[HN Gopher] The Invention of 'Heterosexuality' (2017)
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       The Invention of 'Heterosexuality' (2017)
        
       Author : hk__2
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2023-09-02 22:27 UTC (33 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | SenAnder wrote:
       | > Or put another way: there have always been sexual instincts
       | throughout the animal world (sex). But at a specific point in
       | time, humans attached meaning to these instincts (sexuality).
       | When humans talk about heterosexuality, we're talking about the
       | second thing.
       | 
       | I think when talking about the term itself, it's more accurate to
       | say that we _labeled_ the phenomenon of heterosexuality (either
       | in the alleged original form of  "morbid passion for the opposite
       | sex", or the modern meaning of simply attraction to the opposite
       | sex). This is the exact same process used to label sex,
       | instincts, animals, humans, and virtually every other term used
       | in the article.
       | 
       | There is a strange fascination with rediscovering that words are
       | labels with socially-agreed-upon meanings, that imperfectly
       | describe the underlying reality, but it which terms it gets
       | applied to is very selective, even tactical.
       | 
       | > "Prior to 1868, there were no heterosexuals," writes Blank.
       | Neither were there homosexuals. It hadn't yet occurred to humans
       | that they might be "differentiated from one another by the kinds
       | of love or sexual desire they experienced." Sexual behaviours, of
       | course, were identified and catalogued, and often times,
       | forbidden. But the emphasis was always on the act, not the agent.
       | 
       | Nor were there any thieves or farmers or lepers, only the acts of
       | stealing, farming, and being afflicted by leprosy...
       | 
       | > When most people today think of heterosexuality, they might
       | think of something like this: Billy understands from a very young
       | age he is erotically attracted to girls. One day he focuses that
       | erotic energy on Suzy, and he woos her. The pair fall in love,
       | and give physical sexual expression to their erotic desire. And
       | they live happily ever after. Without Krafft-Ebing's work, this
       | narrative might not have ever become thought of as "normal."
       | 
       | Before Krafft-Ebing's work, people thought there was a 50/50
       | chance Billy might go for a boy instead? They were just
       | completely blind to patterns in sexual attraction?
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-02 23:01 UTC)