'No one could expect me to be out dating. It can also serve to distract from their sexuality: As Andrew Tobias wrote in his 1976 memoir, 'The Best Little Boy in the World,' a key 'line of defense' was his endless list of activities. This theory holds that closeted young men in bigoted environments often respond by overachieving in certain areas, like sports or academics - the idea being that it's an adaptive means of finding a sense of self-worth where they can. 'On Saturday nights, I would sit in my cement-block dorm room with my face lit green by my IBM’s glow, agonizing not over women, or men, but line breaks.' That's because Yoshino was gay and in the closet - and, according to what's known as the 'Best Little Boy in the World' hypothesis, perhaps overcompensating for the stigma he faced as a sexual minority. In his memoir-cum-manifesto, Yale Law School professor Kenji Yoshino wrote of his college years, “I sensed these bodies knew other bodies the way I knew calculus or Shakespeare,” he said.
