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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3652 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 2, 2023

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I'll caution that some of this is more alliances than behaviors: a lot of not-very-gay-places will put out the whole flags-and-posters-and-pronouns bit in the interests of outreach. It's not just signalling, but it's also not necessarily a dating club either. You don't want to know how much background drama stuff like this ends up with.

My first guess would be the same loosening of priors that allows for creativity also loosens the heterosexuality prior; but then why gay and not bi?

At least for the furries, a lot are bi, or something that you'd probably identify as bisexual even if the furry themselves doesn't. Furscience's stuff gives around 45% bi-or-pan, and I don't think that's too far from realistic. Now, the breakdown for high-recognition artists is probably a little different, but it's also a little harder to find that out quickly (eg, Meesh and ruiadri both identify as straight, which... might surprise readers).

Pulled out of the air: because historically the arts allowed for a degree of flamboyance/non-conventionality and so were attractive to people who didn't fit in with conventional society, like gay people. Add in things like the disreputable characterisation of the arts, and disreputable people would fit in there. Add in the roots in the sacred (like theatre) and representing the gods, and the liminal nature of such matters meaning that men-women or those who straddled boundaries could be both sacred and profane in those contexts.

Then if arts and theatre are perceived as 'safe spaces' to be gay, and gayness is tolerated/celebrated, you'll naturally get more gay people gravitating there than the chess club. (Not that I know about chess clubs, maybe they're hives of scum and villainy). Over time, it gets established for both gay and straight people that the arts are 'for' gays in a particular way that they're not for straights.

Thanks for the link, that is interesting.

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