Dear Ogi,

[rm]

I have fears, and none of them are you, or the exposure of what turns my crank or how I express myself. You don't even know me (and whatever it is you think I am, I am not), so how dare you call me and my tribe cowards and then take your ball and slink off home. There's really no greater insult, not just to the people you claim you were trying to engage, but to yourself. Generally speaking, I think shame is an ugly and useless emotion, and then things like this happen, and I realize I hope you have a lot of it, not because you deserve it, but because it's the only thing that would explain the viciousness and irrationality of your actions.

*

(What am I talking about? I'm talking about ogi_ogas's assertion that "'some deep sense of pleasure or satisfaction ultimately rooted in subcortical circuits' compels us to seek out slash/transsexuals despite fearing exposure to society at large." Context here: http://shaggirl.livejournal.com/190980.html)

*sigh*

Comments

[kadairk.livejournal.com]

I've only been marginally following this story, but this hypothesis of ogi_ogas' has me wondering if he is researching from a neurobiological/neurochemical perspective, or from a social science perspective? Not that it matters, his research methodologies are flawed; he's fallen victim to the human tendency to have a belief and work backward from there to support it; thus his stated rejection of results that don't fit his premise (this is why it's almost pointless to argue health care reform, or abortion rights, for example. People, in general, take a position and eliminate any information that does not support their stance.) True science involves postulating an idea, modifying the hypothesis and LEARNING from the research done. This man does not strike me as a scientist.

I'm curious to know where I would fit in his research, as a person society would identify as a heterosexual woman, who "seeks out" BOTH slash and transsexuals. And my fear of "exposure to society at large" has nothing to do with my sexuality and everything to do with my gender. I learned a long time ago to be afraid of exposure to society because I am a woman. Society is a dangerous place for me. It views me as inferior, it rapes and abuses me, it tells me that I have to have children and then blames me for how I raise them. What society thinks of my sex life and fantasies is much less terrifying to me than what society thinks of ME as a human being.

And am I the only one who noticed his assertion that the fandom is the far left? (He makes a comment about seeing how he's treated by the far right.) While I'll admit to being far left, I'm not sure the entire fandom is left leaning (another assumption about the group he is "studying"), but really the question is ... what does politics have to do with any of this anyway?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Politics is a lot of thing, but I think his assumption that fandom is coming from the Far-Left because of the Post-Modernist discourse that's coming from fans de-constructing his assumptions and telling him that his coming from a position of blind privilege.
Language that can commonly be found in certain Leftist circles... so, go figure.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

That's probably some of it - also, being from the USA (and having an American-centric POV, as evidenced by the cast of some of his survey questions) he may simply not be aware that some of the commenters come from countries where the political centre is to the left of his?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Or even more far-right that his...
Still, it makes him look silly and very uninformed about the world at large, not just fandom.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Tru dat.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

He emphatically insists that this "study" is not social; he certainly has no training in social sciences. On the other hand, he's also not a neurochemist, and isn't looking at anything on a chemical or biological level. His previous research has not involved human subjects, and has largely involved data mining.

The political comment made me wonder, too. Your guess is as good as mine or anyone else's what he's really hoping to accomplish.