In this video I'm going to answer a question
that's as old as the universe.
No, it's not.
A question that comes up on YouTube quite often is this one:
"How does a blind person know their sexual preference?"
Right? Because of, you know, you can't see,
so you can't see how pretty somebody is or what somebody looks like
or any of that kind of thing.
So how do you know? How the heck do you know?
Answering this question,
I can only give you my own personal experience.
I can't speak for anybody else on this one.
I'll just tell you how I knew what my preference was.
And is.
[Ben laughs]
[Tommy laughs]
So, growing up, the things that I learned
were all based on my surroundings.
So my parents were straight, all their friends were straight,
all the characters I saw in television and movies were all straight too,
and that sort of helped to steer me in a particular direction,
the direction that I went.
This may not work for other people, but
for me it was just the thing that felt right to me.
It was the thing that made sense.
And so that's the path I chose.
As I got to be a teenager and started talking to girls,
you know, then the experience got to be a little different. Right?
Hormones are starting to fly around and things and
starting to get those butterflies and starting to feel this sort of twinge of
"boy, I like her. She's cool." You know?
And that's one of those experiences that I never got from my guy friends.
So in school, for example, I can't look across the room and go,
"Ooh, I like her. I gotta go talk to her."
Or, you know, "She's pretty," or this kind of thing.
No. For me it's all about conversation.
Right? And if I talk to somebody and we start to click
and we, you know, feel the same way about certain things,
or, you know, somebody's just got a cool energy to them,
or somebody's extremely funny,
you know, that's how I get to see whether or not I like somebody.
And then I have to take the chance and say, you know,
"Would you like to come to the Eighth Grade dance with me?"
And then we can stand against the wall and never dance together
ANNOUNCER: We interrupt this YouTube video for this special announcement.
TOMMY: Hey, I just wanted to let you know we've got some brand-new merch available
for the next seven days only.
And this is our Blind Caution sign series.
Now, when I was in high school there was a big, giant sign
out the front of my door that said "Blind Child Area".
I always thought the white stick would've been enough. But OK.
So we came up with our own "Blind Caution" signs for you as well,
we put it on some T-shirts, hoodies and stickers.
There's Blind Drunk -
this one, you know, in case a stagger isn't enough for people.
You can just read the front of your shirt and know that you're blind drunk.
There's Blind Driver.
People are always yelling at motorists on the roads and stuff. "Hey, look at my shirt!"
Or my personal favorite, Blind Not Buzzed,
because this has happened to me many, many times.
I'll sit down in a bar and somebody will say,
"I think you've had too much already, sir." "No, no. Look, I'm blind, not buzzed."
So if any of those interest you or you'd like to get the classic stuff -
you know, the Blind Film Critic or The Tommy Edison Experience stuff -
the link is right there in the description for the video.
And remember, it's only available for the next seven days.
ANNOUNCER: We now return to this YouTube video already in progress.
TOMMY: You know, one of the things I really enjoy is like the smell and the sounds
of a woman.
Like, all the fragrance, right? The perfume and stuff.
It's just lovely. It's so nice.
And, of course, some are better than others.
Some people wear a little bit more than they should.
But, you know, it's all part of the experience.
The sounds of a woman -
like the sound a woman's shoes make on the floor sometimes,
you know, like on a cement floor, you know, in an office building.
Oh, it's a great sound. I just love it.
Plus girls and women just have different stuff
than guys do.
And that was attractive too.
And these are some of the things that helped me figure out
what my preference was.
That's just what I was drawn to.
I just liked girls and women.
You know, I loved what they had to say.
I liked listening to them talk.
I liked hearing their stories.
It's no more complicated than that.
So that's really about it.
You know, that's my story and that is how I knew.
Now, I'm sure that there are other things that I'm totally not aware of
and things that are going through other people's heads
that I don't know, but
it's such a difficult question to answer. It really is.
But I will say this:
I don't think sight plays into it. I really don't.
Without sight I was able to determine what I liked, who I liked,
and, honestly, I don't believe sight played into this.
I really don't, you know
I simply liked who I liked.
Well, thank you so much for watching the video. I hope you enjoyed it.
I'd also love for you to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
That's just another way to find out every time we put up
a brand-new video for you.
BEN: Cos YouTube certainly wasn't.
TOMMY: YouTube ain't doin' it. They dropped the ball!
In fact, they dropped both balls.