Archive Home Page Subj: Gaydar - the literary tradition
94-04-10 18:28:30 EDT
From: Joe Uhrig
"Among the men and women the multitude,
I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
Acknowledging none else,
not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am,
Some are baffled, but that one is not - that one knows me.
Ah lover and perfect equal
I meant that you should discover me so by faint indescretions,
And I when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you."
- Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass
Subj: Re:gaydar and "the gay face"
94-09-26 18:14:09 EDT
From: Joe Uhrig
Scientific study of the dynamics of human emotional response is still in it's infancy. The variables are enormous and cut across cultural lines. I still kind of like Whitman's description near the beginning of this discussion (but it's not an explanation).
Gaydar is a combination of experience (feedback processed by our neural nets) and tangible outside clues (rulesets), but in my mind most importantly, intuition. While I don't think there is a scientific basis for the concept of vibes, my own personal experiences suggest an inherent human ability to sense things on a feeling level about people. Connection as an inner process as much as an outer one. Part of this, specifically when dealing with pain, is what we call compassion.
In this realm, time and distance and external clues cease to be a factor. The only proof of this phenomenon of course is experiential. Even then it's possible for someone to be conned, for example in a post hypnotic state. Nevertheless my own personal experiences suggest it to be a generally valid phenomenon.