Forgot to mention
Feb. 12th, 2004 12:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeYes, I'm spamming to make up for lost time, it would seem. Why make one journal entry when you can post three or twenty, right? ;)
I've been invited to be part of what's pompously called a psycho-educational group, even more pompously titled "Demystifying Homsexuality." It's an eight-week thing, which takes place on Wednesdays (which means I'll be coming a bit late to Game Night), and started tonight.
Basically the idea is to take a group of gay people, put them in a room together with two facilitators (get your minds out of the gutter!) and challenge some of the preconceived notions they have about homosexuality and its place in society (and their own place in society). This can include internalised homophobia, but also how they perceive heterosexuals, heterosexism, etc.
Anyhow, it seems like an interesting premise, although the first session was a little strained. One of the facilitators is on holiday for two weeks, and the other guy was SO nervous he made me look like the epitome of poise. Yeah. Poor guy. I felt for him. It doesn't help that they've chosen to run this thing in English, and English is visibly not his first language. He kept inadvertently switching into French when he got nervous, and then he'd switch back into English, but his mistake would make him even more nervous, and it got pretty bad, no matter how much the rest of us tried to make him feel at ease.
We were missing two other people, so the group was fairly small (five of us, plus the facilitator and a med student who's there supposedly to observe but who ended up participating a bit). I ended up taking up a lot more space than I intended, along with a nice Greek guy (who amused me to no end by saying that he was surprised to find out that a lot of Greek men were effeminate —of course, I was thinking of poor Demetrios from my FVLMINATA game, but I decided not to go there, it would have been too long to explain and it just wasn't the time or place). The others either didn't say much or anything at all in the case of one very sweet-looking boy. There was a good-looking girl there too who came in a bit late and who apparently doesn't live too far away from my parents.
One of the men there was a professor of Linguistics, although I didn't catch whether it was at Concordia or McGill. I'll have to ask next time, if it comes up.
In other words, a mixed crowd. I'm hoping the level of analysis will go up next time. It seemed superficial, but possibly that was due to Greek!Dude, who, bless his soul, took up a lot of space and didn't seem to keen on delving too deeply into things. He was heavy into the sweeping generalisations, too. We were all highly amused at his condemnation of heterosexuals as "boring." He seemed somewhat taken aback when I pointed out that he'd basically condemned about five and a half billion people in one sweeping statement, but staunchly maintained that all straight people were obsessed with the same thing: having a job, getting married and having children. Personally, I think Greek!Dude's horizons are a wee bit narrow, but maybe my own horizons are just as narrow in other areas of my life, so I shall attempt not to be the one to cast the first stone.
Maybe the professor will broaden the debate next week. I'm hoping it'll get better with time. This was only the first session, after all. And maybe the quiet guy will speak up too. That might help.
I've been invited to be part of what's pompously called a psycho-educational group, even more pompously titled "Demystifying Homsexuality." It's an eight-week thing, which takes place on Wednesdays (which means I'll be coming a bit late to Game Night), and started tonight.
Basically the idea is to take a group of gay people, put them in a room together with two facilitators (get your minds out of the gutter!) and challenge some of the preconceived notions they have about homosexuality and its place in society (and their own place in society). This can include internalised homophobia, but also how they perceive heterosexuals, heterosexism, etc.
Anyhow, it seems like an interesting premise, although the first session was a little strained. One of the facilitators is on holiday for two weeks, and the other guy was SO nervous he made me look like the epitome of poise. Yeah. Poor guy. I felt for him. It doesn't help that they've chosen to run this thing in English, and English is visibly not his first language. He kept inadvertently switching into French when he got nervous, and then he'd switch back into English, but his mistake would make him even more nervous, and it got pretty bad, no matter how much the rest of us tried to make him feel at ease.
We were missing two other people, so the group was fairly small (five of us, plus the facilitator and a med student who's there supposedly to observe but who ended up participating a bit). I ended up taking up a lot more space than I intended, along with a nice Greek guy (who amused me to no end by saying that he was surprised to find out that a lot of Greek men were effeminate —of course, I was thinking of poor Demetrios from my FVLMINATA game, but I decided not to go there, it would have been too long to explain and it just wasn't the time or place). The others either didn't say much or anything at all in the case of one very sweet-looking boy. There was a good-looking girl there too who came in a bit late and who apparently doesn't live too far away from my parents.
One of the men there was a professor of Linguistics, although I didn't catch whether it was at Concordia or McGill. I'll have to ask next time, if it comes up.
In other words, a mixed crowd. I'm hoping the level of analysis will go up next time. It seemed superficial, but possibly that was due to Greek!Dude, who, bless his soul, took up a lot of space and didn't seem to keen on delving too deeply into things. He was heavy into the sweeping generalisations, too. We were all highly amused at his condemnation of heterosexuals as "boring." He seemed somewhat taken aback when I pointed out that he'd basically condemned about five and a half billion people in one sweeping statement, but staunchly maintained that all straight people were obsessed with the same thing: having a job, getting married and having children. Personally, I think Greek!Dude's horizons are a wee bit narrow, but maybe my own horizons are just as narrow in other areas of my life, so I shall attempt not to be the one to cast the first stone.
Maybe the professor will broaden the debate next week. I'm hoping it'll get better with time. This was only the first session, after all. And maybe the quiet guy will speak up too. That might help.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-11 09:52 pm (UTC)Of course, it begs the question, but what does he think of bisexuals? Are we slightly less boring than hets?
Re:
Date: 2004-02-11 09:58 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-11 11:24 pm (UTC)Incidentally, if its not too impertinent (sp?), what do you think of the term 'queer' when applied to homosexuals?
no subject
Date: 2004-02-12 06:47 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-13 06:47 am (UTC)... it makes sense in my head, I'm just not sure my brains look right on paper. ;)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-13 01:57 pm (UTC)I'm not so much queer as out of my tiny, little mind ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-14 11:54 am (UTC)As for "queer", well, it does have eccentric as a synonym, which is a milder, kinder word overall. Perhaps you are eccentric. :)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-14 02:03 pm (UTC)Hehe... Well, I guess thats another way of saying I'm nuts ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 02:05 pm (UTC)I heard you sent flowers to someone. You flirt! :D
Actually, we got into a discussion on this topic on IRC as a result... A side-effect is that we were wondering how Australians pronounce "queer"... One syllable, or two?
Re:
Date: 2004-02-15 09:35 pm (UTC)One syllable for the most part - unless we're really over-emphasising (okay, unless *I'm* over-emphasising).
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 09:42 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 03:19 pm (UTC)Yes. I think he might *gasp* *shock* find me to be a boring lesbian, which would render my existence meaningless, naturally. ;)
Greeks
Date: 2004-02-12 06:23 am (UTC)P.S. Are you coming to game tonight?
Re: Greeks
Date: 2004-02-12 07:02 am (UTC)The very effeminate Greek guy in the group said this, but I wouldn't take his word on a lot of things. He said all heterosexuals were boring, after all. ;)
Of course I'm coming. Said so last week, didn't I? Forgot to post in the roll-call post, though. Sorry. :(