Brace yourselves

[pasithea]

I'm sure there will be widespread panic in the heterosexual community over this:

http://children.webmd.com/news/20091116/phthalates-affect-way-young-boys-play

They'll probably try to do away with plastic toys for kids and return them to the days where kids play with sharp jagged bits of metal (as it should be)


Oh... Also... 145 is a pretty statistically small number for such an arbitrary behavior set. Seriously, 'play with trucks' is a marker of masculinity? That would imply that until the last part of the 19th century, all men were too 'feminine' right?


Also, I can't help but think that 'don't play like boys' means that they're less assholish. OMG MY CHILD ISN'T BURNING ANTS WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS! WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM!?!?!?!?

Comments

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? There's a heterosexual community?

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Most people are born into it, if you can believe it!

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

I insist that one's gender and/or orientation is neither necessary nor sufficient to determine one's community. Nor is a culture or demographic automatically a community. There has to be a participation element.

In short, while there are communities that are heterosexual in nature (Or, rather, those that are actively and systematically homophobic), they are not part of a larger 'heterosexual community'. Nor would I let them lay claim members by sole virtue of a default setting.

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

What's your orientation? Being suspected of faggotry sure put me into a different sort of community for my teen years, and lead to behavior patterns and secretive nature that defined my social interaction ever after. Sexual orientation doesn't happen in a vacuum. Eventually you're going to be sexually oriented toward someone, and they're going to feel a certain way about it, and tell their friends, who are going to have opinions of their own, and bam, right there, you've got a community involved.

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if my post was going to come off wrong. And I suppose it did. Sorry about that.

I was splitting hairs, in that I do not think of heteros as having a hetero-defined community in the same way there's the GLBT community. There's no support network or any real kinship. Where there is kinship between heteros, it's not because they're hetero in and of itself, but of some other common trait. There wouldn't be any panic amongst a heterosexual community because there is no community there. However, panic amongst communities that are heterosexual and homophobic, be they religious or regional, would be interesting. That was the intended jest.

Whether or not my distinction really matters, however, you've rightfully pointed out as facile and not really relevant, so consider it retracted.

As for orientation, I'm reminded of Kevin Smith's quote, "Ma'am, I'm still not sure [if I'm straight]. And I've got a wife and child, how irresponsible is that?"

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Also, I feel the urge to append "You facile, dick." to the end of my previous statement but I won't. Oh, wait, I think I just did! Sorry, it was uncalled for.