Women who like gay men
Studying the elusive “fag hag”: Women who like men who like men
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
As a decades-long fan of The Golden Girls, I was saddened to learn of the death of Rue McClanahan last week. In fact, I think I genuinely shed a palpable, detectable tear, which is something I can’t remember ever doing on the death of a celebrity, with the exception perhaps of Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty. It sounds rather homosexually cliché, I know, but my partner, Juan, and I have gotten into the habit of watching an episode of The Golden Girls every evening before bed. And along with the other “girls,” as we call them, Rue’s character Blanche Devereaux—the libidinous southern belle with an insatiable appetite for rich cheesecake and affluent men—has become something of an imaginary, smile-inducing comrade in our home. Fortunately, Blanche’s carnal spirit is burned forever on our DVDs. But the news of McClanahan’s death inspired me to read more about her in true life—well, at least to
When no one is looking, many women are watching gay porn
Back in , the wildly popular online pornography site Pornhub — which boasts over million daily views — published a finding that took sexuality researcher Lucy Neville by surprise: Women are responsible for more than a third of the site’s gay male porn views.
The finding planted the seed for what would eventually become a publication, “Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys,” which was published earlier this month. In it, Neville, a lecturer at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, investigates what women enjoy about consuming gay male erotica and how it fits in with their perceptions of gender and sexuality.
"They are definitely objectifying women and not treating them like people," Christina said of straight porn. "A lot of the period it seems like the women aren't actually enjoying it."
Neville interviewed and surveyed more than women over five years for the project. Many of the women with whom she spoke said “a lot of the problem they have with heterosexual porn is that they attention on the female body" without paying enough attention to men.
“Gay porn gives an opportunity to watch at the male
Why straight women and male lover men are often so close
Will and Grace knew it. Ditto for Stanford and Carrie. Now a new psychology study has provided evidence that homosexual men and straight women are the perfect friends with benefits – as long as the benefits have to do with trustworthy relationship advice.
“I was interested in the evolutionary perspective as to why gay men and direct women form close friendships,” says Eric Russell, a visiting psychology researcher at the University of Texas in Austin and advantage author of the analyze, published in the latest issue of Evolutionary Psychology.
Russell wondered if it had something to do with the exchange of mating advice since gay men and straight women aren’t romantic partners or mating competition and were “uniquely positioned to exchange faithful information.”
To test his hypothesis, Russell enlisted the support of 88 straight women and 58 gay men, all undergrads from the Texas ChristianUniversity, and conducted two experiments.
In one, linear women were presented with a scenario involving a party, a friend who bags out at the last minute and a substitute “date” named Jordan. Researchers asked the women to look up a Facebook profile
This article first appeared on The Conversation.
For years, friendships between straight women and gay men own been a subject of pop culture fascination. Books, television shows and feature-length films have all highlighted this unique relationship, noted for its closeness and depth.
But with society's attitudes toward gays and lesbians changing, it's become all the more important to build a holistic awareness of the relationships between gay and straight people.
As a researcher in social psychology, I've often wondered: Why do straight female-gay male relationships work so well? Why are straight women so drawn to having queer men as friends? And when do these relationships typically form?
During the course of my research, I've discovered that the most interesting, compelling—and, arguably, most theoretically coherent—explanation is through the lens of evolution.
Specifically, I believe evolutionary psychology and human mating can help explain why relationships between straight women and gay men tend to flourish.
A safe bet
At first glance, this explanation may seem quite counterintuitive. (After all, straight women and gay men don't mate with
.