The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

How About an ‘Insanity Studies’ Major? UPDATE: ‘Queer’ With ‘Psychotic Episodes’ and ‘Endless Mental Fog’

Posted on | December 25, 2017 | 2 Comments

It’s difficult to describe the cognitive dissonance I sometimes experience. Here at home, today was filled by a cheerful family holiday celebration. Meanwhile, however, the world is full of depravity and despair. Because my work involves searching through feminist blogs, I have a very pessimistic view of America’s future. If these people are our future, we’re hopelessly doomed. And after seeing a particularly weird column — never mind where — I went on a Twitter tirade:

Can anything be done to save our educational system? Or should we instead hope for the collapse of the system? Could anything possibly be worse than the madness our universities are currently producing?

UPDATE: OK, I’ll explain what and who inspired this rant. Rachel Sather graduated last year from CUNY-Hunter College. And she is crazy:

I’m very open about living with Borderline Personality Disorder. It’s a lot more common than people assume, with 1.6% of the general population living with BPD, most of whom are women. . . .
Between the psychotic episodes, addicting coping mechanisms, and the seemingly endless mental fog that comes with BPD, its incredibly difficult sometimes to maintain a healthy life. . . .
Thanks to social networks like Tumblr, there’s a whole network of bloggers that share their experiences with BPD. . . . The fact that I have learned more about my illness from Tumblr than someone with a Masters in psychology made me realize that not enough people were talking about it.

Great. You’re having “psychotic episodes” and “endless mental fog,” but you’ve got a college diploma and lots of friends on Tumblr. However, that’s not what inspired my rant. The inspiration was another article Ms. Sather wrote, “What is My Sexuality Anyway?”

When I was told by a psychiatrist that I had bipolar disorder, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. I needed that label. I needed to establish my identity. . . .
The concept of my sexuality is a much different thing than my mental affliction, but I’ve dealt with the same thing regarding labels. The mental illness thing was easy to pinpoint. My label as far as who I am in regards to who I’m attracted to, not so much.
I came out a bisexual when I was thirteen. My parents were very accepting of me and said they would support me no matter who I would eventually bring home, but they didn’t take it seriously.

Really? Who decided kids should “come out” before they’re legally old enough to have sex? Although the age of consent varies from state to state, I’m pretty sure 13 is illegal in all 50 states. But never mind that for now. Let’s continue to Page 2 of Ms. Sather’s article:

What a lot of people don’t understand about bisexuality is that who you end up dating does not void the fact that you’re attracted to more than one gender. Being with someone doesn’t mean you completely stop experiencing attraction. My mother understands this now. More people in general do, but there is still a big stigma surrounding the concept of bisexuality.
For years I thought I leaned more towards men. I would develop big, overwhelming, borderline unhealthy crushes. At least I thought they were crushes. I had my first sexual experience with a man when I was seventeen. I found out from the start that I hated blowjobs. I was very uncomfortable when it came to (cis) male genitalia. But my crushes continued regardless.
Since I started watching porn as a preteen, I had only watched lesbian porn. . . .

HOLY FREAKING CRAP! Preteen girls watching porn? Call the police! Arrest somebody! No, better idea — get a trial lawyer to file a class-action lawsuit against Internet porn sites that are feeding this poison into children’s minds. But meanwhile, back to Ms. Sather’s article:

My first real boyfriend came along when I was nineteen. He was extremely into sex . . . I would only really be able to [orgasm] during oral sex. And a lot of the time that was because I was thinking about ladies. I never told him this. . . .

Did you tell him you’d been watching lesbian porn since you were a child? Did you discuss how “male genitalia” made you “very uncomfortable”? Did you tell him about your “psychotic episodes”? Or are these subjects you only discuss with total strangers on the Internet? Never mind, let’s continue on to Page 3 of Ms. Sather’s article:

The fact that I wasn’t into penetration made me question my entire sexuality. That paired with the overall terrible experience I had with my ex-boyfriend led me to thinking I was asexual. . . . One thing I’m grateful for regarding society’s current view on sexuality is the number of labels I could attach to myself. So the label became biromantic asexual.
But after a while that didn’t seem to work either. I kept thinking about my sexual attraction to exclusively women. I realized most of the “crushes” I had on men were actually a BPD-related psychological attachment, with very little sexual attraction attached. So I started to think about the fact that I might be gay. I didn’t want to say I was definitely a lesbian, as I wasn’t sure if that label fit. I could still see myself falling in love with a man, but I also knew that if I did I wouldn’t be sexually attracted to him. I decided to forget about specifics and just use the blanket term queer.
I still feel a lack of definitiveness using this term. Labels are important to me, and I want to know specifics. But I’m coming to terms with the fact that I may not get one. Sexuality is fluid for me, and I know if I stuck to one label one day I would just begin to question it the next day. So I’m going to just stick with queer. That is a label I am happy with, and one that can effortlessly say that I am attracted to all genders in a wide variety of ways.

There is so much wrong here, I scarcely know where to begin, so let’s start with the obvious: Why do you need to tell the whole world?

“Hello, world, I’m a queer who has psychotic episodes!” Is that how you want to introduce yourself to every stranger with an Internet connection? Are there actually people who could read that self-description without thinking, “Wow, better stay away from that weirdo”? And what about the ex-boyfriend with whom she had the “overall terrible experience”? Does he realize that Ms. Sather’s interest in him was “psychological attachment” symptomatic of her mental illness?

Y’know, some people had problems with sex before the Internet existed. They either solved their problems or they didn’t, but few of them advertised their problems to the entire world because (a) they didn’t have the means to do so, and (b) they weren’t completely crazy.

Nowadays, we have the Internet and everybody’s crazy. Or so it seems, when you notice how many college-educated lunatics feel compelled to divulge every detail of their sexual desires and practices for public consumption. Honestly, I’m grateful the Internet didn’t exist when I was a crazy college kid, because . . . Well, what’s great about the Constitution is that, in addition to our First Amendment right to free speech, we also have the Fifth Amendment, which protects our right to shut up.

On the other hand, I suppose if all the weirdos and lunatics want to advertise their depravity, at least we’ll know who to avoid.



 

Category: Education, Sex Trouble

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2 Responses to “How About an ‘Insanity Studies’ Major? UPDATE: ‘Queer’ With ‘Psychotic Episodes’ and ‘Endless Mental Fog’”

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    […] How About an “Insanity Studies” Major? It’s difficult to describe the cognitive dissonance I sometimes experience. Here at home, today was filled by a cheerful family holiday celebration. Meanwhile, however, the world is full of depravity and despair. Because my work involves searching through feminist blogs, I have a very pessimistic view of America’s future. If these people are our future, we’re hopelessly doomed. […]

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