Dr. Sex opens with an ironically non-ironic twist:
J. Michael Bailey clicks on an audio recording of four men: Two are gay and two are straight. Can the audience guess which ones are gay just by listening to their voices? asks Mr. Bailey, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University.When the majority of those in the Stanford University lecture hall decide that a man with hissy s’s and precise articulation is gay, the professor pronounces them correct. The lesson: You can determine a man’s sexual orientation after simply listening to him talk for 20 seconds.
Bailey’s The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism presents plenty of “politically incorrect” material:
“People for emotional reasons were saying stuff that simply wasn’t true, like castration won’t work because rape and child molestation are crimes of violence, not crimes of sex,” says Mr. Bailey. “Although this may have been violent to the victims and wasn’t sexually enjoyable, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t for the rapist.”
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Mr. Bailey also believes AIDS-education campaigns are misguided. “Middle-class, straight kids at Northwestern who are having sex with other middle-class, straight kids at Northwestern have a close to zero chance of getting AIDS,” he says. “They are being over-worried about AIDS. If people feel there’s little difference between gay or straight and getting AIDS, gay men are going to underestimate the risk.”