1/3 of Football Players Are Gay or Bisexual
Jonathan Rowe on Nov 11th 2007
Well, not really. This study has found that more than a third of former high-school American Football said they have had sexual relations with other men. This could be another one of the many flawed studies out there. Though, it buttresses what I’ve previously written on this phenomenon.
Studies show that about 3-4% of the population self-identifies as gay or bisexual. And I’d imagine that these folks fall from 3-6 on the Kinsey scale, with “0″ perfectly heterosexual, “3″ perfectly bisexual, and “6″ perfectly homosexual. We err if we then assume that the 96-7% of self-identified “heterosexual” or “normal” folks are perfectly heterosexual or Kinsey 0s. No, if you dig deep and look for heterosexual purity, I’d estimate that you’ll find it in no more than 2/3 or 70% of the population.
If one defines heterosexuality or social normality according to its purity, that means that 1/3 of the population is gay or bisexual, with many more bisexuals than homosexuals, and most of these “bisexuals” fully attracted to the opposite sex, less than fully attracted to the same sex, define and understand themselves as “normal” or “straight” and live the overwhelming majority of their lives as such. It therefore seems a little awkward to place these incidental or opportunistic homosexuals in the “gay or bi” box; they certainly aren’t part of the gay or bi community or social group. I think they are better understood as heterosexuals who have partook in homosexual behavior. The same way in which a man who is fully attracted to the same sex, less than fully to the opposite, and who marries and fathers children, but later comes out as “gay,” (like McGreevy) is better understood as “homosexual,” even though he certainly probably has some degree of bisexuality to him. How else could he perform and sire children?
I’ve also speculated that men who are more likely to be incidental homosexuals are the very opposite in stereotype of the effeminate gay men. These “trades” are more likely to be gruff, macho types, and also probably less likely to be refined and educated. And this may be because the more masculine men have higher levels of testosterone which corresponds with greater need for sexual release. In other words some straight guys can perform homosexually because they are in such need of release that they can perform for just about anything.
Further, opportunistic homosexuality is more likely to occur in all male environments like prisons, military, and all boys schools. And what better fits this stereotype of highest testosterone levels than late teenage male football players.
Filed in The Boudoir
[...] Johnny can’t read. Actually more charitably, in the act of blogging and getting out a new post, we don’t always read the posts carefully. Jon Rowe at Positive Liberty it seems misread some statistics. He read it as 1/3 of (American) football players experimented with homosexuality. What the study actually said is 1/3 of football players who: “The 47 men, aged 18-23, were all American Football players who previously played at the high school (secondary school) level but had failed to be picked for their university’s team and were now cheerleaders instead.” Male cheerleaders sexuality seems about as newsworthy as male dancers or professional actors. [...]
I can’t believe that. Usually this kind of study is not absolutely correct. I do believe there are lots of bisexual or gay there, but not so many.
One of my partner i met on http://www.bisexualmate.com told me that this is not true. He is a now football player at school. But he said that it’s not so easy to find a bi friend there.
Your comment shows what I try to illustrate on the confused understanding of bisexual. Assuming the stat is true, the majority of these men are not “bisexual” in the sense of actively pursuing and always being open to homosexual relationships. Rather, they’ve experimented with homosexual sex, and under the proper conditions, can enjoy it mainly for “release” purposes, not to fulfill any innate sexual need — or the innate sexual need they are fulfilling is primarily heterosexual in its drive.
The men who actively seek other men for regular relations on websites such as the one you listed are probably closer to the Kinsey “3″ bisexuals. And the further rightward you go on the Kinsey scale, the smaller the numbers become.