Inspired by some comments on an earlier entry.
So, I actually do believe that we’re talking roughly chi-squared curves here (see graphic below) with the number of sex partners on the x-axis), kind of like income distributions. And I think there is a significant bias towards gay guys having more partners. Which is not to say that there are not monogamous or celibate gay guys out there, and that they’re aren’t incredibly promiscuous heteros, but on average, median, etc, I bet that gay guys get more bootay.
Remember, the plural of anecdote is not evidence. =) I’m basing my conclusions on a few things: Most prominently, gabriel rotello’s Sexual Ecology, in which he discusses the epidemiology of HIV, and (late in the book) how it corresponds to the sorts of answers hetero’s give, and homo’s give when asked about the number of partners they’ve had. Hetero’s self-reported fewer partners per unit time than homo’s self-reported. And the transmission rates supported their claims. Additionally, gay guys can have a situation where two of one’s former partners can themselves partner up (happened to me). In strictly heterosexual interactions, that’s just plain ol’ not possible.
But, I think it’s nuts to pretend that there’s gay men, and everything else. For starters, there’s bi folk. And the sexual politics of lesbians are to my [limited] understanding, quite different from gay guy or hetero norms. And grouping all heteros together as though they had the same norms is equally ridiculous. Most heteros don’t have a strong (conscious) cultural identity based on their sexuality.
Kind of like the thing I noted in statistics last week. The white population’s attitude to the courts showed much more variability by things like income, education, and even attitude towards marijuana than the black population’s. I attributed this to a greater cultural unity among blacks. Not saying that all blacks (or all homos, or all males, etc) belong to a unified culture, but that the “white identity” and the “heterosexual identity” is no one’s primary cultural self-identification. I suspect white heteros are more likely to define themselves by profession, religion, class, or other such ideas.
Multiple identities
I’d have to say that very few people ponder their identity. Most people have multiple identities and cultural relationships that often overlap and conflict. The difference btwn gay and str8 people on this is that often we define ourselves by the “other”, not by that which associates us with the majority. I should elaborate at some point.
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Two exes hooking up is a trauma and offense that should be punishable by denuttification.
Think former open relationship on the one hand, and fuck buddy on the other. It becomes much less traumatic. =)
i find that last paragraph pretty intruiging…
“I bet that gay guys get more bootay”
More partners != more bootay.
“white identity” isn’t strong because it’s not a counterpart to “black identity”. It’s more like “asian identity”. I don’t think of myself as Asian American. I think of myself as Taiwanese-American, American, a little bit Chinese, then somewhere down the line is Asian. “black identity” exists because the vast majority of blacks in this country share a couple hundred years of the same background, with any prior background being somewhat replaced.
About all that I have in common with a Filipino or a Korean is that we both deal with similar racism in this country, and for some reason they sometimes can’t tell us apart. My friends back in high school thought of themselves as Italian, Irish, etc. not “white”. Just go ask a Swede if he’s Finnish for a good example. 🙂
An excellent point. I got the most sex when I had a bf with whom I was (mostly) monogamous. =)
I hadn’t thought of the asian example, but you’re totally, dead-on, right. The other factor is that most white folks can’t tell the difference between the various varieties of east asian (I know I can’t reliably tell the difference.) It’s interesting to talk to someone who calls themself asian, who is from India. They are, in fact, asian, but not what we think of when we think of “asian”. *shrug*