by calling someone gay your actually making them gay

Edit - Just re-read what I said. All I can say is it was an idiotic thing to suggest. I'm gay because I was born that way, not because someone told me I am. The end.

Hm. I'm not really sure I believe that. Do you have any sources you could link us to?

Well besides the psychology major no. But I will go research that immediately.

Cool

sorry, but to me that sounds rediculas, i have been called gay millions of times since i was a child and it hasnt affected me

Wouldn;'t that largely depend on the person perception of how the remark was meant?

If you beleive that they are in fact calling you a homosexual then maybe you are more likely to question your own sexuality, but if you believe they mean it in the other sense, then surely thats the emotional response you would have to it.

its well researched that if you are tolded something enough you will start to believe it, but surely what it makes you feel has to be what you percieved the comment to mean.

some people react differently, I'd say your the kind of people that don't take things to the heart. but in crazyfreak's case I'd say you shouldn't believe what other people say about you, as long as you like the way you are you should be proud.

I don't believe that. If someone calls me black does that mean in the future I'm going to be black? No. It's the same with being gay having someone call you something doesn't make you be that way. You either are or you aren't.

I total agree with you.

I think if anything it would just make a person consider their sexuality more closely. I don't think it's going to *make* them gay. It sometimes takes time for people to realize and become comfortable with it.

As nathan_girl said, some people are more easily affected by what they're told than others. If you're easily hurt, that means a part of you actually believes what people are saying. The same thing goes for being called gay. We're all wonderfully different that way.

It sounds as if this mother is grossly mis-generalizing research that has been done on the pygmalion/golem effect, which has absolutely nothing to do with students being told that they are gay. Researchers told teachers at the beginning of a school year that certain students were smarter than others. The teachers acted differently towards the allegedly smarter students. In turn, the students who were not dubbed so smart actually scored lower on IQ tests and performed worse in school during later tests at the end of the year . . . self-fulfilling prophecy type of thing. Teacher thinks I'm stupid, so I must be stupid. Of course, these students were randomly assigned to the smart vs. not so gifted conditions so the whole thing about some students being smarter was a bunch of hogwash. The investigators were more concerned with how they reacted to their teachers' attitudes & behavior towards them. There are a number of other such studies . . . but I have yet to see one of these that generalizes to calling people gay turns them gay.

C-could you guys start calling me gay? Life would get so much easier for me if I started swinging the other way. I think. Give it a shot and see what happens!

for a person like you I don't think it's going to work.

Like me? I'm the most gullible person I know! At least that's what I keep telling myself.