Lunchtime poll.

[cdave]

[Poll #1470571]

Comments

[tregenza.livejournal.com]

Two seemingly unconnected polls.

I know people who fall into all the categories in the second poll but of the ones I would could describe as my closest friends, I could only tick the Straight and Don't Know boxes. That seems sad somehow.

[cdave]

Yep. They are only connected insofar as they are both inspired by posts on my f-list.

I have an ongoing ... thought process ... about defining levels of friendship, and introversion. Rosefox's thoughts on friendship ADD are quite pertinent at the moment, but I haven't always been that way.

[andrewducker]

Foreign, transgender, dyslexic, sarcastic, have a disability, polyamorous, geeky, etc, etc.

[cdave]

Alas each of those can also be reasons misunderstandings and prejudice.

(except in the case of the sarcastic who are no better than they should be)

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

It's just struck me that all the friends I would regard as generally gay have had "straight" relationships at some point, hence I went for "bi" in their cases.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

By the way, what's the difference between "gay" and "queer"?

[cdave]

While the term queer may encompase gay, from what I can tell, queer seems to be mostly used these days to mean sexual orientation that's more than simply gay or straight.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

But it isn't the same as "bi"? Good grief: I never realised I'd need a scorecard to keep track of the various categories.

You didn't include celibate, I note. Not the same as "asexual", of course (though for some of us, it makes no difference either way).

[cdave]

I genuinely can't think of anyone I know (including through the internet) who pronounces themselves as bi-sexual.

I know a few gay people, who are also attracted to a limited number of people of the opposite sex.

I know a couple of people who don't just avoid announcing their sexuality, they tend to avoid participating in this sort of conversation, even if it is happening around them.

And a few people who say tend to use the word poly when their sexuality comes up.

[storme]

I say 'bisexual', but partly that's because I am often explaining it to people who would have a *far* more confused reaction to just 'queer'.

[viclet.livejournal.com]

I do actually pronounce myself as such, but only, actually, because the NUS LGBT conference made me do so, and it's an easy label to use. I tend to think of myself as people-sexual, as it is (as, surely, in any case whether straight, gay or other) more complicated than simply bi.

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

I say bi, but only because I like sex with both. I think I'm innatly hetro, just really open minded!

[mokatiki.livejournal.com]

Here:
http://www.darcomic.org/2008/11/11/titles/

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

::Giggle::

Yeah, labels are just good, quick ways to generally sort people out into general pigeon holes. But they don't do service to individuals.

[cdave]

I decided some time ago to accept the label "Geek" as most of the stereotypes that it implies are true about me. And it works as convenient way of guessing things I would like, but have never tired (like a pencil and paper, or live action, role playing game).

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit sad that "generally a good thing." dropped from 100% (with two people :-) to the current 46.7%. I'd hoped there'd be more idealists on LJ.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

There are no happy endings. They're artificial creations, engineered by stopping the narrative at a convenient juncture.

Idealism is one thing; fantasy is quite another.

[cdave]

All stories, even those based on true events, are ultimately artificial creations. Therefore the structure of these narrations is important, and the have to stop somewhere, and I prefer (in general) they end in a situation which leaves me feeling upbeat.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Question 1: Depends on how well crafted the story is in general.
Question 2: I'm having difficulty working out who counts as "closest" friends and struggling to check the tick boxes but I definitely know some of each to varying degrees.

[cdave]

That's odd, I didn't get a notification on this comment.

On 1) without a chance of an unhappy ending you lose a lot of tension. And in some cases it is merited, but if a whole genre of stories was primarily unhappy, I'd probably avoid it.

On 2), yeah it's something I struggle with too.