Scientists, preachers and politicians have spent over a century trying to figure out what – if anything – makes someone gay. British anthropologist Desmond Morris claims to have found the queer key – and it sure sounds gay. Morris’ The Naked Man: A study of the Male Body claims that men turn gay if they fail to disengage from their childlike existence:
[Morris] concludes that men are “made gay” because they retain infantile or juvenile characteristics into adulthood – a phenomenon known as neoteny.
According to this theory, gay men also tend to be more inventive and creative than heterosexuals because they are more likely to retain the mental agility and playfulness of childhood.
“Gays have in general made a disproportionately greater contribution to life than nongays,” said Morris, who is also a noted artist. “The creative gay has very much advanced Planet Earth.”
We queers sure are docile, innocent creatures, huh?
Matt
I did NOT “retain infantile or juvenile characteristics into adulthood”…I DID NOT I DID NOT I DID NOT!!!!! NO NO NO NO NO!
ShirleyTB
Mommy, straight people keep putting their hands on my side of the car!
Dawster
docile? innocent? have you ever seen a pissed drag queen coming down off meth?
whereas i DO agree that many gay men need to grow up, i REFUSE to believe that applies to me
**sticking tongue out**
PTHTHTHTHTHTHTH!
naprem
Wow. Just…. wow.
Charley
I hope he is right. Growing up to be a serious asshole like Dick Cheney, Trent Lott (fill in any anal retentive name) is a horrifying thought. I’m childlike, creative, and love it. Always a new adventure around the corner, like today, my partner and I are flying off to Hawaii to drink Mai Tai’s at the Pink Palace, Royal Hawaiian Hotel at sunset, watching the marines go by.
hells kitchen guy
What’s weird is that until recently, being gay was UNcreative. It was street tough, ultra-masculine, a fighter, a sailor, a jailbird. He’s just buying into cultural cliches and using pseudo-science to justify it. But it does confirm one thing: cultural anthropology is an utterly useless “science.”
Charley
“Gays Refuse to Grow Up” is your spin, not his. He says we are more inventive and creative, like Leonardo Da Vinci or the sculptor/painter named after Signorile de Sirius.
Gregg
This is completely unsurprising. ANYONE who must live outside of the cultural norm must, by necessity, be more inventive and creative simply to survive. Gays must find their own way in life because there is no cultural path laid out for them like there is for straight folks. But the same could be said of any minority.
Hotrodbuddy
I have been in a committed relationship to the same gay man for over 25 years! He has never been a child. Even when he was young his mother said he never acted like a child his own age EVER! He was obsessed with working and making money. He is totally a masculine male, no one who ever met him would begin to think of him as being GAY. Never has he been creative or artistic. I on the other hand, am very creative and never wanted to grow up. Go figure, it works both ways! There is still a lot to learn, this sounds interesting but I doubt this concept is true. I believe what Gregg said on the 8th comment. We have to find our own way and in life because we are Gay and not Straight.
Charley
Gregg,
True, survival outside the norm, we look at indigenous studies to understand what inate characteristics exist naturally between all gay men. The field of cultural antropology is very important, unlike religion which shouldn’t be considered a field of study at all, outside history of religion.
ProfessorVP
As with all back-handed compliments, the “creative gay” bullcrap is more insulting than an insult.
the big m
Charley, there are plenty of hetero artists out there who are constantly creating and making the world a more colorful place. And not all gay people are child-like, sensitive, creative, or artistic either. I know plenty of gay men and women who act far too old for their age and couldn’t draw a decent stick figure if their lives depended on it. And isn’t Morris the same guy who claimed that gay men are the result of absent fathers? Yeah, he sure knows what he’s talking about!
Neil
Scientist trying to justify his irrational homophobia…check.
I am sorry but we are not children, this is just pseudo-science mumbo jumbo.
Mikey
Cultural Anthropology is a very interesting science, but I think it’s often misunderstood, because it doesn’t seek to define biological truths or explain biological things. It’s cultural, as opposed to biological anthropology. And also, as with all science, there are no facts, simply theories with either a lot of consensus or some consensus or no consensus. Obviously throughout time different cultures have had different societal routes associated with different aspects of life. Maybe in modern western society gays are more creative or something. Although I don’t really buy into the theory because I’ve felt I was gay since birth, so I don’t really feel like it’s something that develops and only appears when you are an adult age and somehow have not grown up. But it’s still an interesting idea. But I also don’t think this researcher is saying that this is a biological truth. If it is truth, he’s saying, it’s within our culture and society.
I read an interesting article about how in feudal Japan homosexuality was a masculine thing because the creative and artistic “softies” hung out with women and indulged in sex with women whereas the manly men weren’t concerned for wommen and pretty much just hung out with each other.
So cultures differ, and Cultural Anthropology isn’t concerned with biology. This makes some people think of it as a pseudo-science, but all inquiry and thought is science. Science isn’t supposed to equal truth, it’s supposed to provide theories about why things are and let the scientific community test those theories and compare and find their own consensus. I think pseudo-science is when people try to manipulate science for a specific purpose.
All in all, an interesting idea, but I doubt it highly.
Gay Anthropologist
Sorry folks, don’t mistake this for a real anthropological work. He has a PhD in Zoology, not anthropology. This guy gives anthropologists a bad name.