WHAT IS MALE HOMOSEXUALITY?

Abstract

The custom of usage introduced during the last third of the 19th that distinguished between heterosexuality and homosexuality solidified a confusion between erotism and sexuality that had been developing for several centuries in the West in Europe and the Anglophone cultures.  It also led to a misinterpretation of intimate behavior between males.  The psychoanalytic interpretation of male oedipal development was guided by this confusion. A revision of elements of that interpretation is offered here.  Phenomenoloigcal analysis reveals the discourse about male “homosexuality” to be about erotism, not sexuality. Male homoerotism is shown to be a form of ludic experience that made possible and is supportive of life in community as such and in the family.

Keywords: male homosexuality, homoerotism, male studies, men’s studies, father-son relationship, male identification, gender studies, psychoanalysis, phenomenological method, Oedipus complex, Jocastian complex