May 4, 2021
Dear Friends and Family,
By way of background for this segment on Gays of the Nihilism series, Critical Race Theory was expanded to create additional Critical Theories in the areas of gender, sex, and sexuality. Segment 12 will focus on Queer Theory and how it interrelates with the LBGT grouping most specifically gays.
My Takeaways (last two segments):
The core of identity politics is to separate people into groups. The most prevalent aspects of the grouping are skin color and race – people of color including blacks and browns (Latino, Asian, Native Americans, etc.). Whites is a separate group. Two additional groups are the LGBT community and women. If you are a person of color and a member of one of the latter two groups you are a victim of intersectionality and if you are a person of color, a woman, and a member of the LBGT community you are a double victim of intersectionality. If you a double victim of intersectionality according to Theory you have more experience and insight into discrimination and oppression than if you are a single victim of intersectionality, who has more insight into discrimination and oppression than a heterosexual male of color. If you are a white heterosexual male, you have the least insight into discrimination and oppression and you are even lower on the understanding discrimination and oppression pyramid if that also includes being a Christian and a conservative (that is rock bottom).
Being gay is one of the building blocks of identity politics because the LBGTQ people are assumed to be a community. But that really makes no sense because gay men and gay women (lesbians) have nothing in common in the main and in fact don’t get along in most cases. Then you have the queers (Q), who are attracted to the same sex but that is only the first step in a wilder journey of sexual liberation from the norm. Whereas gay men and women want to be accepted like everybody else, queers seek to be fundamentally different than everybody else. So, the LBGTQ grouping is anything but a community because there are such wide differences in perspectives, likes, and dislikes. How transgender people fit is a subject for Segment 14.
As one digs deeper into critical theories, one finds that a person’s gender is not determined by biology, but by the persons upbringing, culture, and desires which is often politically influenced. Net, the Theory posits that society dictates whether a person is gender typical or atypical (meaning the extent we identify with the sex we were born as, and the partners we are attracted to sexually). Theory goes further and posits that there are more than two genders – that gender is a spectrum, a continuum. The Gender Critical Theory goes even further and applies the same thinking to biological sex – that biological sex is not binary (being either male or female as determined by scientific method discipline for centuries). Alternatively, a person’s sex is also a spectrum as defined by gender studies based on qualitative methods of thinking. The excerpts from a sexologist, Dr. Debra Soh, refute all of these sex and gender theories as myths. You be the judge.
Next:
The next segment focuses on “Feminism and Gender Studies.” Specifically, some history on the feminist movement and how it has adapted to the critical theories and resultant gender studies.
Happy Learning,
Harley
Dear Friends and Family,
By way of background for this segment on Gays of the Nihilism series, Critical Race Theory was expanded to create additional Critical Theories in the areas of gender, sex, and sexuality. Segment 12 will focus on Queer Theory and how it interrelates with the LBGT grouping most specifically gays.
My Takeaways (last two segments):
The core of identity politics is to separate people into groups. The most prevalent aspects of the grouping are skin color and race – people of color including blacks and browns (Latino, Asian, Native Americans, etc.). Whites is a separate group. Two additional groups are the LGBT community and women. If you are a person of color and a member of one of the latter two groups you are a victim of intersectionality and if you are a person of color, a woman, and a member of the LBGT community you are a double victim of intersectionality. If you a double victim of intersectionality according to Theory you have more experience and insight into discrimination and oppression than if you are a single victim of intersectionality, who has more insight into discrimination and oppression than a heterosexual male of color. If you are a white heterosexual male, you have the least insight into discrimination and oppression and you are even lower on the understanding discrimination and oppression pyramid if that also includes being a Christian and a conservative (that is rock bottom).
Being gay is one of the building blocks of identity politics because the LBGTQ people are assumed to be a community. But that really makes no sense because gay men and gay women (lesbians) have nothing in common in the main and in fact don’t get along in most cases. Then you have the queers (Q), who are attracted to the same sex but that is only the first step in a wilder journey of sexual liberation from the norm. Whereas gay men and women want to be accepted like everybody else, queers seek to be fundamentally different than everybody else. So, the LBGTQ grouping is anything but a community because there are such wide differences in perspectives, likes, and dislikes. How transgender people fit is a subject for Segment 14.
As one digs deeper into critical theories, one finds that a person’s gender is not determined by biology, but by the persons upbringing, culture, and desires which is often politically influenced. Net, the Theory posits that society dictates whether a person is gender typical or atypical (meaning the extent we identify with the sex we were born as, and the partners we are attracted to sexually). Theory goes further and posits that there are more than two genders – that gender is a spectrum, a continuum. The Gender Critical Theory goes even further and applies the same thinking to biological sex – that biological sex is not binary (being either male or female as determined by scientific method discipline for centuries). Alternatively, a person’s sex is also a spectrum as defined by gender studies based on qualitative methods of thinking. The excerpts from a sexologist, Dr. Debra Soh, refute all of these sex and gender theories as myths. You be the judge.
Next:
The next segment focuses on “Feminism and Gender Studies.” Specifically, some history on the feminist movement and how it has adapted to the critical theories and resultant gender studies.
Happy Learning,
Harley
NIHILISM: GOOD OR BAD? – SEGMENT 12
GAYS – EXCERPTS
GAY VERSUS QUEER: Today being gay has become one of the absolutely central building blocks of identity politics. LGBT is now one of the groupings which mainstream politicians routinely speak about – and to – as if they actually exist like a racial or religious community. It is a form of absurdity. For even on its own terms this composition is wildly unsustainable and contradictory. Gay men and gay women have almost nothing in common. Another element within precisely the same alleged ‘community’ might be described not as ‘gay’ but as ‘queer’. It was – and is – the group of people who believe that being attracted to the same sex means more than simply being attracted to the same sex. It is a group of people who believe that being attracted to the same sex should merely be the first stage in a wilder journey. The first step not just to getting on with life but to transgressing the normal modes of life. Whereas gays may just want to be accepted like everyone else, queers want to be recognized as fundamentally different to everyone else.
QUEER THEORY – Freedom from the Normal: Queer Theory is about liberation from the normal, especially where it comes to norms of gender and sexuality. It ignores biology nearly completely and focuses upon them as social constructions perpetuated in language. Queer Theory presumes that oppression follows from categorization, which arises every time language constructs a sense of what is ‘normal” by producing and maintaining rigid categories of sex (male and female), gender (masculine and feminine), and sexuality (straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual and so on) and “scripting people into them. Queer Theory seeks to satisfy its ultimate purpose, which is to identify and make visible the ways in which the linguistic existence of these categories create oppression, and to disrupt them. Together with its goal of subverting or rejecting anything considered normal and innate in favor of the “queer,” this can make Queer Theory frustratingly difficult to understand, given its values, incoherence, illogic, and intelligibility. “Queer” refers to anything that falls outside binaries (such as male/female, and heterosexual/homosexual) and to a way of challenging the links between sex, gender, and sexuality.
Source: Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
THE BATTLE AGAINST BIOLOGY: Sex research refers to scientific disciplines that use quantitative methods including statistics, to understand human sexuality and gender. Related disciplines include biology, psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. When done properly, sex research is rigorous, because science is designed to eliminate bias and confounding variables, so that what you found is legit. Gender studies tends to be qualitative methods, like interviews and auto ethnographies (which are like diary entries). It is not scientific discipline. Although there are definitely gender scholars who are careful and rigorous with their work, many others are not fans of the scientific method. Gender has transformed into a cultlike concept. Scientific research is no longer about exploring new ground but promoting ideas that make people happy.
THE FOUNDATION: Myth #1: Biological Sex is a Spectrum: Biological sex is either male or female. Contrary to what is commonly believed, sex is defined not by chromosomes or our genitals or hormonal profiles, but by gametes, which are mature reproductive cells. There are only two types of gametes: small ones called sperm that are produced by males, and large ones called eggs that are produced by females.
Similar to sex, gender – both in regard to identity and expression – is biological. It is not a social construct. Biology, not society, dictates whether we are gender-typical or atypical, the extent to which we identify as the sex we were born as, and the partners we are sexually attracted to. When sperm fertilizes an egg at conception, the baby will be either female or male. This biology will influence hormonal exposure in the womb, as well as the child’s resulting gender identity. At about seven weeks, if the embryo is male, the testes will begin to secrete testosterone, masculinizing the brain. If the embryo is female, this process does not occur. Although sex and gender are both biologically based, it isn’t accurate to use them interchangeably.
Myth #2: Gender is a Social Construct: “Gender is a social construct” has become a ubiquitous battle cry of wokeness, and those uttering it, not content to quit while they’re ahead, have gone one inexplicable step further, claiming that biological sex is also socially constructed. In their words, sex is defined not by biology, but by culture and political influence, which is a curious thing to say, seeing as how this is physically impossible.
Myth #3: There are More than Two Genders: There are only two genders. Not three, not seventy-one, and certainly not an infinite number. The belief that gender is a spectrum has been promoted by the mainstream media, scientific journals, and medical organizations alike. Humans are a sexually dimorphic species, with two types of gametes: eggs and sperm. Intermediate gametes don’t exist.
Myth #4: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity are Unrelated: Gay activists have historically fought for the idea that gay people were “born that way,” and that being gay was not a choice, but something they realized about themselves from a young age that could not be changed. On the opposite side of this debate has historically been the religious right, who argue that being gay is a lifestyle choice and due to someone’s upbringing. The idea that being gay is not a choice seemed to have (rightfully) won the argument, helping gay people achieve marriage equality in the United States in 2015 and the right to serve openly in the military four years prior to that.
Gender nonconformity and the tendency for gay people to appear more like the opposite sex – for example, for lesbian woman to appear more masculine, on average, than straight men – maybe a stereotype, but I believe we can acknowledge differences between gay and straight people without being homophobic. Greater exposure to prenatal testosterone is associated with male-typical interests and behaviors and sexual attraction to women upon reaching puberty. A boy who is exposed to lower levels of testosterone is more likely to be female-typical when he is born, gravitating towards toys and activities that girls prefer, like dolls and playing house, since girls are also generally exposed to lower levels of testosterone. He will also be sexually attracted to men in adulthood.
Source: The End of Gender by Dr. Debra Soh
THE CULTURE: Instead of being about tolerance and equal treatment under the law, today’s gay movement, in the hands of extremists, now uses the language of rights to demand acceptance of the depraved, the damaged, and the malignantly narcissistic.
THE RED BADGE OF AIDS: One would think that with the scourge of AIDS loose in the world, the gay community itself would have taken a stand and demanded a change in the gay male lifestyle, which is largely one of promiscuity and unprotected intercourse. The epidemic presented a terrific opportunity for the community’s leaders to realize that integrity not only could be a part of gay men’s lives but could enhance them. Instead, the exact opposite has occurred. The fact that promiscuous sex has been the essence of gay male liberation is an important point. This promiscuity is truly a gay male phenomenon and not characteristic of homosexuality per se – or you would find lesbians in bathhouses looking for easy sex with scores of partners. That’s not happening because women behave differently from men, in the gay world as in the straight world.
Source: The Death of Right and Wrong by Tammy Bruce.
GAY PARENTING: In 2014 researchers at the University of Melbourne carried out a study which they said showed that the children of same-sex couples are healthier and happier than children brought up by heterosexual couples. The lead researcher on the project claimed that one cause of this superior happiness was that same-sex couples didn’t fall into traditional ‘gender stereotypes’ and this led to ‘a more harmonious family unit’.
WHAT ARE THE PLAUSIBLE CAUSES OF HOMOPHOBIA? Some heterosexuals are genuinely unnerved by gay people. Perhaps many, most or even all heterosexuals feel something like this, very far away from dislike, but something unnerving. For all sorts of historical and social reasons, lesbianism has rarely been viewed as a fundamental attack on the social order in the way that male homosexuality has. And that may be because there is something about the nature of male homosexuality that strikes at the root of one of the most important aspects not of some people’s sexuality – but of everyone’s sexuality. At the root of the heterosexual male’s set of concerns and questions is the same question that women have about men. What is the act of lovemaking like? What does the other person feel? What do they get out of it? All straight men who have engaged in the physical act of love know what it is like to penetrate a partner during intercourse, to be inside the other; all women who have had intercourse know what it is like to be penetrated, to have the other be inside oneself. But the gay man, in the very moment that he is either penetrating his partner or being penetrated by him, knows exactly what his partner is feeling and experiencing even as he himself has his own experience of exactly the opposite, the complementary act. If the emotional aim of intercourse is a total knowing of the other, gay sex, maybe, in its way, perfect, because of it, a total knowledge of the other’s experience is, finally, possible.
Source: The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray.
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
GAYS – EXCERPTS
GAY VERSUS QUEER: Today being gay has become one of the absolutely central building blocks of identity politics. LGBT is now one of the groupings which mainstream politicians routinely speak about – and to – as if they actually exist like a racial or religious community. It is a form of absurdity. For even on its own terms this composition is wildly unsustainable and contradictory. Gay men and gay women have almost nothing in common. Another element within precisely the same alleged ‘community’ might be described not as ‘gay’ but as ‘queer’. It was – and is – the group of people who believe that being attracted to the same sex means more than simply being attracted to the same sex. It is a group of people who believe that being attracted to the same sex should merely be the first stage in a wilder journey. The first step not just to getting on with life but to transgressing the normal modes of life. Whereas gays may just want to be accepted like everyone else, queers want to be recognized as fundamentally different to everyone else.
QUEER THEORY – Freedom from the Normal: Queer Theory is about liberation from the normal, especially where it comes to norms of gender and sexuality. It ignores biology nearly completely and focuses upon them as social constructions perpetuated in language. Queer Theory presumes that oppression follows from categorization, which arises every time language constructs a sense of what is ‘normal” by producing and maintaining rigid categories of sex (male and female), gender (masculine and feminine), and sexuality (straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual and so on) and “scripting people into them. Queer Theory seeks to satisfy its ultimate purpose, which is to identify and make visible the ways in which the linguistic existence of these categories create oppression, and to disrupt them. Together with its goal of subverting or rejecting anything considered normal and innate in favor of the “queer,” this can make Queer Theory frustratingly difficult to understand, given its values, incoherence, illogic, and intelligibility. “Queer” refers to anything that falls outside binaries (such as male/female, and heterosexual/homosexual) and to a way of challenging the links between sex, gender, and sexuality.
Source: Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
THE BATTLE AGAINST BIOLOGY: Sex research refers to scientific disciplines that use quantitative methods including statistics, to understand human sexuality and gender. Related disciplines include biology, psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. When done properly, sex research is rigorous, because science is designed to eliminate bias and confounding variables, so that what you found is legit. Gender studies tends to be qualitative methods, like interviews and auto ethnographies (which are like diary entries). It is not scientific discipline. Although there are definitely gender scholars who are careful and rigorous with their work, many others are not fans of the scientific method. Gender has transformed into a cultlike concept. Scientific research is no longer about exploring new ground but promoting ideas that make people happy.
THE FOUNDATION: Myth #1: Biological Sex is a Spectrum: Biological sex is either male or female. Contrary to what is commonly believed, sex is defined not by chromosomes or our genitals or hormonal profiles, but by gametes, which are mature reproductive cells. There are only two types of gametes: small ones called sperm that are produced by males, and large ones called eggs that are produced by females.
Similar to sex, gender – both in regard to identity and expression – is biological. It is not a social construct. Biology, not society, dictates whether we are gender-typical or atypical, the extent to which we identify as the sex we were born as, and the partners we are sexually attracted to. When sperm fertilizes an egg at conception, the baby will be either female or male. This biology will influence hormonal exposure in the womb, as well as the child’s resulting gender identity. At about seven weeks, if the embryo is male, the testes will begin to secrete testosterone, masculinizing the brain. If the embryo is female, this process does not occur. Although sex and gender are both biologically based, it isn’t accurate to use them interchangeably.
Myth #2: Gender is a Social Construct: “Gender is a social construct” has become a ubiquitous battle cry of wokeness, and those uttering it, not content to quit while they’re ahead, have gone one inexplicable step further, claiming that biological sex is also socially constructed. In their words, sex is defined not by biology, but by culture and political influence, which is a curious thing to say, seeing as how this is physically impossible.
Myth #3: There are More than Two Genders: There are only two genders. Not three, not seventy-one, and certainly not an infinite number. The belief that gender is a spectrum has been promoted by the mainstream media, scientific journals, and medical organizations alike. Humans are a sexually dimorphic species, with two types of gametes: eggs and sperm. Intermediate gametes don’t exist.
Myth #4: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity are Unrelated: Gay activists have historically fought for the idea that gay people were “born that way,” and that being gay was not a choice, but something they realized about themselves from a young age that could not be changed. On the opposite side of this debate has historically been the religious right, who argue that being gay is a lifestyle choice and due to someone’s upbringing. The idea that being gay is not a choice seemed to have (rightfully) won the argument, helping gay people achieve marriage equality in the United States in 2015 and the right to serve openly in the military four years prior to that.
Gender nonconformity and the tendency for gay people to appear more like the opposite sex – for example, for lesbian woman to appear more masculine, on average, than straight men – maybe a stereotype, but I believe we can acknowledge differences between gay and straight people without being homophobic. Greater exposure to prenatal testosterone is associated with male-typical interests and behaviors and sexual attraction to women upon reaching puberty. A boy who is exposed to lower levels of testosterone is more likely to be female-typical when he is born, gravitating towards toys and activities that girls prefer, like dolls and playing house, since girls are also generally exposed to lower levels of testosterone. He will also be sexually attracted to men in adulthood.
Source: The End of Gender by Dr. Debra Soh
THE CULTURE: Instead of being about tolerance and equal treatment under the law, today’s gay movement, in the hands of extremists, now uses the language of rights to demand acceptance of the depraved, the damaged, and the malignantly narcissistic.
THE RED BADGE OF AIDS: One would think that with the scourge of AIDS loose in the world, the gay community itself would have taken a stand and demanded a change in the gay male lifestyle, which is largely one of promiscuity and unprotected intercourse. The epidemic presented a terrific opportunity for the community’s leaders to realize that integrity not only could be a part of gay men’s lives but could enhance them. Instead, the exact opposite has occurred. The fact that promiscuous sex has been the essence of gay male liberation is an important point. This promiscuity is truly a gay male phenomenon and not characteristic of homosexuality per se – or you would find lesbians in bathhouses looking for easy sex with scores of partners. That’s not happening because women behave differently from men, in the gay world as in the straight world.
Source: The Death of Right and Wrong by Tammy Bruce.
GAY PARENTING: In 2014 researchers at the University of Melbourne carried out a study which they said showed that the children of same-sex couples are healthier and happier than children brought up by heterosexual couples. The lead researcher on the project claimed that one cause of this superior happiness was that same-sex couples didn’t fall into traditional ‘gender stereotypes’ and this led to ‘a more harmonious family unit’.
WHAT ARE THE PLAUSIBLE CAUSES OF HOMOPHOBIA? Some heterosexuals are genuinely unnerved by gay people. Perhaps many, most or even all heterosexuals feel something like this, very far away from dislike, but something unnerving. For all sorts of historical and social reasons, lesbianism has rarely been viewed as a fundamental attack on the social order in the way that male homosexuality has. And that may be because there is something about the nature of male homosexuality that strikes at the root of one of the most important aspects not of some people’s sexuality – but of everyone’s sexuality. At the root of the heterosexual male’s set of concerns and questions is the same question that women have about men. What is the act of lovemaking like? What does the other person feel? What do they get out of it? All straight men who have engaged in the physical act of love know what it is like to penetrate a partner during intercourse, to be inside the other; all women who have had intercourse know what it is like to be penetrated, to have the other be inside oneself. But the gay man, in the very moment that he is either penetrating his partner or being penetrated by him, knows exactly what his partner is feeling and experiencing even as he himself has his own experience of exactly the opposite, the complementary act. If the emotional aim of intercourse is a total knowing of the other, gay sex, maybe, in its way, perfect, because of it, a total knowledge of the other’s experience is, finally, possible.
Source: The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray.
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
| 12_nihilism_long_gays_--_segment_12.pdf |