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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   25659 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 11, 2025

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No, I have not.

I am unwilling to go into particularly great detail, even with strangers on the internet, as it is a rather... personal subject. I suppose I brought it up though.

I had the guidance of a priest overseeing it, who doubled as a spiritual director. I remember a lot of talk therapy focused on inculcating a more normative masculinity(which included attraction to women, but also the general idea of it- I learned to like sports as well). I had a therapy workbook by someone Dutch... Van Ardweg I think? There wasn't a lot of specific focus on sex and sexuality- I was discouraged from thinking about it too much- but the idea of sexual activity with another male went from appealing to buzzkill. I did have to catalogue my attraction to women and was supposed to do it by recording- something to do with a normal, male voice. There were other exercises aimed at perceiving myself as male, too. The key theory was something about disruptive relationships to masculinity and the need to establish heteronormativity; I don't think it would even have been without the intertwined ideas about gender roles and all that.

If you have more specific questions you're welcome to ask but I might not answer.

Were you attracted to women before on any level?

I don’t see how conversion therapy can work unless you start off at least a little bit bi. There’s something just neurological different about gay vs straight brains and you can’t change that through therapy anymore than you can fix epilepsy. I also find the flip side - e.g. straight men watching gay porn and “turning gay” because straight porn became too boring - to be similarly questionable.

How did you get started? I mean, the grandparent comment sounded like he wouldn't mind availing himself of this, if it is the One Weird Trick. How would he be able to access the therapy that you were able to receive?

Convert to Catholicism and take an uber-conservative priest as a spiritual director?

I’ve heard that courage international is similar to what I had but in a group setting.

Huh, I always heard that Courage was just nofap for Catholics who were Gay.

That’s certainly possible; I went through individually with an FSSP priest who recommended it but I didn’t try it.

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