MstrVik
Posts: 122
Joined: 3/31/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Darcyandthedark And why confuse eunuchs with homosexuality? I also found the ideas of this author confusing at first (I happened upon his website many years ago, and just had a quick look at it right now) but when I took the time to browse through some of it, I discovered that he has done an interesting piece of research. He argues that from ancient times the term 'eunuch' was used for men that was not sexually attracted/involved with women, and that it covered both what we term eunuchs today as well what we now term homosexual males. He writes in his synopsis: 'The willingness to engage in homosexual activity (particularly intergenerationally) was widespread among men in the ancient Mediterranean region. Women and boys were considered equally tempting sex objects for those whom we would call heterosexual men. Therefore, homosexual activity could not have provided a means of distinguishing certain men as "gay" the way we do in the modern world. However, the ancients did differentiate based on an unwillingness or incapacity for heterosexual sex. Certain men were known to fundamentally lack arousal for sex with women, and men of this kind were distinguished from the majority of ordinary men on that basis. The innately and exclusively homosexual men of the ancient world inhabited the category of eunuchs. (...) Exclusively homosexual men, or eunuchs, to use the ancient term, were not considered "male," because maleness meant the aptitude to play the male role in procreative sex, which they lacked by definition. It had always been decent and respectable for an ordinary man, playing the insertive role, to have sex with an exclusively homosexual man (a non-male) as a passive partner, which is why so many Roman emperors had their eunuch lovers. Penetrating an exclusively homosexual man had not been considered a crime before -- the crime was penetration of a potentially heterosexual man, which was sometimes committed for the purpose of profoundly humiliating an adversary or helpless victim. Therefore, sodomy was a crime committed against "non-gay" men, and like its counterpart crime of adultery, it was committed by "non-gay" men.' http://www.well.com/~aquarius/#Home%202 Edited to say: I think the term 'third sex' is actually a bit misleading here, allthough I believe also Faris Malik applies it at times.
< Message edited by MstrVik -- 5/27/2008 1:45:07 PM >
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