingly homophobic straight men would quite happily watch lesbian porn). B) Making it all about the mechanical and denying that there might be anything as wonderful as Love attached to it helps to justify their bigotry in their own minds. And C) It gives them an excuse from morality to butt their noses into the private affairs in someone else's bedroom and satisfy their perverted curiosity. The romantic feelings two people might share for each other are much less often kept hidden (at least in our culture), so they're therefore much less interesting.

R


Indeterminate
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It wasn't just me!

I felt much better for just having had a bit of a rant actually, but at least I'm not the only one who thinks this.

God: "Thou Must Go from This Place Lest I Visit Thee with Boils!"
Man: "Really? Most people would bring a bottle of wine"


smartypants
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Indeterminate wrote:I felt

Indeterminate wrote:

I felt much better for just having had a bit of a rant actually, but at least I'm not the only one who thinks this.

Well, clearly I found your rant interesting anyway...do it again!