What does gay look like
The Science of Gaydar
As a presence in the world—a body hanging from a subway strap or pressed into an elevator, a figure crossing the street—I am neither markedly masculine nor notably effeminate. Nor am I typically perceived as androgynous, not in my uniform of Diesels and boots, not even when I was younger and favored dangling earrings and bright Jack Purcells. But most people immediately read me (correctly) as gay. It takes only a glance to produce my truth obvious. I know this from strangers who find gay people offensive enough to elicit a remark—catcalls from cab windows, to use a recent example—as well as from countless casual social engagements in which people easily assume my orientation, no sensitive gaydar necessary. I’m not so much out-of-the-closet as “self-evident,” to use Quentin Crisp’s group of words, although being of a younger generation, I can’t subscribe to his conviction that it is a kind of disfigurement requiring lavender hair rinse.
I once placed a personal ad in which I described myself as “gay-acting/gay-appearing,” partly as a jab at my peers who select to be thought of as “str8” but mostly because it’s just who I am. Maybe a better way to group of words it would have
There's Something Queer about That Face
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Although I've always wanted this particular superhuman power, I've never been very good at detecting other men's sexual orientation. Findings from a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, however, present I may be underestimating my gaydar abilities.
The January 2008 study investigated people's ability to identify lesbian men from pictures of their faces alone. In an initial experiment, researchers Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady from Tufts University perused online dating sites and carefully selected 45 straight male faces and 45 gay male faces. All of these photos were matched for orientation (only faces shown looking forward were used) and facial alterations (none of the images contained jewelry, glasses or facial hair). To control for context, the faces were also cut and pasted onto a white background for the study. These 90 faces were then shown to 90 participants in random order, who were asked simply to decide the target's "probable se
What Gay and Bi Men Really Want
Are physical and sexual attraction the most appealing qualities in a partner? Or are unseen qualities like good manners and reliability the most attractive?
Following on from his study into what vertical women want and what straight men want, D&M Research’s managing director Derek Jones has taken the next valid step with his latest study into what gay and bi(sexual) men want.
In order to scoop deeper and tug out a right list of turn-ons and turn-offs for gay and bi men, Derek once again used of the Im-Ex Polygraph method. He originally devised this technique of analysis to distinguish what people say they want from brands, products or services from what they really want by comparing stated versus derived measures of importance.
Qualities the gay and bi men said they desired in a partner (‘stated’) were compared to the qualities present in example celebrities they nominated as attractive (‘implied’). The alike comparison was made between stated and implied negative qualities, to determine what attributes are really the biggest turn-offs.
What gay and bi men say they want
Just like direct women and direct men, “we savor be
by Fred Penzel, PhD
This article was initially published in the Winter 2007 edition of the OCD Newsletter.
OCD, as we know, is largely about experiencing drastic and unrelenting doubt. It can cause you to doubt even the most basic things about yourself – even your sexual orientation. A 1998 research published in the Journal of Sex Research create that among a community of 171 college students, 84% reported the occurrence of sexual intrusive thoughts (Byers, et al. 1998). In order to include doubts about one’s sexual identity, a sufferer want not ever have had a homo- or heterosexual experience, or any type of sexual experience at all. I have observed this symptom in immature children, adolescents, and adults as well. Interestingly Swedo, et al., 1989, found that approximately 4% of children with OCD experience obsessions concerned with forbidden assertive or perverse sexual thoughts.
Although doubts about one’s hold sexual identity might feel pretty straightforward as a symptom, there are actually a number of variations. The most obvious shape is where a sufferer experiences the thought that they might be of a different sexual orientation than they formerly believed. If the su
Hi. I’m the Acknowledge Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online society, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, appreciate a ghost in the machine.
I hold some human assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to study tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.
If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just enjoy me, The Acknowledge Wall.