Gender associations
while looking up some psych stuff i found an interesting combination of articles:
I Proudly Lack Ambition by 'moreanonymous', and Do Women Lack Ambition? by Anna Fels. Inbetween watching a re-run of the first episode of Heros.
Mix this up with some jungian personality typing. Note the masculine image associated with "ambition", with the Male ideal of the Jungian xxTJ type. The "I Proudly Lack Ambition" article was great in that it brought out a point until now i thought i was the only person on earth who thought: Ambition is generally at the expense of other people, when you rise above others, they must fall to make room because there's not much room at the top. As a young kid i can remember i avoided competition for this reason, i often prefered to do my own thing because i didn't want to upset anyone# by being better than them at something (and perhaps vice versa as well - to avoid my own jealousy towards them).
(# most likely my brother)
interesting sidepoints:
In ancient greece homosexual sex between males was considered demeaning for the bottom but (interestingly) not the top, because being sexually penetrated was considered demeaning. I wonder if this is because of a mirroring of traditional hetero sex relations - the female being penetrated - and therefore merely a cultural consequence of a patriarchal society, with the inherent chauvinistic viewpoint that everything being associated with the feminine is regarded as inferior to everything masculine.
Studys have found that homosexuality in males is slightly more commonly found in someone if he had an older brother. It's been suggested that this has to do with in-utero horomones but that's uninteresting. What i wonder is if it has anything to do with the ambition familys place onto their firstborn son, and the association between ambition and masculinity.
(example stereotype: the flying brothers in Heroes)
If a younger son feels that the ambitions of his older brother are more important than his own, perhaps - like the ancient greeks, and modern day women - he will associate this loss of ambition with a feminization of himself. And this will make the thought of being intimate with another guy more palatable.
something i'd really like to ask heterosexual guys en-mass, is if they have an aversion to the thought of being penetrated. ie: how much of their sexual identity is tied up not with just naturally displaying traits they regard as masculine - but with avoiding what they regard as feminine traits. I guess the question would be "would you let your* girl fuck you with a strapon?".
Also, i guess i'd ask hetero girls too, if they were using a dildo on some* guy how they'd feel about it.
(* isn't that interesting... i automatically add in that the guy would be penetrated by his trusted girlfriend - probabaly because trust is important when you're getting penetrated, but for the penetrator there would be no such fear for personal safety (or would there?). hmm, Rape discussion anyone?)
This is all based on the Kinsey/Klein theory that we're all somewhere on a bisexual scale. With %100 Heterosexuality on one end, %100 Homosexuality on the other end, and we're all somewhere inbetween with either extreme being rare. I recon insecuritys about society's gender expectations of us would effect the scale a lot - what would it be like without them?
no seriously, what would it be like without gender roles? I'm trying to figure out, if humans had only ONE sex - would we still take on feminine/masculine roles in a relationship? It seems that even homosexual relationships are divided into feminine and masculine sides - but is this just because of hetero conditioning? Is it just because that's how we define relationships between individuals and we know no better? Do any relationships exist anywhere without some form of psychological gender roles (oooh they could be so subtle)? If you got any 2 people, one would always be slightly more masculine or feminine than the other - it's a "how long's a piece of string" thing, you can't find 2 identical humans... unless. Ok now i'm trying to visualise an identical twin incest relationship, lol.
A study into the whole sub/dom sexplay culture would probably be fruitful.
Hah, and all i initially wanted was to read about the link between depression and "lack of ambition".
I Proudly Lack Ambition by 'moreanonymous', and Do Women Lack Ambition? by Anna Fels. Inbetween watching a re-run of the first episode of Heros.
Mix this up with some jungian personality typing. Note the masculine image associated with "ambition", with the Male ideal of the Jungian xxTJ type. The "I Proudly Lack Ambition" article was great in that it brought out a point until now i thought i was the only person on earth who thought: Ambition is generally at the expense of other people, when you rise above others, they must fall to make room because there's not much room at the top. As a young kid i can remember i avoided competition for this reason, i often prefered to do my own thing because i didn't want to upset anyone# by being better than them at something (and perhaps vice versa as well - to avoid my own jealousy towards them).
(# most likely my brother)
interesting sidepoints:
In ancient greece homosexual sex between males was considered demeaning for the bottom but (interestingly) not the top, because being sexually penetrated was considered demeaning. I wonder if this is because of a mirroring of traditional hetero sex relations - the female being penetrated - and therefore merely a cultural consequence of a patriarchal society, with the inherent chauvinistic viewpoint that everything being associated with the feminine is regarded as inferior to everything masculine.
Studys have found that homosexuality in males is slightly more commonly found in someone if he had an older brother. It's been suggested that this has to do with in-utero horomones but that's uninteresting. What i wonder is if it has anything to do with the ambition familys place onto their firstborn son, and the association between ambition and masculinity.
(example stereotype: the flying brothers in Heroes)
If a younger son feels that the ambitions of his older brother are more important than his own, perhaps - like the ancient greeks, and modern day women - he will associate this loss of ambition with a feminization of himself. And this will make the thought of being intimate with another guy more palatable.
something i'd really like to ask heterosexual guys en-mass, is if they have an aversion to the thought of being penetrated. ie: how much of their sexual identity is tied up not with just naturally displaying traits they regard as masculine - but with avoiding what they regard as feminine traits. I guess the question would be "would you let your* girl fuck you with a strapon?".
Also, i guess i'd ask hetero girls too, if they were using a dildo on some* guy how they'd feel about it.
(* isn't that interesting... i automatically add in that the guy would be penetrated by his trusted girlfriend - probabaly because trust is important when you're getting penetrated, but for the penetrator there would be no such fear for personal safety (or would there?). hmm, Rape discussion anyone?)
This is all based on the Kinsey/Klein theory that we're all somewhere on a bisexual scale. With %100 Heterosexuality on one end, %100 Homosexuality on the other end, and we're all somewhere inbetween with either extreme being rare. I recon insecuritys about society's gender expectations of us would effect the scale a lot - what would it be like without them?
no seriously, what would it be like without gender roles? I'm trying to figure out, if humans had only ONE sex - would we still take on feminine/masculine roles in a relationship? It seems that even homosexual relationships are divided into feminine and masculine sides - but is this just because of hetero conditioning? Is it just because that's how we define relationships between individuals and we know no better? Do any relationships exist anywhere without some form of psychological gender roles (oooh they could be so subtle)? If you got any 2 people, one would always be slightly more masculine or feminine than the other - it's a "how long's a piece of string" thing, you can't find 2 identical humans... unless. Ok now i'm trying to visualise an identical twin incest relationship, lol.
A study into the whole sub/dom sexplay culture would probably be fruitful.
Hah, and all i initially wanted was to read about the link between depression and "lack of ambition".