Why don't gays like long hair?
Since we're likely to hear more and more lies about how gays are just like everyone else, it's worth mentioning and trying to understand some of the ways that they aren't like us, whether we're male or female.
Most gay deviance seems to boil down to two disorders (aside from homosexuality itself): 1) a Peter Pan complex, and 2) an addict's mind. So when trying to account for why they're weird, we should try to keep it simple and stick with those.
A strange fact that I have no good explanation for is that gays only prefer very short hair, both for their own hairstyle and for their ideal warm body ("partner"). It must be the only time they'll complain that 4 inches is too long. This holds across cultures, as any fag parade shows, and it seems to go back through time, judging from the preferred models of gay artists.
Too much lazy thinking about homos tries to interpret their deviance as an extreme form of a male or female-typical trait. Here is a clear case where that breaks down.
Chick porn, i.e. romance novels, depict long-haired men, or at least medium-length hair, or anything other than very short. Male sex symbols rarely have such short hair either, again if anything a bit longer than average. Girls show plenty of variation, some preferring a bit longer and some a bit shorter and some more medium-length. Gays are just about uniformly against longish hair.
And obviously men don't prefer short hair in women, just the opposite. So this preference is a uniquely gay trait.
I don't see this fitting in with their addictive tendencies, so that leaves their Peter Pan-ism. If gays are attracted to males who resemble little boys -- not a stretch, given their other quasi-pedophilic preferences -- then any one of them will have to wear short hair to get approved.
Pre-pubescent boys and girls don't have very sharply distinguished appearances, so usually the grown-ups help create those differences in part by letting girls' hair grow and making boys cut theirs. During adolescence and after that isn't necessary, as a long-haired 20 or 30 year-old guy will have a jawline, chin, broad shoulders, deep voice, etc., to clearly signal that he's male.
One flaw in the argument is that even the queers who like hairy, burly men also don't wear their hair longer than a crew cut, and prefer the same in their men. Liking body hair and a stocky build would seem to go against wanting a little boy appearance.
Anyone got any better ideas?
posted by agnostic @ 3:56 AM
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I have a strong preference for short hair on women. I realise I am an outlier, but men like me do exist. And I am strongly heterosexual. I have wondered if there is some underlying homosexual impulse, because I like thin, rather boyish figures on women as well, but I don't think so.
I rather suspect that the preference for long hair (and big breasts) is more an American thing than universal. French beauties often have short hair.
What is the preference of lesbians? I see a lot of dykes with short hair but I don't know if it is out of partner preference, due to a masculine nature, or just a result of the female tendency to cut the hair short once a comfortable relationship is secured (or maybe different cases depending on the situation).
What about ladyboys and female impersonators?
Leaving them aside, could gays simply be repelled by long hair (because it is a womanly attribute) rather than attracted to short hair? That would produce the same effect (short-haired gays) for the "opposite" reason.
Women of mating propensities have always advertised by wearing long hair (if they don't have naturally long hair they don wigs), occasional fads like 1920's flappers notwithstanding. Perhaps most gays just want to avoid confusion-- they aren't seeking women (so a custom that gay men wear short hair limits search costs) and in many cases would not like to be mistaken, by straight men, for women--because a straight man who feels even a brief mistaken interest in a gay man may get angry.
Portuguese men usually prefer women with long hair, also.
Related question: what about moustaches?
How come gay guys have them? Is this also related to your theory that boys have to distinguish themselves from girls by cutting their hair short and by growing facial hair?
Some gays have beards right? Though generally they don't like them?
The answer to this is complicated, so bear with me.
In one of your previous posts, you argued that male baldness is a signal for provider status(men with poor hair - and unhealthy genes -have no choice but to be providers). Baldness as a trait survived because at least some women would always be attracted to provider men and thus would be attracted to baldness (this was before feminism, of course).
Conversely, long hair - in both men and women - is associated with healthy genes. And healthy genes are associated with promiscuity and trying to impregnate as many women as possible - in other words, "bad boys". This is why guys on the cover of romance novels have long hair. And also why badboy rockers - especially during rising crime times - sport it as well. The Beatles wore infamous bowl cuts that were scandalously long for their day; the Stones grew their bangs out too; and of course, during the 70s and 80s, heavy metal rockers went full-blown and grew their hair as long as women did (its no coincidence that the 80s - the era of long-haired heavy metal - represented the apex of rising crime rates).
So by wearing short hair, gays are trying to signal provider status. Why? First, obviously, gay men cannot get pregnant. So if a gay man has sex with a promiscuous bad boy, he's not ensuring that he will have a "sexy son" to pass on his genes, as a woman would.
There's more to the story, though. According to Satoshi Kanazawa, homosexuality, while seeming irrational, is actually an evolutionary strategy used by men of low attractiveness. Studies have shown that gay men are generally shorter and uglier than straight men(contrary to popular belief). They are also "wimpier", compromising ability to compete in a male hierarchy. Because of these disabilities, gays evolved to be "extreme providers" - to the point where they don't even enjoy sex with the one woman they impregnate!
Homosexual desire, in other words, is an adaptation that men with poor genes evolved in order to cope with their provider status.
That being said, the short hair of gay men is not being signalled at other gay men, but at women. Strange as it seems, gay men, like everyone else, still have the most intense of all desires - to reproduce. This may seem irrational, but its not.
Consider: you have an unattractive woman who doesn't have a lot of money. She struggles to get by. Thing is, though, that she has a gay male friend. The gay man wants to have a biological child, but he doesn't have the bucks to get one of those surrogates in India. He makes a deal with the woman - she acts as surrogate for his child/children, he gives her a payout or supports her for the rest of her life. She believes he will fufill his side of the contract... because he cuts his hair short.
This sounds insane, but it wouldn't surprise if this type of things happens more and more in the future. Gay men def. seem to have an intense desire to have children - its one of their main issues. At the time, as we all know, there are many ugly women who would except such an arrangement without blinking.
Maybe it doesn't play out exactly as I described, but bottom line: Gay men have short hair because they hope to impregnate a woman.
"How come gay guys have them? Is this also related to your theory that boys have to distinguish themselves from girls by cutting their hair short and by growing facial hair?"
Beards and mustaches are associated with provider status. Only those men with poorer genes - in other words, ugly - generally wear beards. So once again, the gay male fad of mustaches is a way to signal provider status to women...
You've referenced Liebowitz work on file-sharing intellectual property and talked about the quality of music over time, so I thought you might be interested in this from Joel Waldfogel.
Satoshi Kanazawa publishes a lot of crap, and that theory sounds crappier than his average. Greg Cochran has a post at West Hunter on his pathogenic theory.
"you argued that male baldness is a signal for provider status(men with poor hair - and unhealthy genes -have no choice but to be providers). Baldness as a trait survived because at least some women would always be attracted to provider men and thus would be attracted to baldness (this was before feminism, of course)."
That is not what he said.
Women are repulsed by baldness, but current girlfriends and wives are neutral about their men suddenly going bald; they won't leave him over it. This was his premise for his entire theory!
It becomes an honest signal for monogamy because his newfound repulsiveness forces this state upon him as potential women would not want him.
It had absolutely nothing to do with poor genes. If anything, the opposite is true. I believe Agnostic said he believed it originated in Germany and was spreading indicating that it confers fitness.
Baldness *does* indicate unhealthy genes, though.
"There's more to the story, though. According to Satoshi Kanazawa, homosexuality, while seeming irrational, is actually an evolutionary strategy used by men of low attractiveness. Studies have shown that gay men are generally shorter and uglier than straight men(contrary to popular belief). They are also "wimpier", compromising ability to compete in a male hierarchy. Because of these disabilities, gays evolved to be "extreme providers" - to the point where they don't even enjoy sex with the one woman they impregnate!
"Homosexual desire, in other words, is an adaptation that men with poor genes evolved in order to cope with their provider status."
Surely you know this is all hogwash, right?
If not, go to the blog West Hunter, where you'll read the recapping by Greg Cochran about the likely cause of male homosexuality.
Ag,
During the late 60s and early 70s, when I attended college, gay guys had long hair just as straights did.
And apparently 1939 is Hollywood's Greatest Year.
Grab bag of ideas:
Not sure if romance novel girls are very representative. Aren't they all cat ladies?
I'd imagine that such women are timid souls who would prefer a more feminine man (although obviously muscular and such). They're like the older equivalent of Millenial girls who are into slash fic and Yaoi. That is probably where such hair length preference comes from.
Women as a group seem to have weak preferences for male facial masculinity, and all groups seem to have a cline where they prefer more dimorphic faces when they are more socio-sexual - http://preview.tinyurl.com/7bbahy3. Therefore cat ladies would probably prefer men more feminine than average.
Of course, if romance novel women are all sexually insatiable and unrestricted, then this all falls down, but I doubt it. Women who have a visual orientation* and high sociosexuality would probably not cloister themselves with fantasy cocoon worlds but would probably IDK buy fireman and rugby player calenders with short haired men or something (unless those things are just bought only by mos).
Contra the romance novel thing, google search for "do women prefer long hair" and variations on the theme does not seem to reveal so clear a preference.
In the above link, gays seem to like men who are more sexually dimorphic than average - more masculine - where no one else has such a preference. Although this varies by promiscuity (the average gay likes men who are much more masculine than the average women does, but the low promiscuity gays (gays with more similar levels of promiscuity to the average woman) are probably similar to women in their preference). Liking short hair, even though it is not *necessary*, but because it exaggerates male female difference, this is probably why the gays are into it.
* The low visual orientation of women at the expense of overall sensuality, compared to men, might actually be a separate factor explaining why women have more long hair preference than gays, assuming all the above is wrong. Gays think about how short hair looks while women think more about how long hair feels.
Ridicoulous article - i have long hair and I'm gay. Plenty of gay guys like it - you even have gay websites for men with long hair. So i think it's totally rubbish to say gays don't like long hair. Amen.
"A strange fact that I have no good explanation for is that gays only prefer very short hair, both for their own hairstyle and for their ideal warm body ("partner")."
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Whoa, wait - can I just stop you there and tell you what an imbecile you are? I'm gay - my hair length switches from medium to long throughout the year. I also *love* men with longer, shaggy hair, and I nice messy beard. And prefer them to be either muscled or heavy, and I dislike skinny folk.
From anecdotal experience in online forums and in person, I am in no case alone. A large amount of gay people have the same preferences. Now stop with your idiotic stereotypes, please.
I'm gay and I got a boner just looking at this guy here:
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs49/f/2009/213/6/6/hot_long_haired_black_guy_by_CroftMan93.jpg
I think it's a weird acceptance thing. People think they'll not score with long hair so they cut it.
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