Mystech said:
Homosexuals are bought up in the exact same environment. Most of us are right in lock step with this sort of behavior before we start to realize that we're not quite like the other boys. Needless to say there's usually quite a lot of angst and confusion at this point. People like to play up the differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals as if we grew up in different societies and were just raised different or something, it's not so.
If your description of why you think you’re heterosexual were actually a force strong enough to decide your sexual orientation then there wouldn’t be scores of homosexual children disowned by their right-wing nut job parents.
Now, there's an issue I've been raising for a long time, but no one has really paid any attention to. Vossist is absolutely right.
Almost all men (especially straight men) have a sexual need for other men, whether or not they have a sexual need for women. Sexual orientation is not a real divide between people. The only thing that brought together people belonging to different genders of men together under the 'homosexual' category in the west was a common enemy (heterosexuality) and not a common biological trait. "Homosexual" is a political identity, not a biological one (the entire gay gene thing is bull shit!).
Men are naturally divided on the basis of gender and this has a biological basis (rather than sexual orientation which is unnatural). And there are basically three distinct male genders inspite of whom they prefer sexually:
- Straight: Predominantly masculine men
- Meterosexuals: Both masculine as well as feminine in almost equal measures
- Transgendered: Predominantly Feminine males
Please note that I'm not using the western definitions of these terms.
Now to the point you've made.
There's a strong pressure on men as a whole to exaggerate their sexual feelings for women and to suppress their sexual feelings for men (as pointed out by you and Vossist) if their manhood is to be acknowledged by the society and they are to be included in the 'men's' category (straight men in the western society). Plus it has created a separate 'homosexual' category, which is actually an extension of the earlier transgender/ lesser male/ third sex category. The society intensifies the heat on male-male bonds by labeling all such bonds as 'gay' and pushing them in the 'homosexual' category. In the past and in traditional societies even today, this category is meant only for the third sex. This is a nightmare for straight men, for whom this social category has nothing to offer. Their fate lies with other straight men.
Now transgendered males don't really care for the manhood status, their life is anyway made hell in the straight circle (see definition above) and those transgendered males that like men are only too glad to come to embrace the 'homosexual' identity.
As the straight space becomes more and more hostile to male femininity, Meterosexuals feel more and more different than straight men. Those who predominantly like men too find solace in the homosexual identity because this proving manhood business doesn't appeal all that much to them anyways. In fact Meterosexuals today dominate the 'homosexual' space and culture.
For both Meterosexuals and transgendered men their sexual attraction for other men is an integral part of their femininity. In fact their femininity is the root of the word 'queer'. But it is not so for straight men, for whom their attraction for men is only and only a part of their masculine self -- though not acknowledged by the society as such.
For most straight men this homosexual, lesser-male space is worse than death -- like Vossist said. Since ancient times, they were thrown into a similar lesser-male category when they failed to pass the manhood test (though it was NEVER having sex with women then!). As the heat on male-male bonds increases in a mixed gender setting, many straight men are forced to leave and join the gay label. But it's never easy for them and they feel like a fish out of water. They need to be with other straight men and develop their masculinity. And hence most of even those straight men that have exclusive attraction for men sacrifice their sexual need in order to retain their straight status.
And if the straight man has even an iota of sexual attraction for women, he'll gladly and prominently use that as a handle to hang on to the straight identity --- because his manhood and his need to bond with other straight men (as one amongst them) is very strong in a straight man. That's excluding the fake straight men that are considered straight only for their heterosexuality.
In fact the entire oppressive system is meant to manipulate straight male behaviour, and force it to take on a heterosexual identity. Straight men start hating their sexual need for men and some even become hostile to it. They flaunt this hatred and a disdain for the feminine homosexual category by putting down homosexuals (i.e. queers who like men!). Whether they like it or not, straight men direct all their sexual energies towards women who are the only source of their social masculinity in a heterosexual society.