Abstract
Since its evolution, heteronormative Western culture has been greatly concerned with defining femininity and masculinity. This concern is so strong that the practice of sodomy has been used to aid in this quest for binary clarity. However, using sodomy as a road marker for perceived sexuality does not account for the wide range of human sexual experience, and the negative social justice implications incurred with using sodomy to denote femininity and masculinity are too great to ignore. Sexual practice is too unambiguous, too creative, and too subjective to be thought of or discussed in these reductive terms. The categories of hetero- and homo- sexuality and the dichotomy between femininity and masculinity are false cultural constructs that negate themselves even as they are enforced. Through sodomy, it becomes clear how seemingly heteronormative practices inadvertently dismantle the rationalizations they have built around disregarding and denigrating apparent homosexuality.
Subject
Religions; Religions -- Philosophy; Religions -- History
Journal
Relics, Remnants, and Religion: an Undergraduate Journal in Religious Studies
Publication Date
12-12-2016
Language
English
Publication Place
Tacoma, Washington
Publisher
The University of Puget Sound
Type
article
Recommended Citation
Santor, Emily Beth
(2016)
"Sodomy: Defining Femininity and Masculinity,"
Relics, Remnants, and Religion: An Undergraduate Journal in Religious Studies: Vol. 2:
Iss.
1, Article 9.
Available at:
https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/relics/vol2/iss1/9