Homosexuality: Difference between revisions

* '''Ancient rome''': In Ancient Rome, gay sex was socially permissible among high status men who penetrated other men (the emperor Nero, for example, had a ''catamite'' which is a receptive homosexual slave, whom he had castrated),<ref>https://culturacolectiva.com/history/sporus-emperor-nero-eunuch-wife</ref> but receptive homosexuals were deemed outlaws (infamia).<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Rome</ref> The Christian religion seemingly broke with Roman precedent by utterly condemning both forms of homosexuality, though Paul's condemnation of the act has been argued to reflect contemporary Roman ideas of the passive role being particularly shameful, as it places the receptive homosexual in the role of a woman.<ref>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionprof/2010/04/homosexuality-as-divine-punishment-in-romans-1.html</ref>

* '''Chinese mass sodomy''': One striking historical example is the mass rape of Chinese male captives ordered by the Mongol Great Khan, Ogedei. Prior to the battle, the Chinese, thinking themselves secure with their superior numbers, boasted they would rape the Mongol's women after the battle. This was not an idle threat, as Mongol women often operated near the front lines in supportive roles. After the Mongol's victory, the Khan ordered that the thousands of Chinese captives should be sodomized to punish them for their impertinence. <ref>https://amgalant.com/mongols-rape-and-popular-culture/</ref>

* '''Prison rape''': This type of thinking persists in modern modern times, for instance, homosexual rape (or the threat of it) is commonly used to emasculate rivals in prison (in addition to satisfaction of sexual frustration).<ref>Hensley, Christopher; Tewksbury, Richard (2002). "Inmate-to-Inmate Prison Sexuality : A Review of Empirical Studies". Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 3 (3): 226–243. doi:10.1177/15248380020033005</ref> Many such rapists do not view the act of raping another man as homosexuality, but as a forceful demonstration of masculinity.<ref>https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=7093&context=jclc</ref> Authoritarian regimes have also made use of homosexual acts to torture and control dissidents, for example the inmates of prison camps in Pinochet era Chile were frequently sodomized by guards to break their will to resist.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_violations_in_Pinochet%27s_Chile#Sexual_abuse</ref> Rape of male prisoners is still common in modern conflicts, for instance in the Civil War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men</ref> and the Bosnian civil war that occurred after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.<ref>https://balkaninsight.com/2017/05/18/male-victims-of-war-related-sexual-abuse-shunned-in-bosnia-05-18-2017-1/</ref><ref>Ristroph, Alice. "Prison, Detention, and Correctional Institutions." Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. Ed. Fedwa Malti-Douglas. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 1196-1199. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 Oct. 2016.</ref> The Congolese men who were raped often reported being abandoned by their wives, who apparently coldly asserted that they were weak and therefore couldn't protect her. Many of the men who were raped in the former Yugoslavia claimed they were seen as outcasts in their own villages after the rapes.

* '''Middle East and honor-shame cultures''': There are reports of other middle-eastern cultures, such as war torn post-Gaddafi Libya, making common use of homosexual penetration or the penetration of subjugated men with objects as a means of diminishing the man's social status and will to resist his bondage.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/03/revealed-male-used-systematically-in-libya-as-instrument-of-war</ref> Colonel Gaddafi himself was sodomized with a bayonet before being executed.<ref>https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-10-24/gaddafi-sodomized-video-shows-abuse-frame-frame-graphic</ref> Another disgraced ruler that was dispatched in such a manner was King Edward II of England, a homosexual, who was claimed by some contemporary accounts to have been executed by having a heated poker shoved up his rectum, though this account has been hotly disputed.<ref>https://thehistoryvault.co.uk/the-mystery-of-edward-iis-death/</ref> Such acts also occurred during the First World War (the gang rape of Lawrence of Arabia by the Turks),<ref>https://spartacus-educational.com/IRQlawrence.htm</ref> and the Syrian Civil War.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/working-in-development/2017/nov/21/male-sexual-torture-in-the-syrian-war-it-is-everywhere</ref> Arguably, the tale of Lot and the Sodomites in the Bible contains allusions to such behavior.<ref>http://honorshame.com/inhospitality-as-sodomy/</ref>  

* '''More cross-cultural findings''': The active-passive contrast in homosexuality was also prevalent in medieval Scandinavia and contemporary Latin America.<ref>http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Active.pdf</ref> Pederasty, which is also an instance of homosexual power differentials, has flourished in many lower cultures, e.g. Indians of North America,<ref>https://www.britannica.com/topic/berdache</ref> but also in a number of high cultures, including ancient Greece, medieval Islam (especially among Sufis), Japan (among the Samurai nobility), and Korea.<ref>http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Pederasty.pdf</ref>

* '''Modern West''': Today, most homosexuals identify as versatile (around 40%), preferring both the dominant and submissive role at times, with a roughly equal split between top and bottom preferences,<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20120125003836/http://www.straightacting.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?p=222697</ref><ref name="ref41">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-017-0980-y</ref> which may be regarded as counter evidence for the relevance of dominant/submissive dichotomy for the evolution of male homosexual behavior as one would perhaps expect a greater divide. However, the entire modern homosexual identity may largely be a [[social constructionism|social construct]], attracting people to act out their sexual fantasies rather than adaptations in the context they evolved.