Why Do We Treat Sexual Identity Differently from Flavor Preferences?

In this thought-provoking discussion, Malcolm and Simone explore the complex relationship between human predilections, such as arousal patterns and food preferences, and the cultural norms that shape our attitudes towards them. They question why it's socially acceptable to shame certain food choices but not sexual orientations, and delve into the historical context of how sexual compatibility became a key factor in modern relationships. The couple also examines the formation of subcultures around shared experiences of societal othering, and how these communities can become intrinsically tied to one's identity. Throughout the conversation, they touch on topics such as the AIDS epidemic, the conglomeration of the LGBTQ+ movement, and the potential risks and benefits of gender transition. Join Malcolm and Simone as they navigate these sensitive issues and share their personal perspectives on fostering a supportive environment for their children.

[00:00:00] I don't know where are you're gonna go, so let's dive right in. It's something I've been thinking about recently.

, there are many things that humans have predilections for, whether those predilections are genetic or due to our environment growing up. Two broad categories where I think humans have a varying predilections that are both genetic and environmental are the things that arouse them and the flavors that they enjoy.

That's true. Yeah. Okay. Huh. So the question then becomes why is it that I cannot impugn someone if I'm like I don't like this particular food I don't think that cake is healthy, I don't think you should eat cake every day, I can understand that my kids might even like the taste of cake, okay?

But I am going to shame them for eating cake, I am going to withhold cake from them, Yeah, or soda or alcohol. People are very passionate about these things. Why is it that as a society, that's a totally normal thing to [00:01:00] say, but if I come from a cultural group that has similar beliefs around something like gender transition, that's same sex attraction that's seen as homophobic

Would you like to know more?

Our family doesn't particularly like Italian food. Like I find it to be carby and honestly a little bland for my taste.

We don't serve it a lot to our kids. Okay. Now some, a family that likes Italian food that like receives pleasure when they eat Italian food and really enjoys that.

I understand that there's other families like that. I just don't want that for my family. Right now, this is a totally normal and inoffensive thing to state. No one is going to say I'm a pasta phobe when I state something like this. Yeah. That's just not for you. What is really fascinating is when I correlate this with something like sexuality, you would get an extremely negative response.

because a lot of people they will attack our [00:02:00] position on gayness, which is to say that I, as a family, like in my kids were born, same sex attracted or due to environmental conditions become same sex attractive.

I'm not going to shame them because I think that we have other solutions to have families right now. And I think that, that the cost of shaming them are less than the benefits from a cultural perspective. But I hold. Nothing against the cultures that do. And I can understand why from a historic context, especially if they have other cultural solutions for same sex attraction.

The and a lot of people are like, all conservatives have the same solution to same sex attraction. And it's this is just objectively not true. So if I'm just contrasting three groups here traditional Catholics, traditional Muslims, and traditional Protestants traditional Catholics who are born same sex attracted.

If you look at the Catholic priesthood, some studies show that over 50 percent of the priesthood is same sex attracted. It is, they get a, position of status, but they just have to maintain celibacy. That's actually a pretty good trade off and not particularly inhumane. It's like ethically sourced eunuchs.

You go to, obviously it has led to some negative externalities for altar boys. Yeah. I was going to say, not [00:03:00] always eunuchs, but if you look at rates within the Catholic church versus other professions where people interact with kids a lot, like public school system, the rates of molestation. You guys know what I'm talking about, or higher in the public school system.

Even on a per teacher basis, a lot of people don't know this. And this was a report done by the Clinton administration. So get off me on this. Protestants, it is you just suppress it, but isn't that what I tell people with cake? Isn't that what I tell, just suppress what many cultures say with something like alcohol, or cake, or some foods that we might think are culturally distasteful, some cultural groups like Oh don't eat frog. Yeah. No, Jews, for example, or Muslims, for example, don't eat pig, right? It's not for any specific health reason. It's just don't eat pig. This is a control and you're like pig is good. I like eating pig, but that doesn't mean I have anything against Muslims.

So I'm starting by just laying out the problem, right? That's interesting. Yeah. So the question is, Why is this the case? And people are like people are really forced to live. Oh, and I forgot the Muslim [00:04:00] solution. The extremist Muslim solution is gender transition, which is actually really funny to me.

The gender transition progressives are like accidentally discovering conservative Islam, which is you have a gender confused young person who seems sex attractive and it's just transition them. No more gay. It's An interesting cultural solution. And we can get into briefly as to why I think you see this within Islamic populations and not in other populations, is it solves the sex ratio problem you have within Islamic populations because you have religion within Muslim populations.

Because some people have multiple female partners. Yeah. You have more unattached males in this culture. So there's more males who will just never get a partner. So it does make sense to transition. Greater societal stability. Yeah. People. Get married. Yeah. Because also one of the, one of the big things I would say is, if you can't, if you decide that, you live in a society that is anti carb and you fricking love carbs, like, all right, that's tough.

You'll adjust. But when you live in a society that doesn't let you, Choose the life partner that would that you'd be sexually compatible with and for some people that's really important part of their [00:05:00] relationship Why is that an important part of their relationship? Like it's an interesting thing to note, right?

Like historically this was not an important part of relation compatibility. Yeah, that is an interesting thing That's its own like huge Pandora's box right is why Do we care so much about sexual compatibility? There's an evolutionary argument to be made that at least when it comes to male female pairings, which are, reproductive in nature, it could matter because studies have shown that people, when they just smell sweaty shirts or something are more likely to be attracted to people with whom they would be genetically more compatible for whatever reason, right?

There's factor you can see these levels of, but I'm talking historically throughout most of history. Most people, yeah. Typically around people with whom they're fairly well genetically match. You're marrying people who you've never had sex with. Yeah. Who you've likely never even kissed, you've never held hands with, this is historically the norm.

Even if you're talking about many indigenous cultures which you had, I'm sorry, progressive. Elevate indigenous cultures. So I'm just [00:06:00] saying that even among the cultures that they elevate while you can find some that are outside of this actually historically No,