Look At It This Way

Seeing old things in new ways.

by Stephen Mason, Ph.D.

Traveling Gay-Class

By Stephen Mason, Ph.D. on August 8, 2009 in Look At It This Way

No doubt about it. I liked my boyfriends a whole lot better than my girlfriends. In fact, now that I think about it, I can’t even remember having that many girlfriends. But no problem, the guys were great. There were so many swell things to do. You could throw rocks and climb trees, ride your bike really fast down the hill and maybe even (joy of joys) fall off and Read More

Fascinating stuff

Submitted by Christopher Ryan on August 9, 2009 - 3:48am.

Thanks for another thought-provoking piece. Your question (and his answer) about whether sexual orientation is a choice reminded me of a quote from German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who wrote, “Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will.” (Man can choose what he does, but he cannot choose what he wants.)

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What You Do - What You Want

Submitted by Stephen Mason, Ph.D. on August 9, 2009 - 9:52am.

The Schopenhauer quote reminded me of a guest (the author of a book damning Gays) that I was interviewing. A good on-air rule is that you never ask a question to which you don't already know the answer. So I came up with:

"Do you ever find yourself sexually attracted to other men?"

ready to follow up (as soon as he said No Way) with:

"Then what would you do if your culture decided that was the norm?"

But instead he said:

"Every day and every night...but I fight it."

He couldn't control what he wanted so he constantly struggled with what he did. I suspect that same sorry state defines many lives...and not just in terms of sexual preference.