An Early AM Question

[deelaundry]

Do you think the male nurse House spoke to in episode 6-8 (the Thanksgiving ep) was gay? Why or why not?

I know some people on my f-list thought the male nurse House spoke to in episode 6-8 (the Thanksgiving ep) was gay. If you thought this, what specifically made you think it?

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ETA: I have turned off comment tracking for this post. If you have anything to say to me, you can send me a PM or direct email. If anyone says anything offensive to you in this post, you can let me know directly.

Comments

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

Given Dee's journal title of "two men because hot" and her notable history of writing notable slash (Hi, Dee!), I'm not sure if you can say that she's innocent, necessarily, given that she might have the motivation of writing fic about him. I'm not saying it's a bad motivation, mind you, but that there might be an interest that reaches beyond mere inquiry.

Zulu also wasn't calling her intolerant, from what I've read. I think she just wanted more information about what the question was intended to discover and what came behind it, and it's true that if Dee was seeking evidence based on language use, she could have clarified and re-framed the question to indicate that, especially given the other markers of queerness that might have been present. It's good that as a queer woman, you saw the question as mere curiosity. It's also good that Zulu, as a queer woman and a scholar of gender identity, linguistics, and sexual politics, wanted to read deeper. Surely there's room for all of us here. I'm not quite sure why you're vexed about this.

As for myself, I haven't seen the episode, but Dee, I find your line of linguistic inquiry interesting!

[onewayfreak.livejournal.com]

She didn't ask what Dee's intentions were, though. She asked why queerness has to be interrogated, which sounds a lot more like she's accusing Dee of interrogating queerness (which has a negative connotation). If she wanted to know the intentions of the question, that could have been asked outright instead of beating around the bush. It all comes back to semantics in the end, I guess.

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

I thought Zulu's question was very neutrally worded. It's true that Dee's question is framed in a rather binary way which makes it difficult to read intention.

[onewayfreak.livejournal.com]

Your opinion of Dee's question is a subjective thing. It's no more a fact that Dee's post was problematic than it is a fact that Zulu's question was problematic. You found Dee's question difficult to interpret and I felt the same way for Zulu's. Why does someone have to be wrong (why does one opinion get to be called fact while the other is just an opinion)?

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

I never said that you were wrong or that either of them were right or factual. I wondered why you seemed to take offense at Zulu turning the question around, when that's a technique often used in discussion to open up new avenues of inquiry. As a scholar, I also found Dee's phrasing interesting and wanted to know more about why she chose those words and what she wanted to discover. It's a fact that Dee's question was binary, allowing for a yes or no answer, and that her follow-up question did not reveal what sort of information she was interested in obtaining (which is obviously also valid - the respondent doesn't need total knowledge to respond, and that can make responses more interesting).

I found neither question difficult to interpret; I found intention ambiguous. I was pleased to read people's responses with their justification, and I was pleased to see that Dee's curiosity was well-informed by current linguistics project and interested to know the results.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Hi, Bone! ♥ I figured out a way to re-phrase my question while keeping it accurate to my intentions; I hope it doesn't sounds negative.

♥ ♥ ♥