--- Bizarro7@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 2/23/01 5:20:07 PM Eastern

Standard Time, sweigman@world.std.com writes:

<< In following the h/c/S&M discussion, I've encountered the following 3 expressions: "gay-dar", "S&M-dar", "lesbian-dar." I know what gay, lesbian and S&M mean--but what, pray tell, is "dar"? >>

Some folks claim (either humorously or otherwise) that they can detect whether or not an individual is gay.

Actually, there's been a bit of research done into this, and the consensus has been that this is actually verifiably true-- it doesn't come down to any sort of psychic connection or anything, though :), but down to a learned ability to detect certain behavioural cues and forms of body language, at the subconscious and/or conscious level.

There's a rather funny article in an anthology called "Out in the Field" (about anthropologists who are gay and/or work in the gay community), in which a gay anthropologist analyses the ways in which gay men make their preferences known to each other in such a way as not to "frighten the horses."

ObB7: um... that friend I mentioned? Or perhaps the slash writers might find the article useful background material :)...

Fiona

(Proprietor of Ny-dar's Dyn-ar)...

The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net

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