Shirtless Auscultation & Homosexuality

Some of you might be like; what's the connection? Well I was born in the 70s & grew up in an era when auscultation was usually done on bare skin. So I was mostly auscultated by men; which I may have touched on here before. But this time I'd like to mention an interesting twist to that.

This was also an era in which society was more homophobic & homosexuality wasn't understood to be genetic like it is today.

So what's the connection? Apparently it was perfectly acceptable for me, a young boy at that time to be barechested while a man placed a cold object all over my chest & back & apparently there was no concern that that sort of thing would make me gay.

Some of you might be like; what's the connection? Well I was born in the 70s & grew up in an era when auscultation was usually done on bare skin. So I was mostly auscultated by men; which I may have touched on here before. But this time I'd like to mention an interesting twist to that.

This was also an era in which society was more homophobic & homosexuality wasn't understood to be genetic like it is today.

So what's the connection? Apparently it was perfectly acceptable for me, a young boy at that time to be barechested while a man placed a cold object all over my chest & back & apparently there was no concern that that sort of thing would make me gay.

Big deal. There is no connection between homosexuality and bare chested auscultation.

I don't see the point. It was and is completely acceptable to be auscultated bare skinned.

Big deal. There is no connection between homosexuality and bare chested auscultation.

I don't see the point. It was and is completely acceptable to be auscultated bare skinned.

You're not viewing this from the patient's perspective. He is partially clothed and being touched by another male. He is viewing this as a potential gateway to homosexuality. This is due to young people viewing all acts involving nudity as sexual. He is suggesting that this is contradictory to social attitudes regarding homosexuality at the time. He believes that a negative societal view of homosexuality and allowing male doctors to examine male patients are mutually exclusive and cannot occur simultaneously. The perspective of the doctor is inconsequential in this analogy.

It is still perfectly acceptable to be stethed bare chested, indeed that is the correct way to do it, regardless of the gender of the patient or the examiner. Stethoscopes always have and always will work better on bare skin. No one ever became gay because of a stethoscope exam of the chest. We had an old school GP in my home town who treated everybody from babies to the elderly, and he stethed everybody bare chested, male or female, He did the athletic physicals for the local junior high and high school. All of the cheerleaders and girls' sports teams had to have a turn once a year topless on the patient end of Dr. Charlie's ice cold stethoscope.

No one ever became gay because of a stethoscope exam of the chest.

You are correct. However, I believe that the OP was trying to argue that if parents of that era were so concerned about homosexuality, it should have behooved them to have male children examined exclusively by female practitioners. To do otherwise should have been counterintuitive. The standard practice seemed out of line with parental views from the perspective of a child of that era.

For a person Shane's age, most physicians were male when he was a child so the option really wasn't there for a female doctor.

You are correct. However, I believe that the OP was trying to argue that if parents of that era were so concerned about homosexuality, it should have behooved them to have male children examined exclusively by female practitioners. To do otherwise should have been counterintuitive. The standard practice seemed out of line with parental views from the perspective of a child of that era.

I have never been seen by a female doctor and to be honest it kind of freaks me out. I know I am a stone age neanderthal and that as I get older the odds of it happening will increase. I don't even like nurse practitioners too much and I am not saying anything bad about them. It's me not them.

Sensei1980 is correct in articulating my POV. I never said that I believe that the gender of the person performing auscultation on you in your formative years can influence one's sexual orientation. I believe it is genetic. I'm also not a homophobe. I was just making an observation about how ironic it was that it was tolerated to be partially undressed while a doctor of one's own gender was doing things with their body. I'm sure there are some gay people who grew up being auscultated shirtless by a doctor of their own gender; but I believe that their orientation is in spite of & not because of that.