Issues in Pederasty, Gender, Ethnicity

The main topic for these readings is the question of the relationship between pederasty (an older man's sexual desire for, and courtship of, a younger male) and societal values — how, in other words, pederasty might have figured as a social or individual good, problem areas associated with it, how that might or might not fit in with patterns of desire and behavior beyond classical Greece.

Associated with that are issues of masculinity and ethnicity, in other words, something approximating what Foucault refers to as a "sexual-social isomorphism" forming the centerpiece of what I have termed his "asymmetry hypothesis."

Journal Entries

I invite you to respond freely to these texts. You may if you wish respond to one of the study questions below.

Readings and Access Thereto (Bb PDFs, Perseus, Bingweb)

Via Bb PDFs

Halperin, David M. " 'Homosexuality': A Cultural Construct." One Hundred Years of Homosexuality And Other Essays on Greek Love. New York and London: Routledge, 1990. 41-53. Print.

Via "Perseus Under Philologic"

Pseudo-Demosthenes. Ἐρωτικός. The Erotic Essay. Spring 2008. Perseus Under Phililogic. 2 Feb. 2009 <http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=1&query=Dem.%2061>.

Via Bingweb Site

Scholtz, Andrew, trans. and ed. "Greek Views of Desire, Gender, Nature, Nurture, Ethnicity." Ancient Gender and Sexuality. 2 March 2006. 2 Feb. 2008 <https://bingdev.binghamton.edu/ascholtz/clas382a/desire_gender_nature_nurture_ethnicity.pdf>.

Background: Pederasty

Review the discussion of pederasty, the courtship of a junior-ranked male eromenos ("beloved") by a senior-ranked male erastes ("lover"), on the Foucault study guide page.

Range of Readings

We get a broad range, historically, geographically, and politically, with these readings.

Herodotus (ca. 495-ca. 430) of Halicarnassus (in what is now Turkey)

Hippocrates (469-399), from the Aegean island of Cos; physician and writer on medical topics. There are no works whose authorship we can confidently assign to him and him alone; it is better to speak more vaguely of Hippocratic authors or of a "Hippocratic corpus" of writings

Aristotle (384-322 BCE), physician and philosopher. We'll be reading from his ethical writings

Pseudo-Demosthenes' Erotic Essay, by an Athenian lover (erastes) praising his evidently not very shy beloved (eromenos), and advising him to study subjects suitable for a future political leader.

This is apparently not by the orator Demosthenes, though the piece is traditionally attributed to him — hence "Pseudo-Demosthenes." The piece itself can be understood as a sample of a type of rhetoric, a more or less fictitious exhortation exhibiting the skill of the writer at writing such things. (The technical term is epideixis, or "show piece.")

Our Times

The chapter by Halperin is meant to delineate two approaches to this matter of what sexuality is: the so-called constructionist and essentialist positions. (H. favors constructionist positions. But he seems to provide a fairly coherent account of both.)

Issues Dealt With

The modern reading reflects on essence/construction. The pseudo-Demosthenic Erotic Essay offers insight into pederasty as an approved practice with certain problem areas. (You may want to reread Foucault!) Readings on the PDF offer insight into the problematics of pleasure and gender.

  • The essentialism/constructionism dialectic (see above)
  • The conflation of gender, ethnic, sexual categories; compare Foucault (HS2) on "sexual-social isomorphism" (pp. 215-225), an analytic schema I've referred to as his "asymmetry hypothesis"
  • The exploration of positive connotations and problem areas with respect to pederasty and (as we learn from Foucault) the whole matter of classical Greek constructions of masculinity — that, of course, in relation to classical Greek ethics of pleasure

Shaping some of the attitudes on display in the assigned ancient readings are, arguably, certain social-psychological dynamics, namely, the need to fashion and uphold a validating group self-image, often at the expense of a derogated "Other."

That offers the possibility of a middle-of-the-road position between essentialism and constructionism, what I've termed "functional constructionism," the notion that, regardless of the scientific or sociological validity of sexual or similar categories, groups tend to analyze conduct viewed as definitive of group identity along dichotomized lines: good/bad, Us/Them, loyal/disloyal, etc.; also that the ideologies so constructed will themselves at times exhibit the strain of trying to represent “Other” as both different and inferior.

With all that in mind, I'd suggest jotting down, maybe into your journal entries, notations answering some/all of the following questions:

  1. Does the evidence appear to validate sex/gender/etc. categories as univerally and transhistorically valid ("essentialism")?

  2. Or does it support context-specific categories loaded with cultural meaning ("constructionism")?

  3. Or, does it suggest that, whatever the more broad-based validity of these categories, the ancient sources could themselves be characterized as constructionist/essentialist?

  4. What to make of the sexuality-gender-ethnicity-zoology conflations evidenced by certain readings? What does that suggest?

  5. What appears to be the place of pederasty in the social or political contexts you see illustrated in these readings? What is its ideology?

  6. What patterns do you see? Do they support or challenge Foucault or Halperin on pederasty?

  7. What appears to be treated as shameful or honorable in a lover's conduct?

  8. Ditto for a beloved. . . .

  9. What benefit to a lover, what potential liabilities, in pederasty?

  10. Ditto for a beloved. . . .

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