Free College Sex - Philosophy for Everyone: Philosophers With Benefits by Fritz Allhoff, Michael Bruce

to appease the hegemonic standard of heterosexuality, one’s effort is usually welcomed by onlookers. The act is not met with repugnance, resistance, or intrigue, and no invasive or deeply personal questions are asked. Indeed, there is a double standard at play; just as lesbian eroticism is more socially or culturally acceptable than gay eroticism, a controver- sial reaction is more readily available to same-sex experiments of straights than opposite-sex experiments of gay and lesbian students.
    The often disingenuous effort to accommodate social and sexual norms functions so as to mock said expectations by imitating same-sex experimenters. Just as same-sex experiments challenge rigid designa- tions of heterosexual norms, opposite-sex experiments undermine sex- ual identities prescribed by homosexual norms. More to the point, opposite-sex interludes subvert notions of sexual identity by departing from dominant social expectations governing the status quo, as well as group-specific norms governing sexual conduct within gay and lesbian communities. Whether pursued in the spirit of shock value or sexual rebellion as same-sex experiments often are, opposite-sex experiments end up fulfilling some of the very same goals or curiosities, and ulti- mately, contribute to a healthy developmental gay or lesbian sexuality. While a social commotion may not be forthcoming, straight sex experi- ments of gay and lesbian college youth fulfill and reject mainstream het- erosexual norms and further destabilize social, cultural, and political constructs imposed upon them from within, by their own “homosexist” communities that routinely frown upon deviations from self-imposed, group-specific expectations governing sexual conduct. Having the least to lose and “most to gain,” self-proclaimed gay and lesbian college stu- dents take greater risks in their opposite-sex experiments by undermin- ing both exoteric and esoteric conventions, as well as institutionalized religious fundamentalism that repeatedly bombards them with messages to “turn or burn!” They violate homosexual expectations by destabiliz- ing their tightly knit gay and lesbian community’s sense of pride, and ultimately succeed in neutralizing our ubiquitous, antiquated, and exces- sive faith in sexual identity.

    Challenges to College Sex Experimentation

    One might conjecture that opposite-sex experiments lack the strength or theoretical force to impact the types of outcomes illustrated in this account. While it is much easier to gauge increased social acceptance of same-sex experimentation in mass culture by considering analogous transformations in public perception of homosexuality, the same cannot be similarly assessed with respect to increased acceptance of running tendencies governing opposite-sex practices. There is no parallel social interest or clinical evidence to demonstrate this to be the case. On the one hand, we find a climate of fear and institutionalized intolerance,
    increasingly preoccupied with maintaining the status quo sexuality so as to discourage homosexual conduct. On the other, the proclivity to experiment with the opposite sex is frequently met with suspicion and hostility within gay and lesbian settings; in either camp, one must work hard at maintaining an identity convincing enough to those who value and avidly cling to it.
    It helps to note that there is more focus on and interest in same-sex experimentation for two main reasons: first, it violates a greater taboo; and second, it is much more common. It stands to reason that since the heterosexual population is much larger than the gay and lesbian popu- lations combined, more instances of same-sex practice are likely to take place; accordingly, more public attention is paid to it. However, the more crucial point is that it violates a more serious social taboo, whereas gay and lesbian experimentation with straight sex is barely a taboo at all, especially outside of its esoteric setting within gay