This is a fascinating book on masculinity in India, presenting a view of male-male sexual relationships as an extension of male friendship - and an expression of masculinity. It sees traditional masculinity/male bonds as being under threat from an aggressive western construct of heterosexuality. The relevant sexuality stuff starts on page 95 (page 100 in the PDF) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001465/146514e.pdf I'm not sure I agree with this - especially the implicit assumption that a large proportion of men are (what we would understand as) bisexual - and in denial over their homosexual attractions. It also comes across as quite sexist and homophobic, when dismissing men with 'feminine' traits. Very interesting read though! What do you think?
I don't have time to read it, but I do agree that most men are probably in denial. Think about the romans! The military commanders actually encouraged homosexual relationships between soldiers because they (probably correctly) assumed that people who were having a sexual relationship would do more to save each other. And the Zulu warriors. It wasn't 'weird' in their culture, and it was actually extremely common because of that.
Well, that was fascinating. I found the text somewhat biased towards masculinity, but I think there are some very interesting points in it if you look past that. Every culture makes it's own assumptions about gender and sexuality, and there's often an assumption that the way things are in your own culture are the "natural" state of things. It's easy to forget that other cultures may view it very differently. For most of human history, we were hunter/gatherers. I think there could be a definite evolutionary advantage for a hunter/gatherer group if social cohesion is strengthened with strong bonds between individuals of the same gender, up to and including romatic love. It's also a natural method of birth control (important for a nomadic culture that lives off the land.) Even in western culture, many people seem to have much more emotional and lasting bonds with their same-gender BFF's than in their opposite-gender relationships (thus the plethora of relationship self-help literature), unless they are afraid to bond too closely with their buddies for fear of being labelled homosexual. If there truly are so few people who are attracted to the same gender, then why do so many people feel the need to use such strong shaming methods to stop people from having same-sex relationships?
