habitus
So I come home from comedy night at the Zoo (university pub) and my parents have been watching this CBC documentary on teens and sex... I can almost see another warning about the birds and the bees coming my way but I think they almost allllmost understand I'm an adult and they didn't start in on a lecture. But it's funny, the 13 year olds having orgies freaked my mother out, yeah, but she was more shocked that half of teens/preteens state that they are bisexual.
That didn't phase me. So I got to wondering why, because in fact my mother's bewilderment at this almost offended me. And I realized that maybe one of the largest components to the generation gap these days lies in the question of sexual openess and freedom. I mean, we are the generation where people stand up and say "I'm gay" and they make TV shows about it, the number of gay bars increase, kids books talk about "life partners" instead of mommy and daddy. ... And, though I'm not going to march in any gay rights parade, I truly am part of the bunch that thinks there would be something wrong if we didn't have these things appears, the people who believe in equality for everyone. The last thing I want, whether I agree or disagree with homosexuality, is a world where people are openly discriminated against - for anything.
I suppose you could point a finger at me and say "you're supposed to be a Christian, aren't you, you're supposed to dislike and disagree with everything to do with homosexuality" - well alright, it's in the Bible that it's not right. But get real, it's not murder, these people aren't necessarily hurting anyone. Heck there are heterosexual people with more perversion around then some gay couples.
So then it's funny, because I live in a historical period of tolerence. Some would say too much tolerance, but that's what it is, suppose it goes with the 'postmodern' movement. My parents though, have the modernist mentality programmed into them, one where there are still absoulute rights and wrongs, and they still get amazed when there's lesbian action on the OC before 10pm. So yeah, these might be the homophobes but I can see that it's not my mother personally who disagrees with homosexuality, it's a combination of her upbringing and generational mentality that allows a shock to occur at these things.
Though I wonder if having an affinity for tolerence and abolition of absolutes leaves any room for judgement - not juding other people but judgement of issues, of mentalities, like common sense or morality. There's something in my parents and their parents that says "No that's wrong" to widespread bisexuality in young people, yet there's something in my generation that says "No that's wrong" to their opinion BUT we are spawning a group of people who, in the true use of 'tolerance', cannot label anything as right or wrong.
It doesn't seem very concrete. It seems like you'd have to float through life... Just doing, not thinking about the nature, quality, or meaning of action.. Maybe not, maybe the dying modernist grips we are still not knowledgeable enough to look for meaning away from the labels of 'good' and 'bad', beneficial or not.
As for bisexuality.. what does society (and, naturally capitalism) say? Be a worker and a consumer, be a star and a viewer, be a student and a teacher, binge drink and go to the gym, have your cake and eat it too: be heterosexual and homosexual, have the best of both sexual/emotional/social worlds. Broaden your identity, open doors, this is the new thing, this is the new tolerance and we're putting it everywhere so are you really part of it if you're on the outside? Are you actually supportive if you haven't tried it?
Or maybe it's not that way, maybe it is biological. Is there any way to say that the right combination of the nucleotides on DNA determines your sexuality? Now if they could find further natural consequences of something like that, for example, specific DNA would dictate a significant hormonal/chemical alteration in your body that would cause attraction to the same sex, or a new hormone would be produced, etc etc. ..
There is that prof at the u of l who studies lesbian monkeys.. from what I hear the jist of it is that they participate in same sex acts for social interaction but they still mates with males as well, for the purpose of reproducing.. bisexual monkeys. Not because of specific biological make-up, but as a social adaptation? And if evolution assumes certain traits are passed on? Well? Strange, isn't it.
Anyways, as I go off on every tangent possible and yet try to remain neutral for necessity of dodging hate mail from opinions on either side of the argument, I will just state that I only say all of this to explain why I was not surprised at the number of young people saying they are bisexual. It's funny how, already on some topics my parents and I live in different worlds - and they're not even really old and senile yet.
on a completely different note, I found some great online RPGs so I can fulfill my longlasting dream of being a true dork instead of just a poser.
That didn't phase me. So I got to wondering why, because in fact my mother's bewilderment at this almost offended me. And I realized that maybe one of the largest components to the generation gap these days lies in the question of sexual openess and freedom. I mean, we are the generation where people stand up and say "I'm gay" and they make TV shows about it, the number of gay bars increase, kids books talk about "life partners" instead of mommy and daddy. ... And, though I'm not going to march in any gay rights parade, I truly am part of the bunch that thinks there would be something wrong if we didn't have these things appears, the people who believe in equality for everyone. The last thing I want, whether I agree or disagree with homosexuality, is a world where people are openly discriminated against - for anything.
I suppose you could point a finger at me and say "you're supposed to be a Christian, aren't you, you're supposed to dislike and disagree with everything to do with homosexuality" - well alright, it's in the Bible that it's not right. But get real, it's not murder, these people aren't necessarily hurting anyone. Heck there are heterosexual people with more perversion around then some gay couples.
So then it's funny, because I live in a historical period of tolerence. Some would say too much tolerance, but that's what it is, suppose it goes with the 'postmodern' movement. My parents though, have the modernist mentality programmed into them, one where there are still absoulute rights and wrongs, and they still get amazed when there's lesbian action on the OC before 10pm. So yeah, these might be the homophobes but I can see that it's not my mother personally who disagrees with homosexuality, it's a combination of her upbringing and generational mentality that allows a shock to occur at these things.
Though I wonder if having an affinity for tolerence and abolition of absolutes leaves any room for judgement - not juding other people but judgement of issues, of mentalities, like common sense or morality. There's something in my parents and their parents that says "No that's wrong" to widespread bisexuality in young people, yet there's something in my generation that says "No that's wrong" to their opinion BUT we are spawning a group of people who, in the true use of 'tolerance', cannot label anything as right or wrong.
It doesn't seem very concrete. It seems like you'd have to float through life... Just doing, not thinking about the nature, quality, or meaning of action.. Maybe not, maybe the dying modernist grips we are still not knowledgeable enough to look for meaning away from the labels of 'good' and 'bad', beneficial or not.
As for bisexuality.. what does society (and, naturally capitalism) say? Be a worker and a consumer, be a star and a viewer, be a student and a teacher, binge drink and go to the gym, have your cake and eat it too: be heterosexual and homosexual, have the best of both sexual/emotional/social worlds. Broaden your identity, open doors, this is the new thing, this is the new tolerance and we're putting it everywhere so are you really part of it if you're on the outside? Are you actually supportive if you haven't tried it?
Or maybe it's not that way, maybe it is biological. Is there any way to say that the right combination of the nucleotides on DNA determines your sexuality? Now if they could find further natural consequences of something like that, for example, specific DNA would dictate a significant hormonal/chemical alteration in your body that would cause attraction to the same sex, or a new hormone would be produced, etc etc. ..
There is that prof at the u of l who studies lesbian monkeys.. from what I hear the jist of it is that they participate in same sex acts for social interaction but they still mates with males as well, for the purpose of reproducing.. bisexual monkeys. Not because of specific biological make-up, but as a social adaptation? And if evolution assumes certain traits are passed on? Well? Strange, isn't it.
Anyways, as I go off on every tangent possible and yet try to remain neutral for necessity of dodging hate mail from opinions on either side of the argument, I will just state that I only say all of this to explain why I was not surprised at the number of young people saying they are bisexual. It's funny how, already on some topics my parents and I live in different worlds - and they're not even really old and senile yet.
on a completely different note, I found some great online RPGs so I can fulfill my longlasting dream of being a true dork instead of just a poser.