you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Out of curiosity, if it’s all completely made up, how would you explain the fact that people across different cultures and time periods consistently report similar patterns in sexual orientation? That suggests there’s something deeper going on than just social invention.

That said, I completely agree with you on being authentic — I just think the “completely made up” part might be a stretch

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Its a construct made up based on the needs and perceotions of primitive peoples. Id explain it the same way id explain patterns/similarities/trends in mythology and language across cultures that had no contact. That doesnt make it 'real' any more than 'mama' is the true word for 'mother'

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 child)

    Sorry, not really following your mama analogy. It sounds like that's just a variant of mother, which is, of course, has a very real meaning.

    I think it’s more like colour: the boundaries (like where blue becomes green) are kind of made up, but the spectrum itself is real. Same idea here—the labels can vary, but the underlying experience isn’t just invented.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • It comes up a lot in a lot of languages because its a very easy combination of phonemes for a human tomake even without much motor control. Parents like to think baby is talking about them.

    So even in completely unrelated languages words for some stuff are cognates at a statistically unlikely rate.

  • source
  • parent