The subtext to a lot of homophobic thinking is the idea that gays will try to get straight people into bed at the first opportunity, or that gays are looking to “convert” straights. Freud called this concept schwanzangst; the U.S. Army calls it Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
This great little blog post is packed with facts based on the habits and statements of almost 4 million gay and straight users of the dating site, OKCupid. Highlights include:
– Contrary to popular opinion, gay’s aren’t sexually interested in straights.
– Gays are no more promiscuous than their straight counterparts.
– About 25% of straight people indicated they either had or wanted to have a sexual experience with someone of the same gender. (Note: apparently, the straight ladies are a lot more flexosexual than the straight guys.)
– If you’re looking for someone who’s interested in gay sex, Alabama ain’t the place to be. (This is, perhaps, not the *only* reason Alabama ain’t the place to be … but it’s certainly right up there.) If you live in Washington state, Oregon, or Canada in general, though, you’re in luck, at least as far as gettin’ lucky with a same sex partner is concerned.
Thanks to Daring Fireball for sharing the link!
Hey Mark,
I never heard of this "Schwanzangst" stuff before, but on the other hand I'm not an expert on the writings of Freud, so maybe I missed something. But I've read some of his stuff, and various secondary sources, and it didn't sound like him. I suspected something was amiss.
I recognize the roots, of course. "Schwanz" literally means "tail," and is a rather common slang term for penis. "Angst," which has been adopted into English loan word, means something like anxiety or fear or something like that. So the compound would mean dick-fear or anxiety about penises or something.
So I did a Google search on schwanzangst, and the first several pages of the reported hits had exactly the same OK Cupid quote that you cited here: "Freud called this concept schwanzangst; the U.S. Army calls it Don't Ask Don't Tell." I tried various searches, and no matter what I got the same quote, over and over again. Was ist los?
I tried schwanzangst freud, and I searched German pages only. Surely, Herr Doktor's works are now in public domain and somebody must have put them up on the internet. If he had ever used this expression, certainly it would show up in a web search. This time I got nine hits (what Google calls "about 6"), none of them from the writings of the esteemed founder of psychoanalysis himself.
All but two of these German pages are quotes in English from the OK Cupid site. One of these two seems to be a response to the OK Cupid post: "Freuds Konzept der Schwanzangst ist mir aber neu… Schmutziger Wicht!" which I would translate as "Freud's concept of Schwanzangst is new to me. Dirty joke!" The other is unrelated, but definitely not from Freud's writings.
Hey Mark,
I never heard of this "Schwanzangst" stuff before, but on the other hand I'm not an expert on the writings of Freud, so maybe I missed something. But I've read some of his stuff, and various secondary sources, and it didn't sound like him. I suspected something was amiss.
I recognize the roots, of course. "Schwanz" literally means "tail," and is a rather common slang term for penis. "Angst," which has been adopted into English loan word, means something like anxiety or fear or something like that. So the compound would mean dick-fear or anxiety about penises or something.
So I did a Google search on schwanzangst, and the first several pages of the reported hits had exactly the same OK Cupid quote that you cited here: "Freud called this concept schwanzangst; the U.S. Army calls it Don't Ask Don't Tell." I tried various searches, and no matter what I got the same quote, over and over again. Was ist los?
I tried schwanzangst freud, and I searched German pages only. Surely, Herr Doktor's works are now in public domain and somebody must have put them up on the internet. If he had ever used this expression, certainly it would show up in a web search. This time I got nine hits (what Google calls "about 6"), none of them from the writings of the esteemed founder of psychoanalysis himself.
All but two of these German pages are quotes in English from the OK Cupid site. One of these two seems to be a response to the OK Cupid post: "Freuds Konzept der Schwanzangst ist mir aber neu… Schmutziger Wicht!" which I would translate as "Freud's concept of Schwanzangst is new to me. Dirty joke!" The other is unrelated, but definitely not from Freud's writings.
Steve,
I'd say you caught the writer red-handed! I downloaded a file containing the complete works of Freud. He never uses the term "schwanzangst" — not even once.
It's pretty clear this is a joke — and one many people have fallen for. Kudos on being one of the first (and maybe even *the* first) to catch it.