The mentioned heroes being introduced
The article which you at the moment are holding in your hands - and which is likely to be read by some - is devoted to the issue that might seem petty if regarded on the global scale, yet it is of a vital significance to the author. Resorting to the Soviet style it is better to name this issue "a question of the moral makeup of a young gay", implying a young man of intellectual pretensions aged under 25. It seems to be a tender and sweet age, representatives of which just cannot evoke in others feeling other than pleasurable ones. But that is not the case - any detached onlooker might say that something is wrong with our young generation. Completely wrong. Our gays look somewhat weird, resembling each other in an odd way and sharing the qualities far from the best. The list of gripes about the new generation takes in the following:
1) Listlessness or rather downright languish. Surprisingly, it makes itself evident in matters of sex which should not be a point of concern at this age.
2) Dullness and amorphousness, or to be more precise, thorough "nothingness" - the lack of particular interests and unique individuality, nothing to be recorded in the memory, just triteness and banality.
3) Passivity and feeble connection with the real world. Tons of guys just have trouble explaining what they want at all - both from themselves and from others.
4) Needless to say such indistinctness is made up for by fruitless construction of castles in air all of which are identical. This daydreaming - never brought to fulfillment - appears to serve a sufficient substitute for the activity.
5) Conforming to stereotypes - the same common, one for all mold or cliche after which lots of things which are supposed to be individual for everyone are created: a view of the world, of homosexuality as a whole, of one’s partners and of oneself. These molds are invariably borrowed from twentysomething ideas of mass culture. Just open any paper containing the ads of people looking for contacts. I bet 10 to 1 you are going to read about an "outgoing guy having a thing for a jovial company and uninhibited in sex". In practice everything undoubtedly proves to be quite the reverse.
6) Finally, this heavily scented bouquet is complemented with stark self-interest and covetousness, just plain pathologic craving for prostitution, also combined with the same shoddy fantasies.
Needless to say, anyone can name a few of his acquaintances who fit the description perfectly (in case you do not have such mates - congratulations! And look up the example in the supplement to this article). Alas, this phenomenon is far from being rare. Hence it is quite curious to try to discover its roots and to solve the two basic Russian questions - who and what.
The shadow of old Siegmund
Let's put it forthright: there is hardly the lack of explaining theories. Of special popularity currently are those that were generated at the turn of the century on a certain Vienna couch - which can be accounted for by the drop of the notorious iron curtain and avid absorption of novelties created by the epoch of telephone and wireless telegraph invention. A sample of such psychoanalytical reasoning can be found, for instance, in the 5th issue of this journal ("Big Solitude of Gays" by M. Pogorely). We are bound to find all classical hits there - hard childhood years spent in endless conflicts with parents, complexes that failed to be cleared up later in the life, socializing with girls in girlie games and other grievous circumstances which "self" and "Super Self" failed to live through adequately. It was noticed long ago - and not by me - that a theory, striving to give an explanation to everything and anything, ends up explaining nothing. We can surely recall all kinds of pretty phrases and sum up with their help the passivity ("identification with women"), self-interest ("anal character") and even "nothingness" (a conflict of unconscious aspirations that get one's will paralyzed"). But there is a catch - about 95 % of our population can boast all sorts of complexes, a legion of folks devoted their childhood to conflicts with their family, and some even fancied exclusively female company - as a result getting abusive nicknames from their peers. Nonetheless they've grown up and are functioning quite up to the mark as the elementary social items, not minding to have sex and, apart from fantasies, are into real things once in a while.
On the other hand, all these Freudian factors - as purely individual and not dependent on the country - are supposed to affect all gays the world over in a more or less similar way and to manifest themselves in Africa and America equally. In America? Oh no, American gays are different , they pelted cops with stones when they had had enough of police bugging, they unite to protect their interests and do not cherish any illusions. As to their Soviet counterparts, those cannot even get together to beat the hell out of homophobic thugs. And in our post-Soviet times the same counterparts are not capable of demanding their much delayed paycheck from the boss - what to say about gay rights? And if the ban to walk around hugging each other can be put up with, just try to live without getting paid... And did Stonewall broke loose? This makes one wonder what truly underlies the problem - Electra complexes or something more trivial and closer?
So, where is the rub? Supposedly in biology...
An attentive reader has already grasped what the author is driving at and how he is going to explain our gays' peculiarities. Yes, you are right - namely with this. But first - a little digression. Let me point out the cause of this listless sloth. It can be explained very easily - with purely biological factors. As was found by Hans Selye, any unfavorable influence of the environment on a living organism gives rise to stress, and stress in its turn triggers a corresponding adaptive response. This adaptation takes effect only within certain limits which is clear, as no adaptation can provide survival, say, in an atomic reactor. If these limits are stretched - for example, in case the adaptation lasts for too long - an organism starts consuming its irretrievable resources and gets exhausted. The reason our gays are so languid and dispassionate in sex is that they - like all citizens of our respected country at large - are fatigued by endless struggle for survival. What to talk about sex if one feeds on potatoes alone. Besides, gays have an additional task of concealing a half of their feelings. They are certainly not diseased yet, but cannot be called healthy either. This is what the science of biology says.
And who is to blame for the rest?
This is quite simple. Of course, not complexes of childhood years, but our dismal existence and dubious social norms. The answer to this question suggests itself, if the problem is considered in an unbiased manner with trivial psychoanalytical reasoning laid aside. The blame is on the SOCIETY. If this answer sounds too banal for you I suggest you ruminate over the following: why does the notorious set of features described in the first part of the article, manifest in gays in the most marked way? For an average teenager - with all his dullness and disposition to wishful thinking - is still more active, even if just sexually.
The correct answer which is not easy to come by is: the mimicry.
Young homosexuals are quick to get the idea that it's not worth wearing their heart on their sleeve and better still is to keep their proclivities under the hat. They go to any length to camouflage, pretending to be like everyone else which in reality means supporting the worst social stereotypes, thus becoming holier than the Pope himself. So gays turn into a kind of magnifying glass which focuses the worst signs of our current life. Now it becomes easy to reduce all the qualities mentioned above to the social life, of which gays are a sort of concentrate. Nothingness you say? Lack of clear cut goals and the least degree of activity? But our entire society is lacking in goals that are beyond survival. The "left" global goals got long ago and forever compromised by failing construction of communism, while the "right" ones - by as much failing reforms. The society - and hence the life of an average person - lacks in any ideas that go beyond the stomach upward. Gays do not know what they want? And does the rest of the nation know what they want? Do they do anything? No, all of them are unanimously and passively waiting for something - a new government, restoration of the USSR, establishment of communism, descent of a messiah - just anything but their own deeds.
Two-bit stereotypes? Those originate in the yellow press and scandal-bent TV. For other sources of knowledge are absent. Can the information be found at school or at home where a couple of Soviet wisdom tenets are usually sufficient. And not from peers who are hardly knowledgeable enough but who are all too ready to label anyone as a fag. And so boys have to content themselves with undecayed images of local show-biz zanies or Western commercial heroes, or still better - toilers of "Catalina Studio" who by the sweat of their brow - and other parts of the body - work off their wages despite boredom, tiredness and looming impotence.
It's not worth harping on self-interest. This is a vice, which erodes every social structure. Who needs morals, friendship or love - come on, fork over. Prostitution is made light of, for it pays off. And responsibility can be shifted onto someone else's shoulders.
So, what is to be done?
The author of the above-mentioned article thinks that it is the attitude of the society that is to be changed - no discrimination, no loneliness of gays. Such a piece of advice brings to mind a recommendation given by a highly popular book character to a man who was haunted by dreams with Soviet ambience: "As soon as Soviet power is no more, you'll be instantly better off". This is in sync with Freudian teaching, by the way. Jokes apart, the major thing has already been achieved. On the state level homosexuality is no longer regarded as something criminal. The state does not care who sleeps with whom. KGB is also history and homophobic thugs have somehow thinned out, probably having decided to busy themselves with racket. So, dear gays, proceed on your own. Is the society still biased and scornful? So it is now up to you to bring this same society around. And no one is going to lend you a hand since this issue is of no special interest to anyone.
It is activity that is of vital importance, we ought to do just anything rather than entertain collective fantasies like, "we, gays, are gifted with the greatest creative ability, refined nature and we are very tough guys as a whole", all these fantasies being nothing other than mental masturbation. This is firstly.
Secondly, we have to unite, to become a real group, so that the word "gays" would refer to something integral and consolidated, to a community sharing common goals - rather than to an abstract, purely arithmetical concept of the sum of separate individuals. But any community is impossible without communication - so it is not for nothing that these terms sound similarly. Hence the significance of developing contacts among people.
Of big benefit will also be the improvement of the economic situation in the country. But, alas, nothing will happen by itself.
And finally, the most important thing - we have to really stand out and be distinguishable, not to be afraid of being different, not like everyone else. And this standing out should be not due to a garish outfit or just gayness, but to what Gorbachev called human values - to put it simply, to be better than those around us.
It is far from easy? Well, then go on being like any other person and confine your craving with a small world of fantasies until they get rotten and result in full disharmony with life. And you can forward your gripes to the Lord Almighty: he is duty-bound to give an ear to the lamentations about the world's imperfection.
Supplement. One of them.
This letter was published in the section of classified ads in the issue ¹ 5-6 of the "One Of Us" magazine. It is presented here as a vivid illustration of psychological qualities of a modern gay. My commentaries are in square brackets.
I am not a gay, still I have a fancy for male intimacy [Bravo! This single phrase is worth a dozen studies]
I am going through a lot of problems at the moment, such as financial shortage (as I am jobless), lack of friends, or rather I do have friends but we see each other seldom as they all have families while I am not capable of starting a family of my own at the moment. I have hard time finding mates as I am a non-smoker, have not a thing for drinks and am not way too interesting as a friend. [Quite a peculiar idea of friendship] A lot of acquaintances do not speak to me out of jealousy caused by my education in law, or speak through clenched teeth [Is education the problem?]
Presently I am penniless and needed by no one. That is why I decided to ask your magazine for help [A weird choice for a hetero, isn't it?] First I was going to place an ad in the "Contact" to find a sponsor, but on the second thought I came up with the realization that I need a friend and adviser who would help me land a job and make money honestly - and not just any sum – but in keeping with my expertise and specialty - I am a young specialist in law [so, fantasies have already come to the fore: hopes of finding a kind guy, dreams of megabucks]. That is why I am willing to get in contact with an intelligent man of gay orientation [a straight fellow seeking out a gay sponsor?] with higher education, preferably in law as well, who would help me find a job and who is an honest and decent person. For my part I guarantee I'll keep our relationship in secret [why conceal ordinary friendship?] and I promise respect, friendship, faithfulness. By and large I easily find common language with adults [read: elders], and, please, do not look down on me: I mean communication, not sex [quite a telltale confession]. As to my friends, they have wives and girlfriends [this does not seem to be in the way of male friendship], women break up with me soon, for they dream of peace within a family, and since I have no cash I cannot afford to create one [is cash the reason or the lack of genuine desire?]
I am 25, though others say I look younger. Whoever can render me disinterested help with job landing - in exchange for friendship and more, your letters are welcome [what moving disinterestedness from the side of the letter's author!] I'll be thrilled to make friends with him regardless of his age. Those who are not capable of concealing their belonging to sex minorities in public, those who are not sincere and intent on harming are asked to withhold from writing.
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