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Is "gaydar" paranormal?

Abdul Alhazred

Philosopher
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Sep 4, 2003
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"Gaydar" is the ability to know who is gay, intuitively without any explicit evidence.

I say it's a matter of looking at where the roving eyes are looking. Even if one is not fully aware of what one is doing.

What do you think?
 
I think that some people give off cues purposefully, many don't. It depends on the circumstances. If you're out looking for company, the cues may serve, whether you're gay or straight.
We have one friend who plays it very straight at work but loosens up around his friends. Not that he does a Harvey Firestein, but a bit flamboyant.
 
As a resident of Greenwich Village, I'd opine that an ability to demonstrate a gaydar with 100% accuracy might reasonably be paranormal, but something in the 80-90% area is simply "having a clue."
 
I can tell if they want me to be able to tell. Otherwise, no. I guess I was at the back of the line when they were fitting the transponders.

Sheesh, another endorsement on my queer license? Oh well.


--Terry.
 
Somehow it seems that "gaydar" would not qualify as a paranormal sense in the Village, Cherry Grove, Provincetown, Key West or the Casto District.
It would be like dowsing for water in New Orleans.
 
No more than cold reading is. You're simply reading off the cues that the other person is giving. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong, but if you're one of those Bene Gesserit witches, you're always right. If you're an Honoured Matre, you're neither right nor wrong, you're just a whore.
 
It's observing behaviour and making judgements due to previous associations with gay people and social stereotypes.

If people want to embarrass themselves in front of cute guys and independent women, be my guest but don't expect my sympathy for their mistakes.

Dunno about the Bene Gesserit stuff; I always thought the freaky sounding voice when they want you to do something was a bit of a giveaway, but eh.
 
That's just in the movie. Lynch also decided that the Kwisatz Haderach would bring rain.

Which would disrupt the spice-sandworm cycle. But I digress.
 
LostAngeles said:
That's just in the movie. Lynch also decided that the Kwisatz Haderach would bring rain.

Which would disrupt the spice-sandworm cycle. But I digress.
Click to expand...

Yes, I always wondered about that! :( Got the box set recently; I find the movie oddly soothing. Despite Lynch's recent woo-wooism, I like his work.
 
You should read the books. God Emperor of Dune is freaking insane for many reasons, one of which is in the title.

edit: Wait, if you know about the spice-sandworm cycle, then you must have. I don't remember how much Lynch actually put into the movie about it.
 
LostAngeles said:
That's just in the movie. Lynch also decided that the Kwisatz Haderach would bring rain.

Which would disrupt the spice-sandworm cycle. But I digress.
Click to expand...

Yeah I always wondered about that. It seems like studio interference.."We want a happy ending". Also screws up any sequels. According to this site,

http://www.starport.com/sciencefiction/movies/lynch_dune_con_001205.html

it's the way Lynch wanted it. There is a link on that page regarding an attempt to make Dune in the Seventies...Dali as Emperor?

Sorry about the derail Abdul, and my messy looking post. It's the first time I have posted on the new forum and I'm kinda lost.
 
Abdul Alhazred said:
"Gaydar" is the ability to know who is gay, intuitively without any explicit evidence.

I say it's a matter of looking at where the roving eyes are looking. Even if one is not fully aware of what one is doing.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

Bender uses a gaydar in the Futurama episode: "1ACV04: Love's Labour's Lost In Space, (Series 01, episode 04)".

Oh wait, that "IS" fiction. Or "IS" it?
 
Simple experiment:
Take someone with "gaydar" out to a public place.
Get them to "gaydar" people.
As the "gaydared" people if they are or not.
Make notes on their clothes, portment, hair, etc.
Collate results.
Repeat.
 
vbloke said:
Simple experiment:
Take someone with "gaydar" out to a public place.
Get them to "gaydar" people.
As the "gaydared" people if they are or not.
Make notes on their clothes, portment, hair, etc.
Collate results.
Repeat.
Click to expand...

This would exclude the "gaydar" from its paranormal claim, wouldn't it?

Alternative:

1. Ask a person who claims to have a "gaydar" to seal eyes, ears and nostrils.
2. Take said "gaydarer" out to a public place, e.g. a "Hell's Angels Club" or to a gathering of any extreme right wing group.
3. Parade a number of people - one by one - before the "gaydarer".
4. Ask "gaydarer" to verify each person and state each verification out loud.
5. Bury the remains of the "gaydarer".
6. Think about something more constructive to do with your time.

Different approach after #4:

4b. Ask each verified person: "Is this true?"
5. Demand Sylvia Browne to inform your families.
6. Repeat #1 and #2 with the inhabitants of heaven - or hell.
7. Demand Ms. Browne to inform us about the results.
 
Is reading body language paranormal? If so, then every cold-reading artist in the world is paranormal.

No, Abdul, some people simply give clues about themselves in a number of ways, even by the way they look at you. If you are very attuned to these clues, you can recognize them.

To truly test gaydar for paranormal qualities, you would have to identify a number of gay and straight people behind screens so that they have no interaction, visual or aural. To make it truly correct, you might need to limit olfactory contact, because you might recognize your favorite cologne.

Of course, not all gay men give off the signals, just as some straight men will set off gaydar. I'm very straight (but not narrow) and because I live in a big city and have a lot of musician and artist friends, I tend to interact with a lot of gay people. Perhaps it is because I am not uncomfortable around gays, but I have been propositioned more times than I can count. I even had a gay stalker once. The guy was certain that I was gay and just in denial. (Apparently he never saw the condition of my dad's Playboy magazines that he hid in his third drawer, under the socks.) It seems gaydar can be fooled.
 
Gaydar can be fooled, and importantly, it is more often "confirmed" only by the person making the prediction. As I said in another thread, my father-in-law was certain he could spot gays, and that most of them (perhaps all) behaved stereotypically. He saw someone acting in a particular manner, and thought they were gay. Period. He never gave himself the chance to find out if any of his "gay" labels were false, and certainly never questioned his straight friends to see if any of them happened to be gay that he did not know about.

Before we ask if gaydar is paranormal, we must first demonstrate that it actually exists.
 
Might as well test the effectiveness of Gaydar against dowsing for homosexuals...
 
100% accuracy? Of course not. The real trick is to avoid false positives, and you never know the false negatives.

But picking "non obvious" gay men out of the crowd?

I claim I can do this. No false positives.

Just watch the eyes. Not paranormal.
 
It is just like any other system based around alike electrical pulses with the same postive energy behind them. No different then optomism between the Good Karma inducting Societies. Dusty dopent minds!!! It's time for some Fortune and Kavalin...What!!
 
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