Two friends, a straight man and a bisexual one, sit along an esplanade, watching people go by and drinking a couple of beers, They are there for a while, and are just about ready to move on to something else when the most beautiful woman that either has seen walks by. Neither man is a boor, and both try to avoid ogling her, but nevertheless their eyes are drawn to her, where they linger longer than either would ordinarily consider polite. After she is out of eyesight and earshot, the bisexual man lets out a low whistle and says to his friend, "Wow, what a woman! I feel bad for you, not being able to appreciate her beauty as well as I can!"
Confused but unbothered, his friend laughs and replies, "I think you've got it backwards. If anything, I can appreciate her beauty even more than you can. Whyever would you think otherwise?"
"Well," says the first man, "Every woman, no matter how feminine, has some masculine traits - we all inherit genes from both our mother and our father. I'd imagine that as a straight man, you only appreciate those traits considered feminine, whereas I can admire the whole person. It's a shame, really: you find half as many people as I do attractive, and even of that half, you're able to appreciate their beauty less fully."
The straight man chuckles, "I'm not sure if we were looking at the same woman, if you saw any hint of masculinity in her, but let's put that aside for now. It's precisely because of my inability to appreciate masculinity that I'm better able to appreciate femininity. Can someone truly appreciate summer without winter? Peace without war? Success without adversity? You see beauty everywhere, and so it is less significant to you, less rare. For you, that woman may have been water on a hot day, but for me, she was an oasis in the desert."
The two men went on like this for a while, gamely arguing their cases, but soon each began to suspect that the other was right. At the end of the night, when they went home and laid in bed, each thought about the most beautiful woman they had ever seen, and wondered if they had somehow missed out on something.
Confused but unbothered, his friend laughs and replies, "I think you've got it backwards. If anything, I can appreciate her beauty even more than you can. Whyever would you think otherwise?"
"Well," says the first man, "Every woman, no matter how feminine, has some masculine traits - we all inherit genes from both our mother and our father. I'd imagine that as a straight man, you only appreciate those traits considered feminine, whereas I can admire the whole person. It's a shame, really: you find half as many people as I do attractive, and even of that half, you're able to appreciate their beauty less fully."
The straight man chuckles, "I'm not sure if we were looking at the same woman, if you saw any hint of masculinity in her, but let's put that aside for now. It's precisely because of my inability to appreciate masculinity that I'm better able to appreciate femininity. Can someone truly appreciate summer without winter? Peace without war? Success without adversity? You see beauty everywhere, and so it is less significant to you, less rare. For you, that woman may have been water on a hot day, but for me, she was an oasis in the desert."
The two men went on like this for a while, gamely arguing their cases, but soon each began to suspect that the other was right. At the end of the night, when they went home and laid in bed, each thought about the most beautiful woman they had ever seen, and wondered if they had somehow missed out on something.
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