Response to Comments on Social Obesity--Posner

An excellent comment points out that obesity increases with urbanization and female employment outside the home, and therefore is global. It increases with urbanization because urban work tends to be less physically strenuous than rural, and with female employment because work outside the home increases the time cost of home-cooked meals and thus the demand for restaurant, fast food, and junk food fare, all of which tend to be fattening because the purveyors compete to provide food that is at once cheap, tasty, and filling. In these respects, professional food preparers probably outcompete home cooking on average. Several of the comments criticize my introductory remarks about homosexuality. I said that "in a heterogeneous society, practice tends to be normative. That is why homosexual activists greatly exaggerate the prevalence of homosexuality--asserting, on the basis of a misreading of Kinsey's famous studies, that 10 percent of the population is homosexual, whereas the true figure is probably at most 2 percent. The more homosexuals there are, the stronger their claim to be normal, a claim that would fail in a society that had a strict moral code condemning homosexuality. Similarly, the more fat people there are, the more being fat is seen as normal." One comment predicts that I will offer "profuse apologies" for these remarks and particularly for having used the term "homosexual" rather than the politically correct "gay," and another ascribes my political incorrectness to my age. The word "homosexual" is not pejorative; nor has it yet been displaced by "gay"; until it is, I have no inclination to switch merely in order to make a political statement. I should however have made clear that (as one of the comments notes) in saying that only 2 percent of the population is homosexual, I did not mean to suggest that only 2 percent have had a homosexual experience. In my book Sex and Reason I point out that "opportunistic" homosexuality (homosexual acts by persons whose orientation is heterosexual) is common in situations in which persons of the other sex are not available as sexual partners, as in prisons and (traditionally) on naval vessels. Ancient Greek homosexuality was primarily opportunistic, and today we have the curious phenomenon of "LUGS"--lesbians until graduation.

Comments

[S.Lobato]

First of all I have to say, that the previous article from Judge Posner was very good, and I could not agree more with it. However the true reason because I'm writting here for the very first time, is that I can't handle those biased comments of these pro-homosexual users. Come on, Posner has wrote with a scrupolous respect towards the homosexual comunity,therefore stop these stupid and biased comments against the judge Posner.

I hope that the judge Posner will keep writting about homosexuals or whatever he wants despite all these non sense criticism.

[Andrew]

I am twenty-seven years old and just graduated from law school (one where the environment is so politically correct, I was given a hard time by a fellow student for mistakenly using the term "black" instead of "African-American"). That being said, reading this post is the first time I have ever heard of the word "homosexual" being politically incorrect.

[St. Darwin Assisi's cat]

Judge Posner...admire your comment on airline behavior....got a great chuckle out of LUGS .... respected your stance on not changing your writing about homosexuality just to be politically correct ... you put Kierkagaard (spelling challenged), Camus, and all of the other medieval intellectuals to shame as you demonstrate human evolvement ... you are an intellectual with a gand sense of humor and joy!

[Charles]

While criticism for using the word "homosexual" is just plain silly, the only thing I take issue with in Judge Posne'is the word "normal". I won't debate its definition; I simply question its significance in a free democratic republic. It is "abnormal" in this country to be African-American, Jewish, Hispanic, Catholic, opposed to Bush's immigration reforms, in favor of keeping our troops in Iraq, pro-life, and the list goes on. The overriding question I have to all such observations is: so what?

[A law student]

Yes, the word "homosexual" is not pejorative. However, I don't think that it captures the idea that Judge Posner is trying to express. I assume that Judge Posner defines a homosexual as one who prefers a same-sex partner when costs are equal. Doesn't this leave a lot of room for people who are actually homosexual to not pursue their natural inclinations because in today's society the costs are not equal? For that reason, it would make sense for him to use the non-scientific words "straight" and "gay," as they refer to being committed to a lifestyle (as opposed to being subject to sexual attraction).

[none]

I agree with your point, A law student, but the word "gay" implies a male norm -- do you not find that problematic? Of course people do say "gays and straights" but they also say "gays and lesbians" -- much like people say "men and animals" and "men and women." Just as the word "men" is tied to maleness even when it's meant to be universal, so is the word "gay." For that reason, I'm OK with homosexual (in fact, I'd love it if "homo" could lose it's negative playground-insult connotations and we could say "homos and heteros").

[mark graham]

Charles, I think Prof. Posner's point was that "in a heterogeneous society, practice tends to be normative." In other words, what is "normal" is very important, because one of the ways we decide what ought to be is by looking at what is. Like it or not, that has been a human tendency for as long as there has been recorded thought.

In fact, the confusion is probably based on the fact that the word "normal" has two senses - its "normative" sense, which I think is how Prof. Posner used it, and its "common" sense, which I think is how you are taking it.

In our society it is hard to think of things that fall in one category but not the other. Theft might be one, in some sense. We would not hear of a robbery and say "theft is normal", because we condemn it. But probably as many people as not have stolen something (pens from work, songs on the internet). In that sense theft is "normal" (common).

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