Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
Straight guys, no matter how hip and tolerant you are, you know this amusing article about the obligatory "I'm straight" signal is pretty much on the money. Especially this part:
This brings us to the really curious thing about the Straight Sign. It is more readily thrown at a guy who gives every appearance of actually being straight.
When we wind up in conversation with a man who is doubtlessly gay; who is making a calculated risk by trying to flirt with us; whose eyes are gently alight with the unmistakable mist of furtiveness and desire that we probably emit when we try to chat up attractive women; when there is not a shred of ambiguity in the air as to the orientation of the guy you're talking to; then the Straight Sign can be postponed for a decent interval. Why ruin a good conversation? Why act like some paranoid bumpkin who can't deal with gay people? We Blue State urban males are more enlightened than that, more accepting, aren't we? We're hip. We have plenty of gay friends.
But here's the thing we really don't like to talk about. Deep within the reptilian cortex of even the most Eberhard-Faber straight man on the planet -- who among us does not get a small ego-boost from being the quarry? Somebody found us attractive. It might be somebody who hasn't a chance in hell of getting into our pants, but we're a little flattered by the attention. [...] We may even be thinking too much of ourselves, that a self-respecting gay man would even want to try and get a slob like us in the sack.
Yeah, we may be (and usually are), but don't burst our bubbles, okay? Just humor us.
TrackBackregarding the italics. it's really not surprising isn't it? it's completely obvious that we get a kick out of that. putting the obvious in italics as if it were some discovery masks the obviousness, which in itself is giving a "straight sign." so the author can't help but give a straight sign in an article about how guys always give straight signs. i suppose that's apropo.
Posted by: lsu student at July 18, 2004 07:09 AMBesides, with enough flirting, the straightest of straight men can eventually be worn into submission.
At least, that's what I hear.
Posted by: Michael at July 18, 2004 11:34 AMAnd similarly, with enough prayer, the queerest of queer men can eventually be conned into salvation.
At least that's what I hear.
Posted by: froz gobo at July 18, 2004 12:36 PMOh lord, it was a joke for Pete's sake.
Nawwwhhh, really? Listen, buddy, this blog is a humor-free zone. Straighten up.
Posted by: froz gobo at July 18, 2004 05:29 PMSorry, I know. You'll pardon me, Froz, I hope - I know you are not a humorless lot. I, on the other hand, tend to have a deeply visceral, extremely shrill reaction utterly devoid of humor when I hear things like that, even when they come from one as reliably progressive as yourself. By that, though, I'm not trying to suggest anything other than my own surplus of issues with the world.
In other words, I need to learn to take a joke. :)
Posted by: Michael at July 19, 2004 12:44 AMcan we make straight signs more like gang signs so that they're more easily recognizable?
Posted by: lsu student at July 20, 2004 10:57 AM