Homosexuality in Art

Also discouraged was the courtship or sexual activity between two boys or men of the same age or social rank.

Ephorus of Kyme (c.405–330 BC) telling the story of an ancient ritual that took place on Dorian Crete in the seventh century BC in which older men initiated younger men into manly pursuits like hunting, feasting, and presumably, sexual relationships as well. (Lambert in Haggerty, 80)

It was during the 1990s that “queer” was appropriated by some gay men who wanted to set themselves apart from a gay culture that they believed had sold out to the status quo and had become accomodationists.

What was frowned upon in such intergenerational sexual relationships was passivity and eager compliance in anal copulation.

Any attempt to fit male representations in ancient art or texts with the status or practices of modern-day homosexuals would be anachronistic.

Male homosociality refers to all-male groups or environments and is a means by which men construct their identities and consolidate their privilege and social power as males usually through and at the expense of women

The homoerotic, unlike the homosexual, legitimates erotic desire between members of the same sex by placing that sentiment in a context which rationalizes it—such as classicism, military battle, athletic activities, etc).

The former was coined and first put into use by the German–Hungarian writer and translator Karl Maria Kertbeny (1824–1882).

It was only with the death of actor Rock Hudson from AIDS in 1985 that the public rhetoric over AIDS changed, designating it as the “number-one health priority.”

For Duchamp, the “readymade” was “a work of art without an artist to make it.”