Why are there so many gays on VT?
Pondering to myself while casually moderating the advice forums, I wondered why there were so many members of the LGBT community on VT. I'll analyse this question here.
I thought about the way gays interacted compared to straights, and in a weird series of complex thought streams, I came to a most interesting ideology: it is, stereotypically, men who bond with each other and form relationships by shared activity and doing things together such as football or computer games, whereas it is also stereotypically women who bond with each other by talking and sharing emotions, e.g. going on "girls nights outs" or slumber parties where they stay up late and talk as opposed to playing games and eating as much as they can.
Alas, and this is not meant offensively (I am more-or-less a homosexual myself, of course), gays behave more like females than other men. Their mindset is more feminine and they care more to be empathetic and emotional; this has been shown by both brain scans and hormone levels found in gay men. VT is a place where social communication is the only activity: there is no arcade, no TV, rizzlas or baccy to smoke. Thus, one would assume it appeals to feminine people who use social communication to connect more.
So why are we so dominated by gay/bi-sexual men? Obviously a large degree of this is in the site's subject matter; the Teen Sexuality and Puberty 101 forums contribute heavily to this sexuality divide. But, it is additionally because straight men will be less attracted to use a website where only talking, communicating and sharing ideas with others is key.
So why not a small proportion of gay men and mostly females, now we've established that the feminine are more attracted to the site? A BBC article I read also showed that men dominated the world of political blogs, and relatively few were owned by women. Those owning political blogs will have similar mindsets to those who use forums: there to broadcast their opinion to the world.
I haven't done enough research into the science, but it is most probably the case that some of the hormones more prominent in straight females that gay men have higher amounts of cause the feminine qualities of social communication (where the "camp" stereotype might derive from, too) whereas whatever causes men to be more outspoken and wanting to share opinions and views on things retains in gay men as much as straight men. In my experience in the forum world, almost all message boards are male-dominated.
Alas, it's an interesting question with an interesting (but only probable) answer. I hope you enjoyed.
I thought about the way gays interacted compared to straights, and in a weird series of complex thought streams, I came to a most interesting ideology: it is, stereotypically, men who bond with each other and form relationships by shared activity and doing things together such as football or computer games, whereas it is also stereotypically women who bond with each other by talking and sharing emotions, e.g. going on "girls nights outs" or slumber parties where they stay up late and talk as opposed to playing games and eating as much as they can.
Alas, and this is not meant offensively (I am more-or-less a homosexual myself, of course), gays behave more like females than other men. Their mindset is more feminine and they care more to be empathetic and emotional; this has been shown by both brain scans and hormone levels found in gay men. VT is a place where social communication is the only activity: there is no arcade, no TV, rizzlas or baccy to smoke. Thus, one would assume it appeals to feminine people who use social communication to connect more.
So why are we so dominated by gay/bi-sexual men? Obviously a large degree of this is in the site's subject matter; the Teen Sexuality and Puberty 101 forums contribute heavily to this sexuality divide. But, it is additionally because straight men will be less attracted to use a website where only talking, communicating and sharing ideas with others is key.
So why not a small proportion of gay men and mostly females, now we've established that the feminine are more attracted to the site? A BBC article I read also showed that men dominated the world of political blogs, and relatively few were owned by women. Those owning political blogs will have similar mindsets to those who use forums: there to broadcast their opinion to the world.
I haven't done enough research into the science, but it is most probably the case that some of the hormones more prominent in straight females that gay men have higher amounts of cause the feminine qualities of social communication (where the "camp" stereotype might derive from, too) whereas whatever causes men to be more outspoken and wanting to share opinions and views on things retains in gay men as much as straight men. In my experience in the forum world, almost all message boards are male-dominated.
Alas, it's an interesting question with an interesting (but only probable) answer. I hope you enjoyed.
Total Comments 13
Comments
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I agree! I was actually kinda surprised to see so much acceptance and so much males of the LGBT community. C:Posted July 24th, 2011 at 10:43 AM by Angel Androgynous 
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I'm a conservative republican tea party lover and I have gay people. STRAIGHT 4 LYFE OMGZ LOVE MICHELLE BACHMENPosted July 24th, 2011 at 01:34 PM by deadpie
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I haven't noticed a great deal in the number of gay people on this forum.Posted July 24th, 2011 at 02:42 PM by michael.95
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Take a look at this poll, michael; it shows a great difference to usual out-gay proportions in population (roughly 3-5%) http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/sh...ad.php?t=72528Posted July 24th, 2011 at 02:47 PM by Donkey
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Donkey's gay? Again, my gaydar fails me. Getting back to reality now: this blog was extremely well written! The many clauses, both sub and ordinate, antecedents, and just the complexity of the sentence structure astounds me! Plus the content of the blog and yadah yadah yadah. Very nice, Donkey, kudos and bravo!
Posted September 4th, 2011 at 08:41 AM by terbear
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i feel like there are some people who are gay that share feminine qualities and all men do have so called "female" qualities. but not all do and most dont actually...from my interaction with gay men, i think that people are who they are and arent feminine or masculine, just themPosted September 18th, 2011 at 09:20 PM by macbox84
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That research is viable, but it does seem that this site too works as a medium prior to asking questions and doubts which resides within themselves.
Coming out is generally not an easy task, and it would never be, I have discussed that although sexuality is not a matter of choice, it's still a drift from the stereotypically defacto norm.
A site of such form of communication brings entirely different people of different walks of life to discuss, minus the skepticism, judgment and scrutiny of people whom know you personally.
I for one find a level of solace speaking to a stranger to a certain category of problems.
For instance if you already know someone's sexuality before talking to them, it makes plenty a difference from knowing them before.
It's a place where people openly and safely place their issues up to be helped.Posted September 21st, 2011 at 12:50 AM by Kujiro
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You should look into journalism
Posted October 29th, 2011 at 08:55 PM by Ender
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Jon, I love your writing, you need to do more please....Posted December 18th, 2011 at 10:41 PM by Dimitri
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very observantPosted January 3rd, 2012 at 04:20 AM by pineinchneis
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another reason is that us LGBT's need a place were we can feel accepted and be able to be fully honest about our feelings, we need to be able to feel accepted,or at least that has to be why some LGBT's joined, its why I did.Posted May 18th, 2012 at 07:09 PM by Lovemeorleaveme
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I've realized this too. I am straight and come from the Ask community, similar to VT, but like a teen and adult forum. There are NO gays there. That's weird? Because you said Gays assimilate around Technology...Posted June 22nd, 2012 at 08:31 PM by Thunderstorm
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I've never thought about it like that...Nice!Posted July 7th, 2012 at 09:29 AM by LatinaVivit
