-- Posted by Graustein at 9:40 pm on Feb. 10, 2008 Ok, not the best choice of topic titles, I'll be the first to admit. But what I'd like to discuss is basically this: why does there seem to be a larger proportion of gays in the arts than in other areas? People into art, poetry, dancing, certain kinds of music, drama, basically visual and performance arts - there seems to be a trend (or at least a media-generated appearance of one) towards males in these professions being gay. As I say this I'm aware that such a bold generalisation is grounds for being flamed, but the question remains. Why does this seem to be the case? I'm not sure if it is or is not the case, it may very well be, but why is there, at the very least, the illusion that for men, art, poetry, drama and so on are "gay" professions? -- Posted by Rastafarian at 9:47 pm on Feb. 10, 2008 http://www.golivewire.com/forums/peer-byyoya-support-a.html I've wondered the same thing. -- Posted by emmy350 at 9:48 pm on Feb. 10, 2008 There might actually be a genetic link between homosexual men and their predisposition for being more creative. But I'd look at these, they're an interesting viewpoint: Links Between Creativity and Homosexuality? Creativity -- Posted by big mac at 9:48 pm on Feb. 10, 2008 Art, not so much. Drama more definitely has a larger gay and lesbian attraction. But this is just what i have witnessed at my school. -- Posted by Graustein at 9:59 pm on Feb. 10, 2008 Quote: from Rastafarian at 4:47 pm on Feb. 11, 2008 http://www.golivewire.com/forums/peer-byyoya-support-a.html I've wondered the same thing. Looking at old posts is eerie, so many people I've never heard of being DoS. But back on track, I actually take the opposite approach to yours. Instead of thinking that gays are naturally creative, I'm more of the opinion that a person finds a creative talent, enters the "creative subculture" if you will, and then starts experimenting. I find that people like that are much more open-minded, and people would experiment there who would, under more conservative circumstances, never dream of it. -- Posted by ForeignFishes at 8:54 am on Feb. 17, 2008 My observation is that people who are emotionally repressed, strained, damaged, etc. are more likely to look to creative outlets as a means of expressing themselves.  It's a more personal and productive way of self-fulfillment and releasing frustration.   So it would make sense that people whose sexuality has been ridiculed or repressed would be more likely to take part in the arts. -- Posted by sophos at 11:12 pm on Mar. 29, 2008 It's not so much a matter of homosexuality per se, but rather, one of femininity. Women have a general affinity to the creative arts, and the gays that are so inclined, probably get it from their effeminate chemistry. The opposite seems to hold true for the butch lesbians. But again, this is a very broad generalisation. Creativity is a wide spectrum, and is the domain of male and female alike, albeit with varying concepts. Sexual orientation is not a determining factor. -- Posted by medjai at 2:21 am on Mar. 30, 2008 Men have historically been more creative than women, by far. Women show an affinity to the creative arts (but are rarely ever more than average, they just spend more time in crafts and shit) because they play a submissive role in society. It's the same reason a little kid will color in his coloring book, you're not letting him shoot stuff with a BB-gun. Remember when you were grounded as a kid how you'd get all creative and your toys would suddenly come alive and such and they'd fight epic battles? Would that have happened if you were outside playing soccer? Fuck no. Moral of the story? Get the fuck outside. -- Posted by sophos at 5:51 am on Mar. 30, 2008 Becoming creative, due to circumstance, is different from being creative, naturally. Western women today, can hardly be considered submissive. Regardless, their creativity reigns high. Poets, artists, and fashion designers, are somewhat different, from a kid scribbling crayons, or making beatbox sounds, while playing with their toys. -- Posted by medjai at 10:49 am on Mar. 30, 2008 I have not seen a trend showing women to be any more creative than men on any scale whatsoever, I'm not sure where this idea that women are naturally creative is even coming from. Certainly there are lots of creative women, but it is not at all something of a benefit gained from having two x chromosomes instead of an x and a y. Gender Western women today can easily be considered submissive, just ask most Western women in any private situation and they'll admit it. Of course not all women are submissive and in Western society women DO have an opportunity to shine and dominate, but they are still raised by society to behave in a certain way. To say that they aren't literally raised from birth to play the submissive role (even going as deep as the toys they are given to play with and the makeup they are given to wear) is rather absurd and contrary to obvious reality. Women definitely have gender advantages, on a large scale they tend to be more emotionally intelligent than men, and at least on a mean level, more verbal. Seeing the difficulty in determining how "creative" even just one individual is, it is rather insane to label one gender as flatly more creative by nature than the other. If one is to go by historical creative arts, men are certainly far, far superior to women in nearly (if not all) creative fields, but I thought about it and that's not really fair. Creativity is rather difficult to measure as a mean or as a general aspect of a society, and so to say that women are naturally less or more creative than men is trite and a waste of time shitty generalization with no real backing. I don't understand where your weird idea that women's creativity "reigns high" comes from, over what? Over men's? Certainly not, look at every creative genius in the past 1,000 years and count the males vs. the females. If you just mean in general they have a slightly higher level of creativity than the average man, it's possible, but again, very, very hard to determine. You can perform a study and find that women participate in creative activities like composing music, writing, signing, etc, more than men, but even if that is true, it doesn't mean that they are actually more creative than men, it just means they participate in creative activities more often. If all you're trying to say is that women do creative activities more often than men (though they aren't necessarily good at the creative activities, just go look at those fanfiction websites), then good on you, you might have a point (if there are some legitimate studies to support your case, anyway), beyond that it's just idle conjecture. I laughed out loud at "their creativity reigns high" by the way, keep up the comedy. -- Posted by sophos at 10:28 pm on Mar. 30, 2008 Quote: from sophos at 11:12 pm on Mar. 29, 2008 Creativity is a wide spectrum, and is the domain of male and female alike, albeit with varying concepts. Sexual orientation is not a determining factor. Quote: from sophos at 5:51 am on Mar. 30, 2008 Western women today, can hardly be considered submissive. Regardless, their creativity reigns high. Quote: from medjai at 10:49 am on Mar. 30, 2008 I have not seen a trend showing women to be any more creative than men on any scale whatsoever, I'm not sure where this idea that women are naturally creative is even coming from. ... I don't understand where your weird idea that women's creativity "reigns high" comes from, over what? Over men's? You have equated general affinity, with superiority, when no such assertion was made. And the latter post, if understood contextually, simply iterates an undiminished creativity, regardless of their current unsubmissive standing. Thus, suppressed, or not, women remain just as creative. Comprehension is an art. While it doesn't take much to spew conjecture, there's a fair bit required to assimilate adequately. Your tiring argument, was based solely on this failure in comprehension, and thus entirely moot, though not entirely surprising. -- Posted by snowfish at 10:43 pm on Mar. 31, 2008 my friend Justin puts it this way, "we seek our legacy through creation of art rather than creation of offspring".