5/1/08

What If Gay & Straight Roles Were Reversed?

Imagine a world where homosexuality was assumed and heterosexuality was taboo?

Imagine a world where gay marriage was the norm, adoption was simple, same-sex public affection was totally acceptable and “coming out” didn’t exist?

For me, it’s actually hard to imagine a society that could possibly exist under these conditions, given all the homophobia and inequality we’ve experience already in our lifetime.

However if this were the case, and sexual preference roles were reversed, would the GLBT community be more tolerant towards the straight community or would the same injustices, prejudices and inequalities ensue towards a heterosexual lifestyle as being outcast, unacceptable and possibly even “a choice”?


You probably haven’t given much thought to this issue, since the chance that this would happen is pretty much non-existent, and why would you? Why would you imagine a world where the roles of sexual preference are switched? Well, the short film “Straight” does exactly that. “Straight” explores issues of homophobia, tolerance, and discrimination by portraying a world where the roles of homosexuality and heterosexuality are reversed.

Here is a video clip from the short film “Straight” which was brought to you by Current.com. We here at Lesbiatopia are HUGE fans of Current, which is a site dedicated to what's going on in your world: all the things you and your friends are actually interested in -- that you won't find on any other news site or cable TV channel. Current.com is the place to find and share stories and videos that are interesting to you. It connects to Current TV, a global cable and satellite TV network.


After watching this video, I got to thinking about sexual preference and also, gender as an underlying role in sexual preference. I started to wonder, what if someday gender and gender roles became obsolete - that our anatomical makeup did not define us as a person, who we dated or our socioeconomic status, even. Imagine that stereotypes of men and women were abolished and male and female pronouns became non-existent. If gender became obsolete, there would be no need to place ourselves in a pandora’s box of sexual orientation; gay, straight, bi, etc themselves would all become obsolete and with the termination of these terms, there would be no inequality based on sexuality, there would be no homophobia, and most importantly there would be universal tolerance. Or would there be? I’ll let you decide…

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We here at Lesbiatopia are HUGE fans of Current, which is a site dedicated to what's going on in your world: all the things you and your friends are actually interested in"

Sounds like the calling of a pretentious bulldyke to me

Bill Graber said...

That was not meant and obviously you missed the point of the vid and the article... shame it has something important to say.

Anonymous said...

Actually there's NO Point to the article, it asks questions and doesn't answer them, it's entirely philosophical... and unattainable to boot...

I didn't need this article to ever question these things.

"Imagine if Gays and Straights switched?" "Imagine if Blacks and Whites switched" "What if Mac n Cheese tasted like Chicken?" "What if Chicken tasted like Beef"

Imagine this, imagine that... thats fine, imagine all you want, put your head in the clouds, but the reality of it is that its mindless pandering of words that won't accomplish anything whatsoever.

Bill Graber said...

or could it be that it is thoughts you would rather not be expressed because the status quo is fine by you?

Anonymous said...

he "status quo" of procreation has worked for billions of years thanks to what we call "sexual reproduction."

If same-sex couples could reproduce (without surgical modification) and Hetero Couples could not, I'm sure we'd see some sway in the favor of your argument... It would be considered "by the status quo" as acceptable behavior, because its biologically relevant... but as of yet, it is not.

ReneeG said...

The whole point of the article was philosophical, but apparantly you are not one to understand or embrace the a philosophical pondering...

Also, that line about Current is their tagline, taken from their website, so you might want to take that up with them

ReneeG said...

Yes, but the article didn't have anything to do with the biology of reproduction, so if you actually read it, it was to contemplate the role reversal of gay and straight. But in this day and age, there is a lot more to "procreation" than just good old-fashioned woman on man action.

J said...

This reminds me of a great faux questionnaire that someone drew up back in the 1970s:

HETEROSEXUAL QUESTIONNAIRE

(©1972, Martin Rochlin, Ph.D.)

This questionnaire is for self-avowed heterosexuals only. If you are not openly heterosexual, pass it on to a friend who is. Please try to answer the questions as candidly as possible. Your responses will be held in strict confidence and your anonymity fully protected.

1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?

2. When and how did you first decide you were a heterosexual?

3. Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?

4. Could it be that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?

5. If you’ve never slept with a person of the same sex, how can you be sure you wouldn’t prefer that?

6. To whom have you disclosed your heterosexual tendencies? How did they react?

7. Why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyle?

8. Why do you insist on flaunting your heterosexuality? Can’t you just be what you are and keep it quiet?

9. Would you want your children to be heterosexual, knowing the problems they’d face?

10. A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual men. Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual male teachers, pediatricians, priests, or scoutmasters?

11. With all the societal support for marriage, the divorce rate is spiraling. Why are there so few stable relationships among heterosexuals?

12. Why do heterosexuals place so much emphasis on sex?

13. Considering the menace of overpopulation, how could the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual?

14. Could you trust a heterosexual therapist to be objective? Don’t you fear s/he might be inclined to influence you in the direction of her/his own leanings?

15. Heterosexuals are notorious for assigning themselves and one another rigid, stereotyped sex roles. Why must you cling to such unhealthy role-playing?

16. With the sexually segregated living conditions of military life, isn’t heterosexuality incompatible with military service?

17. How can you enjoy an emotionally fulfilling experience with a person of the other sex when there are such vast differences between you? How can a man know what pleases a woman sexually or vice-versa?

18. Shouldn’t you ask your far-out straight cohorts, like skinheads and born-agains, to keep quiet? Wouldn’t that improve your image?

19. Why are heterosexuals so promiscuous?

20. Why do you attribute heterosexuality to so many famous lesbian and gay people? Is it to justify your own heterosexuality?

21. How can you hope to actualize your God-given homosexual potential if you limit yourself to exclusive, compulsive heterosexuality?

22. There seem to be very few happy heterosexuals. Techniques have been developed that might enable you to change if you really want to. After all, you never deliberately chose to be a heterosexual, did you? Have you considered aversion therapy or Heterosexuals Anonymous?

Anonymous said...

Ma'amselle Lezident, this is simply hilarious!!! :)

Queers United said...

im sorry to say that video was pretty silly

http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com

Karen said...

Philosophical questions are the seeds for humankind's development for they always rock the status quo, given enough time to germinate.

Back in the middle ages, the prevailing knowledge was that Earth was the center of the universe, some philosophically-inclined mathematician philosophically asked: But what if Earth is not the center of the universe?

There are other philosophical questions, usually starting with Why and What if, that ushered in breathtaking developments in the natural sciences as well as the social sciences - I will not take up the comment space discoursing on these, but

"what if someday gender and gender roles became obsolete"

got my heart palpitating, not with anxiety, but with excitement, because this is absolutely attainable.

Societies will always progress (unless we annihilate ourselves with our nuclear technology) despite our individual wills and prejudices. Cultural prejudices and biases change as well, including societies' ideas on gender and gender roles.

So what if there will come a time when gender and gender roles become obsolete? Splendid! I am so looking forward to that wonderful day.

After all, it was much more difficult to move the Earth from its central, unmovable position in the universe to being one of the rocks that moved around the Sun, but move it did.

John Painz said...

nice blog, nice topic. I wonder why assholes are always anonymous...