Quotes of Bailey stereotyping gays and lesbians
in an interview about the stereotyping of homosexuals:
 
 
J. Michael Bailey, Ph.D.
 
 
The following quote of J. Michael Bailey will help readers calibrate the incredibly naive and non-scientific level of thinking common among so-called "sex researchers" like Bailey when they characterize their "research subjects". Any intelligent reader will sense the arrogance, shallowness and lack of perceptiveness in Bailey's thinking, his lack of sound evidence upon which to base conclusions, his failures of logic, and his conflations of causes and effects, and his sweeping generalizations across entire communities of people.
 
Many young gays and lesbians may feel good about getting the attention of a "scientist" and don't necessarily see anything wrong with being "characterized" like this. Flattered by the scientific interest in their sex lives, they'll not see the dangers involved in playing into the prurient stereotypes of all gay men that will later appear in writings of this "scientist". Is it really a good idea to play into stereotypes that gay men were once effeminate boys who wanted to be girls, that they can now be identified by their "gay voice", and that all have hundreds of sex partners?
 
Isn't this eerily reminiscent of the way the white establishment used to stereotype black people in the most viciously racist manner, by widely propagating myths of sexual promiscuity and male sexual prowess? Taking any slight variation in physical appearance, community culture or social customs, and blowing it up into a demeaning racial stereotype, is a classic method of racial stigmatization and discrimination.
 
And what about straight guys? When Bailey in a broad brush stroke caricatures straight guys as wishing they could have "hundreds of sex partners", suggesting that the only reason they don't get them is because they can't get them. Are you really comfortable with that? Are most guys really like that? Do they literally want hundreds of sex partners? Are the straight guys you know all really like this? How would they ever find love, companionship and stability in life? How would they ever keep up with the emotional and sexual demands of so many women? What kind of life would this be? Or is Bailey talking about Bailey's fantasies of what HE'D like to do, and projecting those fantasies onto all other guys.
 
So be warned out there: Think about the book review above. Then ask yourself if YOU'D like to be on the receiving end of "scientific thinking" like this? What about the NEXT book he might write, caricaturing YOU? Need I say more?
 
 

Source: http://after-words.org/grim/mtarchives/2002/08/index.shtml

 
From an Interview on Stereotypes of Homosexuals.
With J. Michael Bailey, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
 
Q: What stereotypes have turned out to have some truth to them?
 
A: One big thing is occupational and recreational interests. In fact, hairdressers, professional dancers, actors and designers tend to be gay men, at least at much higher rates than their population rate, which is somewhere between 1 and 4 percent. And women who are in the armed services, or professional athletes (two of the three best all-time women's tennis players are lesbian), are disproportionately lesbian.

Children who are sex-atypical do tend to become homosexual. Especially males. Boys who want to be girls become men who want men. Most very masculine girls probably become heterosexual women, but their rate of homosexuality is probably still higher than would be expected given the population rate of female homosexuality, which is probably less than 1 percent.
 
Recently, we have shown that on average, gay men and lesbians are very different on average from straight people in the way they walk and speak. There is such a thing, evidently, as a gay voice. And lesbians tend to look different than straight women -- in particular, they have shorter hairstyles.

On the other hand, some stereotypes about homosexual people are due to the fact that they are in certain other ways psychologically like straight people of their own sex. For example, gay men have lots of sex partners compared with straight men. This is because they have a male-typical level of interest in casual sex, but because they are seeking other men with the same interest, they can have as many partners as they want. Straight men are constrained by the desires of women. I think that there is nothing intrinsically "gay" about having hundreds of sex partners. Lots of straight guys would if they could. But they can't, because they can't find female partners who'll have anonymous sex with them.
 
 
 
 
A Postscript:
Thinking about using Bailey's "scientific" methods on Bailey:
 
 
In his book, Bailey makes frequent reference to knowing what people are thinking and to being able, for example, to tell details of the story of someone's childhood by simply observing their appearance and mannerisms.
 
I suggest that readers apply Bailey's own method of "telepathic insight and physical phrenological feature analysis" to Bailey himself, as a thought experiment. You do this by studying his features and expressions, and then impute thoughts and motives to him by "looking at him carefully and reading his mind based on how he looks".
 
It's actually very simple to do this thought experiment: Simply take a close look at the photo of Bailey above. Look at the practiced steely macho glint in his eyes. Look at the smug, superior smirk on his face. Then look at the strangely and insecurely hunched position of his head.
 
Then ask yourself: Does this look like a nice person? Is this someone you would feel at ease with? Is this someone you would like to reveal your innermost desires and secrets to? Would you trust this person to listen carefully and then accurately represent you in their scientific work? Especially if you are female or lesbian or gay?
 
Of course, not believing in mental telepathy or phrenology, we would naturally be in doubt about our answers to these questions. We might have our suspicions, but we wouldn't bet a lot of money on them, for fear that we might be "fooled by appearances". Thus we continue our thought experiment as more serious scholars by seeking more solid evidence about the true nature of this person, which in this case we can easily do - by simply reading some of his writings.
 
In Bailey's writings we listen to him brag about being able to read people's minds (at least gay and transsexual people, with whom he seems to have very heightened telepathic and phrenological powers). We learn how he knows with certainty everything about someone's childhood experiences, simply based on their appearance. We hear him report that if a person disputes his phrenological and telepathic powers of analysis, he knows with certainty that they are "lying" and stands ready to report them as "liars" in his scientific writings.
 
Then ask yourself the above questions again, but with more solid evidence in hand about the nature of this person and the methods he uses to "analyze" people. By now, the intense homophobia and transphobia in this person seems clear, does it not? And it is made clear not from his photo, but from his very own words.
 

 

 

 Return to Lynn's Bailey Investigation Page.