It's a Choice.....Oh Really?

[United Dependencies]

Besides, I pretend I'm male on the internet all the time, especially since I'm a gamer and I play MMOs.

Hah. You must be a guy. Everyone knows that women don't do these things.

[Nekronia]

Genetic Tendency, that's what I'm saying.
I'm personally asexual sooo... I have no real right to be here other than fill the "scientific douchebag" role of the thread

[Farnhamia]

Genetic Tendency, that's what I'm saying.
I'm personally asexual sooo... I have no real right to be here other than fill the "scientific douchebag" role of the thread

At least you're an honest troll. So many are not.

[Innsmothe]

I have never once looked at a woman and thought 'this is my natural sexual partner, I should be attracted to this instead.'
Instead I cried and wet myself in sex-ed (age 11) and threw up when googling porn.

I have a biological aversion against women and their orifices.

[UCUMAY]

I am bi-sexual, and as my real life boyfriend will tell you. I am not scared of my attraction to women. I just haven't choosen to seek out a relationship with a woman. I'm not against the possiblity though.

What would your boyfriend be able to attest to so greatly? Being a guy and all...

That you choose only to seek out guys certainly seems to indicate a lack of interest in the possibility of a relationship with a woman.

You can say I'm sorting through pyschological issues relating to my dad. Not that I'm not open to the possiblity of a female partner. I just haven't found one that doesn't try to use me.

Aside from that who are you to judge what I deem attractive? After all you do not live in my skin, and so cannot correctly judge what I may or may not find attractive. You can only take my word for it or ask my boyfriend about how self-aware, and brutally honest with myself I tend to be. He is on Nationstates after all.

[Nekronia]

Genetic Tendency, that's what I'm saying.
I'm personally asexual sooo... I have no real right to be here other than fill the "scientific douchebag" role of the thread

At least you're an honest troll. So many are not.

Thank you sir and/or ma'am.

[The Norwegian Blue]

I'm female.

when your name appears to be a random sequence of letters, disclaimers are in order.

..."disclaimers"? Seriously? It's bad enough dealing with the "there are no women on the internet hurr hurr" jokes, but now someone is seriously advocating that women should have to put "WARNING: POSTER MAY HAVE BOOBS" in their signature or something? Oy vey.

[Nekronia]

when your name appears to be a random sequence of letters, disclaimers are in order.

..."disclaimers"? Seriously? It's bad enough dealing with the "there are no women on the internet hurr hurr" jokes, but now someone is seriously advocating that women should have to put "WARNING: POSTER MAY HAVE BOOBS" in their signature or something? Oy vey.

That's a pointless warning... it could be a (fat) man OR a woman!

[The Norwegian Blue]

[
Besides, I pretend I'm male on the internet all the time, especially since I'm a gamer and I play MMOs.

I've kind of done my own private sociological experiment while in PUGs in WoW. Absolutely without exception, despite the fact that all of my WoW character are female, people assume I'm male unless I tell them otherwise. I don't always tell them otherwise (because, sadly, it is easier that way), but when I do, the reactions have been both interesting and frequently depressing. One of the most ridiculous was the time I "outed" myself halfway through a dungeon, and had the member of the group who'd been calling the shots spontaneously and without explanation stop asking me to be the main tank and move me to "backup." He'd literally just watched me play perfectly well for the past hour, but finding out I was female was enough to convince him he must somehow have missed my intrinsic incompetence and that someone with a penis needed to take over.

[Nekronia]

[
Besides, I pretend I'm male on the internet all the time, especially since I'm a gamer and I play MMOs.

I've kind of done my own private sociological experiment while in PUGs in WoW. Absolutely without exception, despite the fact that all of my WoW character are female, people assume I'm male unless I tell them otherwise. I don't always tell them otherwise (because, sadly, it is easier that way), but when I do, the reactions have been both interesting and frequently depressing. One of the most ridiculous was the time I "outed" myself halfway through a dungeon, and had the member of the group who'd been calling the shots spontaneously and without explanation stop asking me to be the main tank and move me to "backup." He'd literally just watched me play perfectly well for the past hour, but finding out I was female was enough to convince him he must somehow have missed my intrinsic incompetence and that someone with a penis needed to take over.

LOL, I've seen that before. Me and 2 other people were like level 10 or something, and raiding a human NPC settlement. Then the leader finds out that the 3rd person is a woman. Auto-kicked!

[Zeth Rekia]

I've kind of done my own private sociological experiment while in PUGs in WoW. Absolutely without exception, despite the fact that all of my WoW character are female, people assume I'm male unless I tell them otherwise. I don't always tell them otherwise (because, sadly, it is easier that way), but when I do, the reactions have been both interesting and frequently depressing. One of the most ridiculous was the time I "outed" myself halfway through a dungeon, and had the member of the group who'd been calling the shots spontaneously and without explanation stop asking me to be the main tank and move me to "backup." He'd literally just watched me play perfectly well for the past hour, but finding out I was female was enough to convince him he must somehow have missed my intrinsic incompetence and that someone with a penis needed to take over.

LOL, I've seen that before. Me and 2 other people were like level 10 or something, and raiding a human NPC settlement. Then the leader finds out that the 3rd person is a woman. Auto-kicked!

How's that funny?
As far as I'm concerned, that's just plain mean.

[Bottle]

[
Besides, I pretend I'm male on the internet all the time, especially since I'm a gamer and I play MMOs.

I've kind of done my own private sociological experiment while in PUGs in WoW. Absolutely without exception, despite the fact that all of my WoW character are female, people assume I'm male unless I tell them otherwise. I don't always tell them otherwise (because, sadly, it is easier that way), but when I do, the reactions have been both interesting and frequently depressing. One of the most ridiculous was the time I "outed" myself halfway through a dungeon, and had the member of the group who'd been calling the shots spontaneously and without explanation stop asking me to be the main tank and move me to "backup." He'd literally just watched me play perfectly well for the past hour, but finding out I was female was enough to convince him he must somehow have missed my intrinsic incompetence and that someone with a penis needed to take over.

What's funny is I'm currently the GM and raid leader of my guild, and we have a minor server rep for being a pretty good crew...we only raid twice a week, but we clear all end-game content, so people at least acknowledge that we sort of know our shit. And, without fail, every time we run a PUG or host an event with non-guildies, there is always SOMEBODY who has to flip his shit in shock/horror over the fact that it turns out I'm female IRL. And I don't play a healer. And my main is a giant burly man-bull. And I will happily melt your face off on the DPS meters, thank you kindly.

[Ceannairceach]

I've kind of done my own private sociological experiment while in PUGs in WoW. Absolutely without exception, despite the fact that all of my WoW character are female, people assume I'm male unless I tell them otherwise. I don't always tell them otherwise (because, sadly, it is easier that way), but when I do, the reactions have been both interesting and frequently depressing. One of the most ridiculous was the time I "outed" myself halfway through a dungeon, and had the member of the group who'd been calling the shots spontaneously and without explanation stop asking me to be the main tank and move me to "backup." He'd literally just watched me play perfectly well for the past hour, but finding out I was female was enough to convince him he must somehow have missed my intrinsic incompetence and that someone with a penis needed to take over.

What's funny is I'm currently the GM and raid leader of my guild, and we have a minor server rep for being a pretty good crew...we only raid twice a week, but we clear all end-game content, so people at least acknowledge that we sort of know our shit. And, without fail, every time we run a PUG or host an event with non-guildies, there is always SOMEBODY who has to flip his shit in shock/horror over the fact that it turns out I'm female IRL. And I don't play a healer. And my main is a giant burly man-bull. And I will happily melt your face off on the DPS meters, thank you kindly.

I now wanna play WoW....

[Bottle]

What's funny is I'm currently the GM and raid leader of my guild, and we have a minor server rep for being a pretty good crew...we only raid twice a week, but we clear all end-game content, so people at least acknowledge that we sort of know our shit. And, without fail, every time we run a PUG or host an event with non-guildies, there is always SOMEBODY who has to flip his shit in shock/horror over the fact that it turns out I'm female IRL. And I don't play a healer. And my main is a giant burly man-bull. And I will happily melt your face off on the DPS meters, thank you kindly.

I now wanna play WoW....

It's easy as hell, I keep getting non-gamer friends to start playing and it acts as a gateway game. Buddy of mine named Josh never played anything beyond Minesweeper until I got to him, but now he raids twice a week, owns a PS3, and is coming to the Penny Arcade expo with us.

ONE OF US. ONE OF US.

But all of the above is a lie because girls don't play videogames or go on the internet. So disregard.

[Ceannairceach]

I now wanna play WoW....

It's easy as hell, I keep getting non-gamer friends to start playing and it acts as a gateway game. Buddy of mine named Josh never played anything beyond Minesweeper until I got to him, but now he raids twice a week, owns a PS3, and is coming to the Penny Arcade expo with us.

ONE OF US. ONE OF US.

But all of the above is a lie because girls don't play videogames or go on the internet. So disregard.

I played the free trial a while ago. I got killed by some fire breathing bug or something...

[United Dependencies]

snip

I don't even know what to say to that. Jesus, I'd take competence over gender any day of the week. Why would you put how well your party does below some notion as silly as that. Christ, even now I'd just want to facedesk.

Look I know I crack the occasional joke about women on the internet and such but things like that are just rediculous.

[United Dependencies]

snip

What age are these people????

This is so bizzare. In all my life I've never seen something this stupid.

[Bottle]

snip

What age are these people????

This is so bizzare. In all my life I've never seen something this stupid.

Some of them are younger (14-15), but a depressing number are older. One of the most obnoxious players I ever came across, who decided that my femaleness was an invitation for him to make jokes about raping me, was in his 40s.

[Ceannairceach]

What age are these people????

This is so bizzare. In all my life I've never seen something this stupid.

Some of them are younger (14-15), but a depressing number are older. One of the most obnoxious players I ever came across, who decided that my femaleness was an invitation for him to make jokes about raping me, was in his 40s.

Rape jokes should only be made between close friends... Or potential lovers.

[Hresejnen]

A few notes from a brief paper I did on this two years ago for a second-year psych class:

From twin studies, we already know that half or more of the variability in sexual orientation is not inherited. (Dean Harner, 1993)

male homosexuality occurs at a low but stable frequency in a wide range of societies. Second, the female relatives of gay men produce children at a higher rate than other women do. Third, among these female relatives, those related to the gay man's mother produce children at a higher rate than do those related to his father. Fourth, among the man's male relatives, homosexuality is more common in those related to his mother than in those related to his father. (Andrea Camperio Ciani, Paolo Cermelli & Giovanni Zanzotto, 2007)

Human behavior is determined by both nature and nurture. Without genes, you can't act in the environment at all. But without the environment your genes have nothing on which to act. (Whitehead & Whitehead, 1999)

Genes + Brain Wiring + Prenatal Hormonal Environment = Temperament
Parents + Peers + Experiences = Environment
Temperament + Environment = Homosexual Orientation

Typically the child who will later develop same-sex attractions is naturally sensitive, observant, intelligent, and is sometimes more artistic than athletic. This child often tends to personalize and internalize experiences and observations. (Harren, 2008)

If a child perceives that his father does not want a relationship with him, that child might try a few times to connect with his father, but will eventually retract in self-protection. This is called defensive detachment. Upon sensing rejection, the boy chooses to reject the father in return. He detaches from the father and even what the father represents, which is masculinity (Nicolosi & Nicolosi, 2001).

He longs to experience connections with males. This emotional need, the need for same-sex love, which has gone unmet, now begins to take on a sexual form. His unsatisfied cravings for male love become romantic cravings with the emergence of puberty. (Satinover, 1996).

Negative perceptions regarding femininity may lead to an internal detachment from their own femininity. For example, if a girl watches her father abuse her mother, the girl might conclude that to be feminine is to be weak. At an early age she might make an unconscious decision to detach from her female identity. She might detach from her own gender in an effort to protect herself from the perceived harmful effects of being female. (Harren, 2008)

There is an inescapable component of heritability to many human behavioral traits. For virtually none of them is heredity ever close to predictive…The heritability estimates for personality traits were varied: General Cognitive Ability (50%), Extroversion (54%), Agreeableness (42%), Conscientiousness (49%), Neuroticism (48%), Openness (57%), Aggression (38%) and Traditionalism (54%). (Collins, 2007)

Kirk et al. (2000) in their research using a community-based cohort of Australian twins reported a heritability estimate of 30% for homosexuality. Whitehead (1999, 2006) in his extensive review of the research cites 30% as the estimate of heritability for homosexuality as well, though he views the estimate as a maximum.

Evidence from twin studies does in fact support the conclusion that heritable factors play a role in male homosexuality. However, the likelihood that the identical twin of a homosexual male will also be gay is about 20% (compared with 2-4 percent of males in the general population), indicating that sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations. (Collins, 2007)

Harner is the one credited with discovering the “gay gene”.

Promiscuity among homosexuals may be higher than among heterosexuals because it is easier to cross that taboo line once one has already crossed the taboo of homosexuality.

Xenobiotics in pollutants may affect hormones prenatally and lead to higher rates of homosexuality later in life. (Lee, 2008)

[United Dependencies]

What age are these people????

This is so bizzare. In all my life I've never seen something this stupid.

Some of them are younger (14-15), but a depressing number are older. One of the most obnoxious players I ever came across, who decided that my femaleness was an invitation for him to make jokes about raping me, was in his 40s.

If I were to guess, I'm willing to bet that the type of people who play games in their 40's are not the type of people who represent mainstream society currently.

[The Norwegian Blue]

I've kind of done my own private sociological experiment while in PUGs in WoW. Absolutely without exception, despite the fact that all of my WoW character are female, people assume I'm male unless I tell them otherwise. I don't always tell them otherwise (because, sadly, it is easier that way), but when I do, the reactions have been both interesting and frequently depressing. One of the most ridiculous was the time I "outed" myself halfway through a dungeon, and had the member of the group who'd been calling the shots spontaneously and without explanation stop asking me to be the main tank and move me to "backup." He'd literally just watched me play perfectly well for the past hour, but finding out I was female was enough to convince him he must somehow have missed my intrinsic incompetence and that someone with a penis needed to take over.

What's funny is I'm currently the GM and raid leader of my guild, and we have a minor server rep for being a pretty good crew...we only raid twice a week, but we clear all end-game content, so people at least acknowledge that we sort of know our shit. And, without fail, every time we run a PUG or host an event with non-guildies, there is always SOMEBODY who has to flip his shit in shock/horror over the fact that it turns out I'm female IRL. And I don't play a healer. And my main is a giant burly man-bull. And I will happily melt your face off on the DPS meters, thank you kindly.

Hehe, yeah, it's simultaneously hilarious and depressing. I think my all-time favorite sexist WoW moment was when a non-guildie was playing with me and a (married, female, 30-something) guildie of mine. My guildie said, "really sorry, have to run to the bathroom, brb," he replied, "lol, dude, changing your tampon?" and she returned and said, "...heh, yes, actually" - at which point he said, "OMG GROSS," immediately left the group and logged off. Apparently the idea that he was playing with someone who menstruated broke him.

(Also, I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before ages ago, but given that my guild is dying out thanks to half of our membership making babies and thus having less time for gaming, and that I want to make a new lowbie somewhere and try out the Cataclysm content anyway, and that I was planning on rolling Horde...what realm do you play on? )

[Arborlawn]

Yes, it is a choice. No, it is not genetic. Deal with it.

Homosexuality is abnormal from the regular human species. Examine the following:

- Religiously it is wrong (At least in Abrahamic Religions)
- Morally, it is wrong. It is seen as Taboo by the greater of society
- Scientifically, it is wrong. We naturally are attracted to the opposite sex, and we naturally know that a penis goes into a vagina. We naturally know that our mom gave birth to us. As we grow up, our instincts go even further to know that you gotta bang a chick to get a child. Naturally, men get with women, women get with men.

Homosexuality Is Abnormal. Homosexuality Is Wrong. Homosexuality is a threat to Humanity.

[UCUMAY]

Yes, it is a choice. No, it is not genetic. Deal with it.

Homosexuality is abnormal from the regular human species. Examine the following:

- Religiously it is wrong (At least in Abrahamic Religions)
- Morally, it is wrong. It is seen as Taboo by the greater of society
- Scientifically, it is wrong. We naturally are attracted to the opposite sex, and we naturally know that a penis goes into a vagina. We naturally know that our mom gave birth to us. As we grow up, our instincts go even further to know that you gotta bang a chick to get a child. Naturally, men get with women, women get with men.

Homosexuality Is Abnormal. Homosexuality Is Wrong. Homosexuality is a threat to Humanity.

Read entire thread. It's natural for you to be straight. It's natural for me to have bi-sexual attraction. It's natural for Insomthe to be gay. There's nothing wrong with any of them and if you have a problem with it.... Just stay out of our beds.

[Arborlawn]

Yes, it is a choice. No, it is not genetic. Deal with it.

Homosexuality is abnormal from the regular human species. Examine the following:

- Religiously it is wrong (At least in Abrahamic Religions)
- Morally, it is wrong. It is seen as Taboo by the greater of society
- Scientifically, it is wrong. We naturally are attracted to the opposite sex, and we naturally know that a penis goes into a vagina. We naturally know that our mom gave birth to us. As we grow up, our instincts go even further to know that you gotta bang a chick to get a child. Naturally, men get with women, women get with men.

Homosexuality Is Abnormal. Homosexuality Is Wrong. Homosexuality is a threat to Humanity.

Read entire thread. It's natural for you to be straight. It's natural for me to have bi-sexual attraction. It's natural for Insomthe to be gay. There's nothing wrong with any of them and if you have a problem with it.... Just stay out of our beds.

It is not natural for you have to bi-sexual attraction. It is not natural for you to have any other preference other than to be "straight"