Homosexuality, a HistoryOne could pedantically object that the title is a misnomer; that this is not a history of homosexuality (which after all has existed pretty immutably through the ages) but of attitudes towards it (hence chapters like "Homosexuality and Religion," "Homosexuality and the Law"). It's pretty standard stuff : little here that one hadn't heard before - the whole pathetic tale of the homophobic modern world denouncing the "criminals," the "perverts" or (more insidious) the "psychologically ill." One chapter and a few comments notwithstanding, the book is primarily about male homosexuality, not lesbians - chiefly, as the author explains, because this is where the documentation is concentrated; massive male egotism never fully recognizing the possibility of a sexual act without a man. Some interesting points : I had no idea there were so many denunciations in the Bible, most of them, as Bullough points out, traceable to periods when the Jews/Christians were struggling to avoid cultural takeover by the Greeks! The massive speed with which attitudes have changed was borne home rather forcibly for me by the last few chapters : I had no idea that the Gay Liberation movement dated not only from within my lifetime, but from within my conscious, knowing years - I was nearly in my teens (1970) when the first Christopher Street parade was organized in New York, and it was 1974 before the psychiatrists dropped homosexuality from their list of mental sicknesses. A certain amount of the text is straightforward preaching (one is alerted by the word "should") but, thank God, not too much |
Contents
RELIGION AND HOMOSEXUALITY | 17 |
THE LAW AND HOMOSEXUALITY | 31 |
REPRESSED EVIDENCE | 46 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Homosexuality: A History (From Ancient Greece to Gay Liberation) Vern L. Bullough Limited preview - 2019 |
Homosexuality: A History (From Ancient Greece to Gay Liberation) Vern L. Bullough Limited preview - 2019 |
Common terms and phrases
accused adult American attitudes became become Bonnie Bullough boys buggery century Christian Church closet Communist court crime Criminal cross-dressing Daughters of Bilitis E. M. Forster Ellis English example exist fact fear female homosexuals Freud Gay Liberation German girls Greek Henry heterosexual homo homoerotic homosexual activity homosexual teachers homosexuality hostility Human Ibid individuals intercourse John John Addington Symonds Kinsey lesbian literature living London lover Magnus Hirschfeld male homosexuality marriage married Martin masculine Maugham movement nature Nazi opposite sex organizations Oscar Wilde parents pederasty percent person perversion Plato poems police Press probably prostitution published punished references regarded reported Roehm role sexual activity sexual behavior sexual preference social society sodomy stigmatized Stonewall riots Symonds term tion tolerant trans transsexual transvestism transvestite Vern Vern Bullough vols W. R. M. Lamb Whitman William Heinemann woman women writers wrote York