Labels Too Narrow for a Wider Margin
Renna Communications tweets today about the Aids Conference 2012 (#AIDS 2012) raise an interesting concept about gay identity: “some queer men have sex with transgender women, masculine women – doesn’t MSM (Men who have sex with men) exclude them?”
Brown of S.Africa’s Tutu HIV Program tweets: “found gay identity often associated with Western Culture; MSM not linked with any one culture or tribe.” Also, in S. Africa, MSM seen as liars, promiscuous, sex addicts, afraid that med. providers will out sexuality and HIV status.”
You see the connection. Out yourself, and you’ll experience discrimination, and in this case, physical punishment in Africa and other parts of the world. Thus, MSM in India, Africa, and other continents are underreported for fear of retaliation, thus hindering studies of gender identity.
What constitutes sex? Was Bill Clinton lying when he said “I didn’t have sex with that woman!”
If sex is defined as only sexual intercourse when there is penile-vaginal penetration, then technically he’s not as fault. If oral sex is considered sex, and Monica Lewinsky becomes his humidor, then he’s guilty.
When is a Girl Technically a Virgin?
Anal sex is on the rise among the young, especially with heterosexuals, as studies indicate. Yet, by the unchanged definition of a virgin, one who has not engaged in vaginal intercourse, females who have had anal sex with males are “technically virgins.” How does that define their partners? Virgins, too?
Labels, Shmabels
Alfred Kinsey reported that sex is a continuum and that it is not unusual for heterosexuals to have same-sex experiences. Not knowing Kinsey’s research, however, would a guilty teen who’s had oral sex with a good friend believe he’s gay? If he were filling out a questionnaire for a sex survey of his age group, how would he identify himself? Gay or straight? Same dilemma for a girl who may have been petted to orgasm by a friend? Does she think she’s a lesbian? Or is she sophisticated to know that this is not the case.
Interpretations of Behaviors and Attractions
Ritch C. Savin-Williams, author of The New Gay Teenager, and Professor of Clinical and Developmental Psychology at Cornell University, found in his research of college students that the words gay teenagers used to describe their sexual preferences have changed radically over the past 40 years as well as their attitudes towards same-sex relationships. In fact, many of them like to be regarded as “fluid.”
Savin-Williams says that gay adolescence is using outmoded universal, linear sexual identity models which fail to capture the diversity and complexity of sex lives.
The Trouble With Surveys
All these findings point the finger at the inadequacy of the survey authors. Unless they know beforehand how the survey takers define sex, their funded-studies are going to be inconclusive. I wonder if the one in ten figure attributed to the gay population in the United States isn’t low. It’s no wonder when defining sexual identity can be easily misinterpreted and society makes the respondent be ashamed to document the truth.
SOURCE: GAYAGENDA
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