Why do gays look alike
The “Boyfriend Twin” and Our Tendency to Date People Who Look Like Us
They have matching puffed-out chests, green plaid shirts, and endearing bedhead. Their facial hair was carved by the matching blade. When they kiss, they peek like they’re doing an especially salacious rendition of the Marx Brothers mirror routine. Forget the homonymous gay couples, with their quaint troubles of distributed first names and confused friends. Behold the boyfriend twin.
As the Tumblr that appeared recently asks, “What’s sexier than dating yourself?” Lover Twin’s ever-growing scroll of photos seems to have charmed and terrified its devoted audience in equal measure, scratching at unconscious fears about how we choose our mates. In one portrait after another, two men with similar expressions pose for the camera with complementary profiles that match all the way down to the chest hair. Straight couples who are confused for siblings have been ticklish fodder for lifestyle stories for years, but the boyfriend twins grab that a step further, suggesting that what we’re really searching for is our own intimate clone.
This anxiety, of course, longpredates the Tumblr, as its anonymous creator has acknowledge
Most of us hold marveled at the uncanny resemblance between a couple. While sometimes famous couples look alike (e.g., Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen, or Vincent Kartheiser and Alexis Bledel), many times the couples in question are friends, acquaintances, or random strangers. This phenomenon has gained so much attention that people now play “Siblings or Dating” games on various social media channels including Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube.
But why is it that people look after to date those who look love themselves? Some explanations are obvious, but others are lesser-known. Below are 9 reasons that couples can sometimes stare like siblings:
1. Ingroup biases. One of the most apparent reasons that couples look similar is ingroup biases, such as same-race preferences in dating. Same-race preferences in internet dating are motivated by a variety of factors, research has found, including social network approval, perceptions of similarity, and perceived physical attractiveness.
In the U.S., ingroup biases in dating website are found among many racial groups, including Whites, Shadowy , Latinxs, and Asians, but to alternative extents. In a study of heterosexual college students, all four groups gave same-race
By Justin Lehmiller
A growing amount of research suggests that sexual orientation has a genetic basis. In evidence, scientists recently identified two specific genes that arrive to differ between male lover and straight men [1].
If sexual orientation is indeed genetically determined, it would be tempting to believe that identical twins would always have the alike orientation, right? If they have the exact equal genes and our genes control our sexuality, this would seem like a pretty logical conclusion. As it turns out, however, it’s not accurate.
Identical twins sometimes have different orientations. For example, one may be straight while the other is gay. So why is that?
In cases like this, some might argue that perhaps both twins are actually lgbtq+, but one just hasn’t come out yet. In other words, maybe there isn’t a true discrepancy. This idea has been refuted scientifically, though.
In a study where scientists looked at the sexual arousal patterns of identical twins with different sexualities—specifically, where one was gay and the other was straight—they found that gay twins demonstrated more genital arousal in response to queer images, wh
For years, friendships between direct women and gay men have been a subject of pop culture fascination. Books, television shows and feature length films acquire all highlighted this singular relationship, noted for its closeness and depth.
But with society’s attitudes toward gays and lesbians changing, it’s become all the more important to build a holistic understanding of the relationships between gay and straight people.
As a researcher in social psychology, I’ve often wondered: why do straight female-gay male relationships work so well? Why are straight women so drawn to having homosexual men as friends? And when do these relationships typically form?
During the course of my research, I’ve discovered that the most interesting, compelling – and, arguably, most theoretically coherent – explanation is through the lens of evolution.
Specifically, I believe evolutionary psychology and human mating can serve explain why relationships between straight women and lgbtq+ men tend to flourish.
A safe bet
At first glance, this explanation may appear quite counterintuitive. (After all, straight women and male lover men don’t mate with one another.)
However, this is precisely the reasoning behin
Introducing the doppelbanger
From wayback when, starting with the Greek myth of Narcissus (who fell in love with his reflection, FYI) to more recent examples favor the pandemic era phenomenon @siblingsordating, it's always been the case that some people's true desire is someone who looks...eerily appreciate themselves, actually. And in the queer community, we've got a word for that: “dopplebanger”.
A fun participate on words, this expression is used by members of LGBTQIA+ circles to describe someone who tends to be attracted to people who look just like them. However, much like when Cady Heron co-opts Janis Ian’s introduction of Damien as “too gay to function”, in Mean Girls; the expression doppelbanger, and the lifestyle behind it, could easily be misinterpreted by people out with the people.
Most straight people might get the word perform, but they’re not in on the joke – and could misuse the term in a way which pathologises queer behaviour or reinforces tired tropes. After all, these kinds of dating preferences aren’t exclusive to LGBTQIA+ folk – it’s been psychologically proven that individuals of all orientations gravitate towards love interests who resemble themselves and that,