The "born this way" dialogue encapsulates a lot of assumptions that are to some degree useful against the "Couldn't you try just not being gay?" narrative and that are no doubt true for a lot of people -- that everyone has exactly one sexual orientation through their whole life, that everyone experiences that sexual orientation strongly and undeniably somewhere around puberty, that physical and/or sexual attraction is primary and intellectual or romantic attraction is secondary.
I think that became the dominant narrative because the people who fit that narrative tended to be the most sure about coming out, even in the face of enormous social pressure. But they're assumptions that don't work for everybody and it's time to expand the way we talk about sexuality.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-08-04 03:35 am (UTC)The "born this way" dialogue encapsulates a lot of assumptions that are to some degree useful against the "Couldn't you try just not being gay?" narrative and that are no doubt true for a lot of people -- that everyone has exactly one sexual orientation through their whole life, that everyone experiences that sexual orientation strongly and undeniably somewhere around puberty, that physical and/or sexual attraction is primary and intellectual or romantic attraction is secondary.
I think that became the dominant narrative because the people who fit that narrative tended to be the most sure about coming out, even in the face of enormous social pressure. But they're assumptions that don't work for everybody and it's time to expand the way we talk about sexuality.