Jarmo J.

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  • in reply to: Why act camp? #23156

    Jarmo J.
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    One reason I come up with is that the lisping, the limp wrists and all are exaggerated signs borrowed from the female discourse. It doesn’t necessarily mean anyone portraying these signs wants to be a woman, but rather shows a preference to deal with issues in that discourse. Choice of discourse may restrict your freedom of speech; in baseball talk you only talk about baseball, hmmm? The signs you mentioned, but especially an effeminate voice, can help you become friends with women easier. Somehow it seems that even by faking it you can bypass the ‘a-hole-rejection system’ built in to some (most?) women. The reason a gay man acts camp is probably that they don’t feel any of the common male discourses give them anything worthwhile. Then you either borrow or invent your own discourse (subconsciously). Naturally it is easier to borrow, especially if some other discourses, like many of the female ones, have something to offer you.

    However, simple choice of discourse is by far not enough to explain this all. One needs also the cultural aspect here. Because gay men are not, by their own choice and by the rejection of other men, part of the common male cultures and also not for the same reasons part of the female culutures, they need their own. A culture portrays its own common signs by which the subjects can identify themselves and others being a part of that culture. You can’t say the gay culture is between male and female cultures, but rather that it is its own culture that borrows what it needs from other cultures and then puts it to use in their own way, inventing a lot of their own material along the way.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Jarmo J., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 24, City : Tampere, State : NA, Country : Finland, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
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