Post by davym on Mar 26, 2022 8:47:58 GMT
Most common prejudice and bigotry against men who have sex with men is usually based on and refers to the penetration of men.
Many men enjoy the pleasures of their arseholes ( and prostates) being utilised sexually.
Are many other men ( hetero and homo identified ) literally scared of the prospect , maybe with a perception of their individual "manhood" and collective dominant patriarchal masculinity being penetrated and undermined in some way - metaphorically , ideologically or literally ?
"....it is precisely men’s fearful imagining of themselves as ‘object’ of another man’s desire, their horror of the supposed ‘passivity’ of being ‘penetrated’, that so threatens the resolute identifications of straight men"
Lynne Segal
Promoting dissident collectivities: celebrating Alan Sinfield
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950236X.2016.1209947
Could one contributory factor of male homophobia be .... the fear/anxiety of male penetrability ?
And in that context , could men who are only penetrated by other men experience homophobia differently from men who only penetrate ?
* ( see On Leaving the Prison of Tops & Bottoms , below )
Is it more "macho" for some men to penetrate a man than a woman ? - always the f*cker , never the f*cked.
"Penetration is not being presented as a specifically sexual or specifically anal , or even specifically homosexual act........ Instead , it is to be understood as what might be called an 'existential' penetration or psychosomatic vulnerability the penetration of which is experienced as a violation of the inviolate masculinity to which masculine subjectivity is (supposedly ) heir."
Jonathan Kemp: The Penetrated Male p.73
"The male subject is required to submit to – be penetrated by – a dominant discourse of masculinity, but once that identity is established, any further penetration is a threat to its stability, and must be disavowed.
The male body is thus heavily policed, and the penetrated male body becomes the problematic site of fear/desire, a dumping ground of all our fears about homosexuality/anality/feminization/psychosis. It also functions as a site of transgressive pleasure."
www.beigeuk.com/2014/04/jonathan-kemp-the-penetrated-male/
" Michel Foucault’s work on the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome has demonstrated how the male-male eroticism permitted was governed by a strict understanding that the penetrated partner was a non-citizen: that is, a slave, a woman, or a young boy.
The civic status and political power of the adult male citizen was contingent upon his body remaining impenetrable, for it was understood that “when one played the role of subordinate partner in the game of pleasure relations, one could not be truly dominant in the game of civic and political activity”: to be penetrated was to cease to be fully human."
www.polarimagazine.com/bulletin-board/penetrated-male/
"Many questions about gay self-labels and their relation to development, social behaviour, genes and neurological substrates remain to be answered—indeed, they remain to be asked."
Jesse Bering
blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/2009/09/16/top-scientists-get-to-the-bottom-of-gay-male-sex-role-preferences
* On Leaving the Prison of Tops & Bottoms : Yolo Akili
www.huffpost.com/entry/leaving-the-prison-of-top_b_5524271
Many men enjoy the pleasures of their arseholes ( and prostates) being utilised sexually.
Are many other men ( hetero and homo identified ) literally scared of the prospect , maybe with a perception of their individual "manhood" and collective dominant patriarchal masculinity being penetrated and undermined in some way - metaphorically , ideologically or literally ?
"....it is precisely men’s fearful imagining of themselves as ‘object’ of another man’s desire, their horror of the supposed ‘passivity’ of being ‘penetrated’, that so threatens the resolute identifications of straight men"
Lynne Segal
Promoting dissident collectivities: celebrating Alan Sinfield
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950236X.2016.1209947
Could one contributory factor of male homophobia be .... the fear/anxiety of male penetrability ?
And in that context , could men who are only penetrated by other men experience homophobia differently from men who only penetrate ?
* ( see On Leaving the Prison of Tops & Bottoms , below )
Is it more "macho" for some men to penetrate a man than a woman ? - always the f*cker , never the f*cked.
"Penetration is not being presented as a specifically sexual or specifically anal , or even specifically homosexual act........ Instead , it is to be understood as what might be called an 'existential' penetration or psychosomatic vulnerability the penetration of which is experienced as a violation of the inviolate masculinity to which masculine subjectivity is (supposedly ) heir."
Jonathan Kemp: The Penetrated Male p.73
"The male subject is required to submit to – be penetrated by – a dominant discourse of masculinity, but once that identity is established, any further penetration is a threat to its stability, and must be disavowed.
The male body is thus heavily policed, and the penetrated male body becomes the problematic site of fear/desire, a dumping ground of all our fears about homosexuality/anality/feminization/psychosis. It also functions as a site of transgressive pleasure."
www.beigeuk.com/2014/04/jonathan-kemp-the-penetrated-male/
" Michel Foucault’s work on the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome has demonstrated how the male-male eroticism permitted was governed by a strict understanding that the penetrated partner was a non-citizen: that is, a slave, a woman, or a young boy.
The civic status and political power of the adult male citizen was contingent upon his body remaining impenetrable, for it was understood that “when one played the role of subordinate partner in the game of pleasure relations, one could not be truly dominant in the game of civic and political activity”: to be penetrated was to cease to be fully human."
www.polarimagazine.com/bulletin-board/penetrated-male/
"Many questions about gay self-labels and their relation to development, social behaviour, genes and neurological substrates remain to be answered—indeed, they remain to be asked."
Jesse Bering
blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/2009/09/16/top-scientists-get-to-the-bottom-of-gay-male-sex-role-preferences
* On Leaving the Prison of Tops & Bottoms : Yolo Akili
www.huffpost.com/entry/leaving-the-prison-of-top_b_5524271
