Human male sexuality

The shield and spear of the Roman god Mars represents the male sex.

Human male sexuality covers physiological, psychological, social, cultural, and political aspects of the human male sexual response and related phenomenon. It encompasses a broad range of issues, including male sexual desires and behaviors which as a part of human sexuality, have also been addressed by principles of ethics, morality, and religion.

Human male sexual response

Main article: Human sexual response cycle

Anthropology, sociology, psychology

Sexual orientation

Main article: Biology and sexual orientation

Male homosexuality

The Western "homosexual" category has been related to the non-Western "third gender" category. It has been cast as a redefinition and expansion of the third gender category to include all biological males who acknowledge having same-sex attractions (instead of only effeminate males). This extension of the third gender is due to various factors that were unique to the Western world, including widespread influence of Christianity and, as a result, encouragement of opposite-sex relationships. Before the concept of sexual orientation was developed in the modern West, only the effeminate males who sought receptive sex from men were seen as a different gender category.^[1] The Western equivalents to the third genders, and not men with same-sex attractions, are the ones who started and propagated the Western concept of homosexuality.^{[2][3] [4][5]}

While many non-Western societies show hostility towards the concept of homosexuality, they do accept both men who have sex with men and third genders who have sex with men within the indigenous cultural parameters, just not as "homosexuals."

Thus, there is a strong link between what the West calls "sexual orientation" and the non-West calls "gender orientation," what the West calls "homosexual" and the non-West calls "third gender," and what the West calls "straight" and the non-West calls "masculine men."

In the West, a man cannot acknowledge or display sexual attraction for another man without the homosexual or bisexual label being attached to him.^[6]

The same pattern of shunning the homosexual identity, while still having sex with men, is quite prevalent in the non-West.^[7][8]

Origins of the homosexual-heterosexual divide

In the 1860s, German third gender Karl Heinrich Ulrichs coined a new terminology for third genders that he called "urnings," which was supposed to mean "men who like men." These urnings were the "females inside male bodies" who were emotionally or sexually attracted to men. Ulrichs thought, as did most members of the third sex who popularized the term "homosexual" for themselves, that masculine men can never have sexual desires for other men, and a male necessarily had to be feminine gendered or had to have a female inside him to be attracted to men. This was as per his own experience as well as the fact that men had sex with men only secretively due to some religious persecutions of the act during that time.

Ulrichs also defined the men (as opposed to third genders) as "diones," meaning "men who like women."

Later, Austrian third gender and human rights activist Karl Maria Kertbeny coined the terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual." For most of this period, these terms were popular only amongst the third gender and scientific communities, the latter of which was developing the concept of homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Thus, the idea of "men who like men" being different from "men who like women", as well as the idea of differentiating male sexuality between "heterosexuality" and "homosexuality," was born. The underlying factor for division, however, remained gender orientation (masculinity and femininity). Mainstream men, who were now decidedly "heterosexual," however, rarely related with these terms, as they saw themselves as neither heterosexual or homosexual for a long time. Even to this day, "straight" men in the West, quite like men in the East,^[9] seldom relate strongly with sexual identities.^[10] These identities, however, remain a strong focus within the LGBT community.

See also

• Masculinity
• Human female sexuality
• Romantic friendship
• Sexuality in ancient Rome

References

1. ^ Zuni Berdache Quotes:History of hermaphrodites
2. ^ A false birth, A critique of social constructionism and post modern queer theory, by Rictor Norton
3. ^ Sex and the Gender Revolution, Volume 1 Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London Quotes: The University of Chicago Press, by Randolph Trumbach
4. ^ Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell R. Pomeroy and Clyde E. Martin Quote: "Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. Not all things are black nor all things white.
5. ^ A false birth Quote: "... It is argued that ‘Whitman himself stubbornly resisted the notion of a distinctive homosexual sensibility’ (D’Emilio 1993)"
6. ^ 'I want to do what I want to do': young adults resisting sexual identities Fiona J. Stewart, Anton Mischewski, Anthony M. A. Smith; Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Quote: "I don't think I was actually afraid of being gay, what I was afraid of was having a gay identity imposed upon me without my control over it..."
7. ^ Prevalence of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior and Associated Characteristics among Low-Income Urban Males in Peru, PLoS ONE,"Researchers studying same-sex sexual contact and related risk behaviors among Latino men have described a construction of sexuality that links penetration with masculinity and receptive intercourse with femininity, through which male same-sex sexual contact does not necessarily presume a homosexual identity."
8. ^ Straight Men Who Have Sex With Men by Tristan Taormino, the Village Voice
9. ^ Sexuality and Society Fox News Struggles with Sexual Identities of Afghan Men by Shari L. Dworkin; Sexuality and Society; Quote from the report: “found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually — yet they completely reject the label of “homosexual.”
10. ^ of sexual identity formation in heterosexual students, SpringerLink; by Michele J. Eliason1, College of Nursing, The University of Iowa, 372 NB, 52242 Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Quote from the abstract: Students could be categorized into all four of Marcia's identity statuses. Additionally, six common themes were noted in their essays: had never thought about sexual identity; society made me heterosexual; gender determines sexual identity; issues of choice versus innateness of sexuality; no alternative to heterosexuality; and the influence of religion.

External links

• Understanding Male Sexuality
• Transnational Transgender: Reading Sexual Diversity in Cross-Cultural Contexts Through Film and Video
• Masculinity for boys, published by UNESCO