Week 7 Blog Post

One thing I found interesting in the Murray & Roscoe reading was the idea that homosexuality existed in the areas discussed only as a physical thing and not an emotional preference. The way it was described in the reading, homosexuality was more about men having sex with boys than men falling in love with men or women falling in love with women. Homosexuality was not something men defined themselves by. One of the quotes included in this reading says that being gay is a Western phenomenon. This kind of reminded me of that time when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that there were no gay people in Iran.

Another thing I found interesting is how manhood and sexuality were connected. Obviously these two things have had a link in the mind of society for as long as the two concepts existed, but the way they intertwined was revealed in a new light by the readings. The practice of a boy becoming a man when his position in the practice of sodomy changes. When the boy stops taking the submissive position and adopts the dominant position, he becomes a man. The boy becomes a man when he forsakes the feminine position and takes up the masculine one. I think this is a strange but interesting depiction of how the link between sexuality, gender and manhood play out.