Deaf prof etc.

Today I was talking for an hour and a half with a prof who I had met at a panel yesterday, and when like half the way through it came up that she was deaf except for a hearing implant, I was surprised. It's only thinking back now that I realized that she maneuvered us to a bench away from a lot of noise and would turn her face away from me (i.e. her ear towards me) when I was speaking. It was completely natural to me, I never even realized she controlled things so I didn't recognize her disability at all until she told me about it.

Yesterday I also found out about the sexual escapades of Kuwaiti adolescent males. Because sexes are more rigidly separated here than there, a guy's first sexual experience is usually jerking off with another guy, and it's not talked about socially but it's known to happen among all male friends of a certain age and is just kind of assumed to be a normal teenage indiscretion. In terms of ass-sex, bottoming isn't seen as pleasurable, so what happens is that if guys get that far as teenagers they have a one-for-one "you nail me then I nail you" deal except for if one of the guys is from a tribe with a lot more status, in which case he gets to nail the other guy twice for the other guy's once nailing him.

Also, since being hairy is associated with masculinity and topness, the rare hairless Arab guy always ends up getting targetted in high school for being a bottom by everyone who knows him, which just up being socially awkward since his being hit on is so pervasive and he's not even necessarily gay or liking to take it.