Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rick Julian who wrote (31069)	2/17/1999 6:34:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I will admit - it WOULD surprise me greatly if it ewere true. Such stories are unheard of in the straight world. Perhaps the average American is willing enough to classify gays as inherently damaged - thus making the story plausible. It's a disorder after all <heavy sarcasm> I suspect (but cannot substantiate) that a minority of gays was actually superpromiscuous. Imo this is an artifact of a 100% male environment. Promiscuity is part of the healthy male sex drive - wehichever way it is directed. Highly promiscuous women on the other hand are presuppsed to be damaged goods. So a gay man "coming out" into an established gay underground was presented with something straights only dream about - sexual opportunity bounded only by stamina. :-)

To: Rick Julian who wrote (31069)	2/17/1999 6:58:00 PM
From: Edwarda	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Help! Every time I think I have reached the end of the current discussion, someone else has posted with new (sometimes) thoughts. I'm temped to print out everything and do a thoughtful disquisition, but by then, the thread will hae galloped off someplace else. Let's all reread Camille Paglia's Salon comments. She references the Stonewall "uprising." Most people who prefer sexual relations with persons of the same sex do not make a big deal of their preferences; like the rest of us they love and enjoy without any fanfare except the fireworks in their own minds. But one has to remember that Stonewall marked the first time that people who wanted to be "respectable" stood up for themselves and got hurt defending their freedom to meet and try to do everything that other singles did, i.e., start a conversation, flirt, flirt more, and maybe invite home. People who feel sexual attraction to others of the same sex are just like you and me. I have some close friends who have partners of the same sex; some have loving relationships and some are having frivolous affairs. How does this behavior differ from the "straight" world? As for the story posted here, I am not a bit surprised--does anyone remember the cachet around Plato's Retreat? The numbers relating to anonymous sexual encounters were staggering -- we're talking hundreds (sometimes thousands) of partners, and among even my most libidinous hetero male friends, I don't find a parallel. Well, maybe yoou have friends who are not neurotically chasing something down. This ravenous "numbers game" is not exclusively the realm of male homosexuals. There are "straight" men and women who do it too. It is not really at all about sex. Try to find John Rechy's Numbers for an eye-opener about the phenomenon of compulsive counting, how many can I attract? Or read by the same author The Sexual Outlaw, which can horrify with its news clippings and comments about the time from which the current activism springs. It's very akin to feminism" Appalling abuse evokes responses. Some of those responses are over the top. However, no more than heterosexuals should be considered classical habituees of Plato's Retreat should people who feel desire for people of their own sex be lumped with people who are deriving excitement from dancing on the edge. People dancing on the edge have a whole different set of issues to deal with and their sexuality simply provides a focus and a voice.

To: Rick Julian who wrote (31069)	2/17/1999 7:18:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 108807

I can think of very little to add to Edwarda's excellent post, but it should be pointed out that research conducted in San Francisco bathhouses can no more be considered representative of the gay community as a whole than research in Plato's Retreat could be considered representative of the heterosexual community as a whole. It's a skewed sample to begin with. It might also be mentioned that people who have been excluded and persecuted on the basis of their sexual identity can be expected to show a degree of neurosis in their mode of sexual expression. Lather's point about men being men is also well taken. If all of us had Wilt's opportunities you would see a lot more people flashing Wilt's numbers. Not everyone, but a lot more.

To: Rick Julian who wrote (31069)	2/18/1999 10:00:00 AM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I know gay men and lesbians who have been in monogamous relationships that look exactly like very happy marriages for decades. Many decades. But obviously males have evolved (because it is in the self interest of their genes) to want to sow their seed on whatever patch of ground will hold still for a second; so how surprising is it that when there are no females, whose evolutionary imperatives are so different, in the picture, an all male constituency would, on average, be more promiscuous?