Vice Ganda And Sex Values

Vice Ganda And Sex Values

By Alex P. Vidal

Alex P. Vidal

“Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.” JAMES JOYCE

The rape joke last year contrived by TV comedian Vice Ganda on respected journalist Jessica Soho was utterly malicious and done in bad taste. It showed that the gay host was bereft of sex values and orientation that weighed down his qualification to handle sensitive issues in public in pretext of fun and entertainment.

We are trying to correct and educate Vice Ganda here not because he is gay, but because of his cheap obloquy and disrespect for victims of rape, not to mention being tactless and his propensity to pander on highly sensitive matters for public gawking. 

Vice Ganda’s portrayal of Soho as a gang rape victim and her taking potshots at Soho’s weight was a brutal calumny and direct insult to women with weight issues and victims of rape in general. 

Some twenty years ago the word “homosexual” conjured up images of sad, neurotic deviants. Vice Ganda should be thankful to the open spirit of the last decades which helped improve our knowledge, and a clear picture of homosexuals today would show a great many men and women who live by their own values and whose emotional expressions are not limited by traditional sex roles. Far from being sick, gays like Vice Ganda often function better than nongays.

VIEW

Mark Freedman, founder of the Association of Gay Psychologists and a former staff psychologist at the Northeast Community Mental Health Center in San Francisco, California, said: “traditionally, psychiatrists have based their view of homosexuality either on armchair speculation or on the analysis of homosexuals who enter therapy--a highly unrepresentative sample.” 

It wasn’t until 1957, in fact, that psychologist Evelyn Hooker of UCLA published the first really sound research on the personal adjustment of gay men. Hooker compared homosexuals and heterosexuals who were not in therapy after dividing them up into pairs of comparable age, intelligence and schooling and then giving them a battery of personality tests. Experienced clincial psychologists then rated each person’s test results without knowing the man’s sexual orientation.

Hooker drew several tentative conclusions from her study. First, the clinical entity of “disease” called homosexuality does not exist. The forms of homosexual experience are as varied as the forms of heterosexual experience. Second, homosexuality may well be a deviation that is within the normal range of human behavior. And third, particular forms of sexual desires and expression may play a less important role in personality structure than many psychiatrists assume. 

GOSSIP

Vice Ganda, whatever his educational attainment and training and whether he is into showbiz or business of gossip, should learn about sexuality education, which is a lifelong process of acquiring information and forming attitudes, beliefs, and values about identity, relationships, and intimacy.

Sexuality education is more than teaching people about anatomy and the physiology of reproduction. It includes an understanding of sexuality in the broadest context--sexual development, reproductive health, interpersonal relationships, affection and intimacy, body image, and sex and gender roles.

Parents are the primary sexuality educators of their children. Infants and toddlers receive this education when parents talk to them, dress them, show affection, play with them, and teach them the names of the parts of their bodies. As children grow, they continue to receive messages about appropriate behaviors and values as they develop relationships within their family and the social environment.

Children learn about sexuality through their observations and relationships with parents, friends, teachers, and neighbors; television, music, books, advertisements, and toys teach them about sexual issues.

PROCESS

It is important, however, that the process of sexual learning within the family be supplemented by planned learning opportunities in churches and synagogues, community and youth agencies, and schools.

Vice Ganda may not be the only person who needs sexual values. As with most human values, sexual values have passed through periods of crests (times of liberalization) and troughs (times of conservatism or extreme reaction). According to experts David L. Bender and Bruno Leone, sexual values underwent significant change throughout most of the Western world in the sixties and seventies.

“Rigid sexual standards of the 1950s were replaced by what many viewed as unbridled permissiveness. As recently as forty years ago, certain values were given: sex should be confined to marriage, prostitution was unquestionably a crime, pornography is a moral blight and homosexuality, a depravity,” they wrote. “However, studies revealed that during the sixties and seventies many people were defecting from these traditional values.”/MP