OBESITY schmer (1888-1964) believed that a From ancient Egyptian times person's temperamental reaction patterns onwards the appearance of being well reflected physiological type, with heavy- nourished, extending to what we would set persons behaving in one way and slen- call overweight, has been a sign of power der ones another. These theories too have and wealth. Through gargantuan feats at not found general acceptance. the table such kings as Louis VI of France On average gay men tend to be and Henry VIII of England turned them- more prejudiced against obesity in their selves into mountains of flesh. By contrast sexual partners than women, whether thinness tended to connote poverty or straight or lesbian. The sexual advertise- nhrasthenia. In the nineteenth century, ments of gay papers teem with the admo- as food supplies became more regular and nition: "no fats." Still, there are a few plentiful, poor people could become fat, individuals, known as chubby chasers, and in consequence the rich began to prize who admire what most reject, typically thinness. Standards of ideal weight are preferring partners who are over 300 therefore culturally conditioned. pounds. People of these two complemen- In our society women are bom- tary persuasions, the chubbies and their barded with advertising and exhortations chasers, join Girth and Mirth clubs. In to maintain their attractiveness by keep- Japan travelers find that "well padded" ing thin, and fashions are designed to suit older men are in considerably greater those who succeed. Predictably, some demand among homosexuals than in overdo it and become anorexic. While men Western countries, a difference that tends too are enjoined to keep trim, many fail to to confirm the culturally determined achieve the ideal. Gay men are more suc- character of the preference. cessful in this struggle than straight men, Wayne R. Dynes and the styles they favor tend to show off slender bodies. Yet even within the overall "thinist" aesthetic there are variations. In OBJECTIFICATION, the 1960s and early '70s an almost emaci- SEXUAL ated look prevailed, promoted by the This expression, which became counterculture and no doubt conditioned popular only in the 1970s, denotes an atti- by appetite-suppressing drugs. With the tude of treatingothers as merevehicles for increasing popularity of gymnasia, how- sensual or ego gratification--or simply as ever, gay men began to admire a more sexual partners-rather than as full hu- hefty look, though one characterized by man beings deserving of equality of re- muscle rather than fat. spect. An individual who is so treated is a At the turn of the century some sex object. These terms were spread by researchers believed that homosexual men, adherentsof the women's movement, who being in their view a third sex, tended to sometimes rcfer the phenomenon to a have broad hips. This assumption has not mental pattern which they term objectiv- been statistically confirmed. More gener- ism, the unwarranted assumption that ally the German psychiatrist Ernst Kret- male (or patriarchal) values are simply + OBJECTIFICATION,SEXUAL objective reality, rather than cultural has the advantage of showing that confu- constructs imposed upon it. sion has been caused by conflating the However this may be, the con- neutral sense (3)-from which it follows cept has been adopted by some sectors of that the very process of cognition continu- the gay movement as a tool for internal ally and inescapably enmeshes one in criticism. In bars and othcr places where subject-object relations, without thereby encounters are intended to lead to sexual imposing any distorting or reductive ef- contact, the trcatment of other individu- fect-with [I J and (2))which entail acharge als as sex objects may be said to be reason- of emotion suffusing the object so as to able and expected. But where this proce- enhance or demean it. Moreover, the eve- dure passes over into business or political ryday sense of the word object suggests a activity, to the point that articulate and tendency to turn persons into things, persuasive individuals who do not happen though this is in no way required by sense to be goodlooking are ignored or passed (3). over in favor of men who are "cute," this While the existing terminology is seems a waste of human resources as well not ideal, it must be conceded that the a source of unhappiness to those who are psychosocial phenomenon of sexual ob- the victims of it. Some critics of the pat- jectification exists, and that when it is tern have proposed the alternative term allowed to intrude into all sorts of spheres looksism as a more convenient descriptor. of human activity where it is in fact dys- A similar phenomenon, known as ageism, functional, it may stifle the personal de- works to the disadvantage of older gay vclopment of those who are subjected to it. people. This overemphasis on sexual at- At the same time, it is necessary to recog- tractiveness is to some extent explainable nize that sexual selection is indeed selec- by the fact that gays as a group are united tion, and human beings areunlikely to free only by their sexual preference, and by themselves from this component of their the fact that they have been stigmatized phylogenetic legacy, or the ongoing phys- by the host society because of it. Still, to iological processes that underlie such se- the degree that it is prevalent in gay male lection. Thus the ideal of treating human circles-less so in lesbian ones-it may beings in terms of equality of respect, dis- serve to bolster stereotypes that gay people carding inappropriate sexual objectifica- are superficial and frivolous. tion, should be inculcated and promoted, The concept of sexual objectifica- but one should harbor no illusions about tion has been traced to the German phi- the immanence of its universal realiza- 1osopherIrnmanuel Kant 11 726-1804), who tion. This tension is one of the many in his Lectures on Ethics presented the complications of civilization itself. sexual act as the mere manipulation of an Wayne R. Dynes object by a subject, in effect masturbation b deux-unless the relationship is re- deemed by the altruism of marriage. In the O'HARA,FRANK twentieth century, the notion of objectifi- (1926-1966) cation has been widely diffused by Freud- American poet and art critic. ian psychoanalysis, where object may be Raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, defined in three ways: (1)the goal toward O'Hara served in the Navy from 1944 to which the organism's instincts or drives 1946, and then attended Harvard and are directed, be it a person, a thing, or a Michigan Universities. The most impor- fantasy; (2)the focus of love or hate; and (31 tant experiences during his college years that which the subject perceives and were probably his visits to New York, knows, in keeping with the traditional where he met a number of poets, as well as philosophy of knowledge. This analysis painters of the rising Abstract Expression- OLD TESTAMENT 9 ist school. He settled inNew Yorkin 1951, 59-92; Marjorie Perloff, Frank O'Hara: working for the Museum of Modern Art, Poet Among Painters, New York: George Braziller, 1977. where he organized exhibitions of con- Ward Houser temporary art. OIHara wrote books of art criticism (lackson Pollock, 1959; Robert Motherwell, 1965), and also sought the OLD TESTAMENT collaboration of artists in his own creative This conventional term is the endeavors. He believed that the support of christian name for the ~~b~~~ Bible, painters in particular was useful to him in which the church incorporated into its escaping the suffocation of the reigning own scriptural canon. The New Testa- academic tradition in poetry. ment constitutes the additional scriptures His plays, which were often Pro- of Christianity, and some churches sup- duced in avant-garde theatres, included plement the ~~b~~~ ~ibl~with the Deu- Love's Labour, Awake in Spain!, and The terocanonical (or Apocryphal) books. Jew- Houses at Fallen Hanging. He published ish tradition divides the Old Testament only six small collections of poems; others into three the L~~ (the first five were found only in letters to friends or books ascribed to ~~~~~j,the Prophets written on a hoarded scrap of Paper- Dur- (most of the historical books and all of the ing his lifetime, however, O'Hara enjoyed prophetical writings except Daniel\, and an extensive word-of-mouth reputation, the Writings (all the other books including and his inclusion in anthologies began to ~~~i~l~.F~~ jews it is the first five books, bring him to a wider audience. On the the Torah, that are authoritative; and in morning of July 241 19661 hewasacciden- the third of these the death penalty is tally struck by a beach buggy On Fire 1s- explicitly prescribed for male homosexu- land, the gay resort where he spent his ality (Leviticus 18:22 and 20: 13).Although summers, and died shortly thereafter. there is scant evidence for the actual en- Like his older forcement of this law by Jewish courts, it Wallace Stevens, O'Hara was influenced is known that in later christendom it cost by the French avant-garde Poets; indeed the lives of thousands of homosexual men his relation to his favorite painters recalls from the later Middle Ages to modem that of Guillaume Apollinaire and the times. Cubists. Yet O'Hara tempered his man- Negative Texts. The Old Testa- darin sources of inspiration with eclectic ment itself is an intricate body of litera- infusions of popular culture and the kalei- ture, varied and complex; each of the liter- doscope of the New York scene. His use of ary units is a product of its own time and ever~day-s~eechrhythms recalls the beat place, and a great deal of it is not easily cult of s~ontaneit~.Lessobservedb~many understood without extensive delving into critics is the fact that many of his Poems the languages and cultures of the principal are sophisticated transcriptions of the of the ancient Near East that influ- bantering "queens' talk" common among enced the nascent monotheism of Israel gay at the time. After his death and the later Jewish community in the OIHara's work did much to free American persian ~~~ir~.~~~~~i~,theopeningbook, Poetry from the domination of a fading contains in chapters 18 and 19 the infa- academic tradition. At the same time mous ,tory of Sodom, hi^ narrative never however, his fondness for ephemera11 actually says that the Cities of the Plain campy, and trivial motifs restricted the were destroyed because of homosexuality, scope of all but a few poems. but indicates that their sins "cried to BIBLIOGRAPHY. Bruce Boone, "Gay heaven for vengeance." In the story the as political Praxis:The poetry male inhabitants of Sodom are shown of ~iankO'Hara," Social Text, 1 (1979); 1 attempting to commit gang rape on two $. OLD TESTAMENT visitors who have taken shelter in the 1:16-171, not much else attests the claim, house of Lot, and the Biblical tradition since the purpose of the narrative is to made Sodom proverbial for its inhospital- authorize the acceptance of converts into ity and injustice towardstrangers. For most the "house of Israel." In the case of the cultures of the ancient world, according to men there is more evidence. The book of the surviving sources, consensual homo- Samuel relates that "Jonathan and David sexual activity entailed no stigma or pen- made a covenant because he (Jonathan) alty; the subject rarely finds mention un- loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan less prominent persons or extraordinary stripped himself of the robe that was upon circumstances are involved. And even in him and gave it to David, and his garments such circumstances the homosexual ele- even to his sword, and to his bow, and to ment is not deemed worthy of emphatic his belt" (I Samuel 18:3-4). From other mention. For example, a midrashic source Eastern Mediterranean heroic love affairs tellsus that Joseph in Egypt was bought by armor is known as a pledge of affection Potiphar for pederastic purposes (cf. Gene- from the more important member of the sis 37:36 and 39: 1).The New English Bible duo to the lesser. Jonathan often speaks of translation finds this theme explicit in the his concern for David, and there is a scene text itself, but other versions ignore it. of intense emotion and probably sexual The outrage at Gibeah (Judges release between them. After Jonathan's 19-21) begins, it is true, with an attempt at death David sings in his lament that homosexual gang rape but is diverted into Jonathan's love for him "was wonderful, a heterosexual one in which the Levite's passing the love of women" (I1 Samuel concubine is violated and killed. The out- 1:26). come is a tribal war against the Benjamin- Modern Westerners tend to view ites, who are overwhelmed and massacred. homosexuality in other times and places Two curious episodes in Genesis merit in the light of the way in which it has been discussion. First, there is the epilogue to understood (ormisunderstood) in their own the Deluge narrative in which Ham "saw culture. TheIsraelianthropologist Raphael the nakedness of his father" (Genesis9:22], Patai cautions against such an approach, an action interpreted in the Talmud as an arguing that ('male homosexuality was assault on Noah's masculinity. The sec- rampant in Biblical times and has so re- ond is the scene in which Sarah encoun- mained in the Middle East down to the ters Ishmael "playing with Isaac her son" present day. It may not have been as gen- (Septuagint of Genesis 21:9], with over- eral as it was in Greece, but the folkmores tones of a homosexual initiation rite. Both certainly did not regard it with any degree have puzzled or eluded modem commen- of disapproval." tators who cannot admit the overt aspects References to men in the ancient of male-male sexuality in cultures of an- world who engaged in homosexual activ- tiquity. ity may generally be assigned to three Positive Figures. That Naomi and categories. First of all, there was the mili- Ruth had a lesbian love affair has been, tary or virile type; such menusually bonded improbably, derived from the text by some with another, similar male: examples are (e.g., Jeannette Foster in Sex Voriant Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Achilles and Pa- Women in Literature, new ed., Baltimore, troclus, and David and Jonathan.A second 1975), and the surmise that David and group of reyerences mention the passive- Jonathan had not merely a strong friend- effeminate male who took the "female" ship but a homosexual liaison has long role in sexual intercourse. Such men might been popular. While it is true that Naomi wear women's clothes; they might en- and Ruth make one of the strongest decla- agage in sacral prostitution (thekidcsh) or rations of fidelity ever written (Ruth its commercial counterpart. Other texts OLYMPIC GAMES + mention a type of male, a third type, who Epiphanes in the brief period from 168-65) patronized the second category described and the Romans in later times allowed the above. Jews to enforce the norms of their own Cultic Prostitution. Difficult for cult. Hence the Levitical laws stood and the modern religious consciousness to became an integral part of the Judaic understand is that male cult prostitutes, moral code. specifically homosexual prostitutes, with There may be an allusion to the both erotic and mantic functions, were homosexual aspect of the slave trade in part of the religious life of Syria and Pales- Joel 3:2, to homosexual rape in Lamenta- tine, including pre-exilic Israel (i.e., from tions 5:13 (cf. St. Jerome's version), and in about 1200 to 587~.c.).References to their other passages that have been claimed as activity are found in I Kings 1424, 15: 12, relevant. It is safe to conclude that by the 2246, 11 Kings 21:2, 21: 11, 23:7, the Sep- end of the Persian period Judaism offi- tuagint of 11 Chronicles 35: 19a, Isaiah 2:6 cially reproved all expressions of and Job 36: 14, as well as in place names male-male sexuality. Although it might such as "En-mishpat [Springof Judgment], be argued that some distinctly modern which is Kadesh" (Genesis 147).The ref- forms of homosexuality, including andro- erences in Kings cover a period of some 400 philia, were not an issue in Old Testament years, so that the custom survived down to times, one has no grounds to assume that the reforms of King Josiah. Ten years after they would be regarded as permissible. his death the Temple was destroyed and BIBLIOGRAPHY. the Jews were carried off into captivity in Tom Homer, Homo- sexuality and the Judeo-Christian Babylon. (See also Kadesh Barnea.) Tradition: An Annotated Bibliography, Later Prohibitions. Under Persian Metuchen,NJ:Scarecrow Press, 1981; rule (beginning in 538 B.c.] the Jewish idem, Ionathan Loved David: Homo- community reestablished itself in Pales- sexuality in Biblical Times, Philadel- phia: Westminster, 197gj Raphael Patai, tine. The Persians proved more tolerant Sex and the Pamily in the Bible and the than previous conquerors, allowing the Middle East, Garden City, NY: Dou- Jews and other subject peoples to run their bleday, 1959. own affairs, but they did not tolerate Tom Homer and Ward Houser homosexuality. In the Persian period the male cult prostitutes no longer functioned OLYMPICGAMES in the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem or in For over 1000years, the Olympic the province of Judea. There is good reason games helped mold a common Hellenic to assume that at this time-under the outlook linking sports and religion with influence of Zoroastrianism-the verses the art of the great temples and statues Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 were added to that adorned the precincts of Olympia in the Holiness Code of Leviticus 12-20, the northwestern Peloponnesus. forbiddingmale homosexuality under pain The Olympic Games in honor of of death. Zeus, traditionally founded in 776 B.c., All forms of male homosexual were held every four years thereafter. behavior were odious to later Jewish reli- Eusebius of Caesarea preserved Julius gious thinkers and apologists, both those Africanus' list of winners from the found- who wrote in Hebrew or Aramaic and ing to A.D. 217. It was probably the tyrant those, such as Phio and Josephus, who Phaidon of Argos in the seventh century wereHellenizedandcomposedtheir works who, seizing the site from the Elians (who in Greek. Persian rule ended with the Platoin the Symposium claimed practiced capture of Jerusalem by Alexander the pederasty in a more uninhibited physical Great in 333; but the Greek rulers who manner than did other GreeksJ, reorgan- followed him (except for Antiochus ized the games from one-day contests in + OLYMPIC GAMES track or wrestling to include chariot and origin to amythicalfounding by Sisyphus, horse races ("racing" in the modern sense). king of Corinth, or alternatively by The- However, the competition between run- seus. The Pythian games honored Apollo ners on foot always remained central to at Delphi every eight years until the the games. Between 720 and 576,46 of the Amphyctionic Council reorganized them 81 known Olympic winners were Spar- in 582 B.c., to be celebrated in the third tans, but Athenian, Sicilian, and Italian year of each Olympiad, with crowns of bay Greeks as well as ones from elsewhere leaves-later apples-as the award (with figure on the lists. After 472 the games musicalcompetitionsstillenjoyinggreater lasted for five days, the boys' games (the prestige than the equestrian and athletic "junior competitions"] falling on the third contests modeled on the Olympic games, day. Cities nobly rewarded the victors with which were added). The Nemean games expensive prizes, at Athens equaling sev- became pan-Hellenic in 573 B.C.and were era1 years' pay for a common worker, and eventually managed by Argos on the same pensions. They became heroes, they won lines as at Olympia, the prize being a political power and fame, and the games in crown of wild celery. Other contests in- some ways resembled beauty contests. cluded kissingmatches held by the boys at Some victors even received divine statues Megara and endurance of flogging at the after death. altar of Artemis Orthia in Sparta (inwhich All these games honored gods some boys actually died], which became a portrayed as pederastic from 600 B.C. The tourist attractioninRoman times. Pindar's legendary aition (cause)of the games was odes celebrated victors in the Olympic, a wrestling match between Heracles and Pythian, and Isthmian games. Iolaus, which may be a parallel of the story Archaic tyrants competed avidly of Jacob wrestling with the angel in Gene- for prizes, usually in the expensive chariot sis 32:2432-possible evidence for the races, which could be compared tomodern origin of the contests in a northwest trotting races, Dionysius and Agathon of Semitic athletic tradition. Games were Syracuse being among the victors. held by the Phrygians and by the Homeric Women's athletic contests were heroes where they pulled each other down likely more widespread than indicated in by the belt in wrestling-provingthat they the exclusively male sources that have competed while clothed. Elsewhere men survived. In cultic contests they raced on and boys competed in thenude and women foot. At Olympia a women's festival hon- were unequivocally barred from atten- ored Hera, paralleling the games for her dance, even as spectators. It was, however, husband Zeus, with victors receiving an a myth that Orisippus of Megara, a runner olive crown. The male victors were in the twentieth Olympiad in 720 B.c., awarded parts of the animal sacrificed. accidentally lost his tunic and thus intro- These may have sprung from races con- duced nudity; it was imported from Crete nected with marriage as in the myth of the ca. 600 B.C.Once an erastes (senior lover] swift Atalantawhowouldconsenttomarry rushedup to embrace his bloodied teenaged only the man who could outrun her, or of eromenos (beloved], who had emerged King Oenomaus who forced suitors to race victorin thepankrateia, asort of free-style for the hand of his daughter, won by Pe- boxing match and roughest of the five lops, beloved of Heracles and buried at main competitions. Olympia. But in all sports, male or female, The Olympics were more presti- the Greeks competed most aggressively to gious than their competitors. The Isth- win, not to overturn records, which with mianGames, where wreaths of cedar leaves their poor means of timekeeping they could were the prize, held every four years at not measure as do modern referees. Nor Corinth in honor of Poseidon, owed their did they compete to win for their team, as 1 9 18 4* teamworkwas foreign to sports at the time January 1953. Although formally independ- and applied only to dance and to the mili- ent of the Mattachine Society, most of the tary. early staffers were members of that re- After triumphing under Theodo- cently formed organization. In 1958 the sius, Christians insisted that the religious magazine won a landmark legal victory rites integral to the Olympic games be when the United States Supreme Court suspended in 393-94, though the games overturned a decision by the postmaster of may have continued until the middle of Los Angeles that made the periodical the fifth century. unmailable. This success opened the way The Olympic games, now world- for the present profusion of the gay and wide, were revived in 1896 at Athens. lesbian press. They bear the impress of modern athletic In the course of time, ONE devel- traditions: the mass physical training of oped other activities. Responding to aneed the Turnverein in Germany and the Sokol for public education, the group held small in the Czech lands, and the aristocratic classes beginning in 1956, supplemented ideal of the sportsman and gentleman by the midwinter institutes which took cultivated on the playing fields of the place in January. A research facility began British public schools during the previous to take shape in the Baker Memorial Li- hundred years. brary. Early in the history of ONE it was The Gay Gamesof the 1980s were realized that there was need for a new denied use of the term Olympic by United comprehensive bibliography of the whole States courts responding to a suit of the interdisciplinary field of homosexual American Olympic Committee. Classical behavior. After many delays, this goal was scholars remain reticent about the ho- finally achieved in the Annotated Bibliog- moerotic aspects of the ancient games. raphy of Homosexualitjr (2 vols., New Sansone's theory that athletics and the- York, 1976), which remains the largest atre, which involved masks like those work of its kind. primitive hunters wore, and males taking In 1965 the organization was split femaleparts, aroseexclusively from primi- by a schism, leading to the secession of a tive sacrifice and self-enhancing rituals, number of members, who formed the can no more be sustained than the hy- Tangents group, later known as theHomo- pothesis of Indo-European initiatory ped- sexual Information Center (Hollywood). erasty. Under the vigorous leadership of W. Dorr Legg, the original group successfully re- BIBLIOGRAPHY. Wendy J. Raschke, ed., built itself, though ONE Magazine itself The Archaeology of the Olympics: The Olympics and Other Festivals in was a casualty of the dispute, publishing Antiquity, Madison: University of its last regular issues in 1968. The maga- Wisconsin Press, 1988; David Sansone, zine was replaced for a time by ONE Insti- Greek Athletics and the Genesis of tute Quarterly of Homophile Studies Sport, Berkeley: University of California (1968-73), the first scholarly journal of its Press, 1988; Waldo E. Sweet, "Protection of the Genitals in Greek Athletics," kind in North America. Ancient World, 11 (19851,4560. In 1981 the state of California William A. Percy granted ONE, Inc. theright to operateas an accredited graduate school. A regular pro- gram of classes and student supervision was begun with the collaboration of a ONE, INC. number of leading scholars. In due course The oldest surviving homosexual several students earned the degree of Ph.D. organization in North America began in in homophile studies. In spacious new Los Angeles as a monthly magazine in quarters ONE Institute continues to host 9 ONE, INC. a variety of scholarly and community unaware until the last act of her beloved's activities in Los Angeles. actual sex. Ward Houser In 1974, Dominique Fernandez wrote a novel entitled Porporino, ou les rnystkres de Naples, about Italian castrati, OPERA many neutered as boys in order to preserve A composite art fusing wordst the treble timbres of their singing voices, music, and stagecraft, opera has flourkhed and drawing on historical fact, depicting for five centuries. Although the lavish them as having hetero- and homosexual support the medium requires has, until relationships. In 1979, the French Aix recently, placed limits on overt represen- Festival presented a staged Porporino us- tation of variant se~uality,careful SCru- ing dialogue from the novel and a tiny reveals significant homoerotic aspects. of arias by Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Origins. Opera began in late Ren- Battista Pcrgolesi, and other eighteenth- aissance Italy with Jacopo Perils Dafne century composers, assembled by musi- ( 1597) and Euridice (160011and ho~~osex- cologis t Roger Blanchard. Countertenor ual themes and characters initially aP- James Bowman and high coloratura tenor peared during the form's first half-centuV Bruce Brewer portrayed castrati Porporino or so of existence. In director Gerald and Feliciano. Freedman's 1973 New York City Opera Two of Wolfgang Amadeus production of Claudio Monteverdi's ~~~~rtf~major operas concern homosex- L'lncoronaZione di Poppea (164211 con- ual monarchs from antiquity. Alexander cerning the marriage of the bisexual first- the Great, the fourth-century B.c.con- century Roman emPerorNer0 to his mis- queror of the Persian Empire (whose orien- tress, Poppaea Sabin%the erotic nature of tation is discussed in a biography by Roger Nero's relationship with the poet Marcus Peyrefitte and in novels by Mary Renault), Annaeus Lucanus--called Lucano in the is a central figure in I1 Re Pastore ( 1775). In libretto-was made explicit. In Pier Fran- ~h,~~~l~~ coesars, the R~~~~ historian cesco Cavalli's La Cafisto ( 165 11, Jove, the Suetoniuswrotethat first-century emperor supreme ~~n~andeity) must disguise Titus, the protagonist of La Clemenza di himself asDiana, goddess of the moon and ~i~~(1791 1, uowned troops of inverts and the hunt, in order to seduce the nymph eunuchs~~and had urelations with . . . Calisto. Among the musicians of the sev- favorite boys [who] danced . . on the enteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Lully stage." The finales of both operas find the (1632-168711 court music master to King heterosexual lovers paired up while the Louis of France and composer of 20 rulers remain alone: eighteenth-century operas, was homosexual- The Poet Pietro sensibilities would never have tolerated Metastasio ( 1698-1782Ir the greatest li- on-stage male mates for Alessandro and brettist of the Baroque period, was erotic- q-ito. hi^ situation ~~ll~~~~d~~ ally linked to several men of his day. development of the "harmless sissy" image In her study Sex Variant for films of the 1930s and 1940s, rendering in fiteramre (195611Jeannette Foster char- gay male characters asexual to avoid pro- acterized the heroicBradamante in Ludo- volting public outrage. a salzburg vico Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso ( 1531) intermezzo ~~~ll~et ~~~~j~~h~~, as a "young Amazon in full armor" who posed when he was eleven, Mozart had finds, between martial exploits, that she approached the forbidden theme more attracts female admirers. In George Frid- directly, though in the ~~~i~libretto the ericHandel's Alcina (1735))Bradamante's love of the god for the boy is in part ob- loving champion is the eponymous en- scured by a female interest. chantress' sister Morgana, who remains OPERA f

Nineteenth Century. Passionate production of Georges Bizet's Carmen letters Ludwigvan Beethoven (1770-1 827) (1875)) realized posthumously by Bodo wrote to his nephew, Carl Obermayer, Igesz, Gentele had the smuggler Remen- have led to speculation that the German dado played as gay on the basis of his composer may have been homosexual. In rhapsodizing over the "distinguished" his only opera, Fidelio (1805), the fearless Englishmen he has seen in Gibraltar, and Leonore, who dons male clothing to pene- other passages of dialogue. trate prison walls in order to rescue her While Eugene Onegin (1879)and husband, Florestan, a political prisoner, The Queen of Spades (1890) by attracts a female admirer, Marzelline, jailer Tchaikovsky show heterosexual love frus- Rocco's daughter. When Leonore reveals traed or in a cynical light, they offer no gay her true identity to all in the finale, alternative. In an Opera News article Marzelline bewails her choice of love ob- (19861, American gay composer and diarist ject. In Otto Schenk's 1970 Metropolitan Ned Rorem contrasted Tchaikovsky, Opera production, choristers made much whose "homosexuality . . . was 'realized' homophobic merriment over Marzelline's though tragic," with his compatriot Mod- discomfort. est Mussorgsky (1839-1881) who, Rorem The fifteenth-century transvestite opined, "was homosexual. . . [but]proba- and French patron saint, Joan of Arc, was bly unfilfilled." Mussorgsky set his given male lovers in Giuseppe Verdi's masterwork Boris Godunov (completed Giovanna d'Arco (1845) and in Russian 1870, revised 1871-72) in the homosocial homosexual Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's halls of government and the exclusively The Maid of Orldans (188 1j, just as the male environment of the monastery. The Lesbian poet was in Charles Gounod's sole heterosexual liaison, between Marina Sapho (1851).St. Joan's lifewas laterdrama- and Dimitri, spurred by power, not love, tized in Joan (1971) by openly gay, New was only added later to fulfill the Imperial York-based composer and minister A1 Theatre's directors' demand that the opera Carmines (born 1936), whose eclectic have a prima donna. In Khovanshchina, works, drawing on classical, popular, and on which Mussorgsky worked between liturgical music, are variously termed 1872 and 1880 but left unfinished, the operas, oratorios, and musicals. In Joan, composer included gay-baiting among the martyred heroine's story is updated to Prince Andrei Khovansky's other unsa- the present and relocated to New York's vory attributes. When his abandoned fi- East Village and Joan and the Virgin Mary ancCe Marfa prevents his pursuit of the are depicted as lovers. frightened Emma, Andrei snidely wonders Daniel Auber's Gustave 111 ou Le if Marfa is herself "inappropriately at- BalMasqud (1833) and Verdi's Un Balloin tracted" to Emma. Dignified Marfa calmly Maschera (1859) have as protagonist ignores his charge. homosexual Swedish King Gustavus 111 French composer Camille Saint- (1746-1792), whose reign began in 1771, Saens (1835-1921) is best known to opera- but stress his heterosexual amorous pur- philes as the composer of Samson et Dalila suits. Magnus Hirschfeld cited possible (1877). In a Gay Sunshine interview, liaisons between the king and Adolf Fre- Edouard Roditi recalled that Saint-Saens, drik Muell, Johann Aminoff, and Gustav "a notorious homosexual," was trailed by Mauritz Armfelt, men to whom he gave plainclothes police bodyguards protecting the title of Count. In a production of Ballo him from "scandal" and harassment as he at the Royal Opera in Stockholm (1959)) searched for sex partners. Though the director Goran Gentele suggested an erotic Biblical spectacle and lush orchestration tie between the king and the page Oscar, of Samson seem to hint at agay sensibility, who is played by a soprano. In his 1972 Met these also characterize works of the pre- 0:- OPERA sumably heterosexual Jules Massenet and Pelldas et Mdlisande (1902),should beseen likely merely show Saint-Saens to be typi- as gay and asked if the dying Marcellus, cal of creative artists of his time. who lures him from his ailingfather's side, A profound influence on late- is more than a friend. Romantic and later composers was the Wagner's heir as preeminent German Richard Wagner (1813-1883 1. His German composer of his day was Richard principal patronwas thehomosexualKing Strauss. The earliest Strauss opera in the Ludwig of Bavaria (1845-18861, who had regular repertory is Salome (1905), a set- the court opera in Munich give the pre- ting of the 1893 play by IrishIEnglish mieres of Tristan und Isolde (1865), Die homosexual writer Oscar Wilde Meistersanger von Nurnberg [1868),Das (1854-1900).LinesofHerodias'page, which Rheingold [1869),and Die Walkiire (18701, imply his intimacy with Narraboth, Syr- thoughit is questionablewhether thelzing's ian captain of the Tetrarch's guard-"He ardor was requited. was my brother and nearer to me than a Some directors of Das Rheingold brother," and so on-were omitted from have depicted as gay the gentle god Froh, librettist HedwigLachmannls adaptation, who pines for his sister Freia when the but Herod's observation that Narraboth giants abduct her and conjures up the rain- "was fair to look upon" remained. Other bow bridge leading to Valhalla. Father M. operas based on works of Wilde include Owen Lee, in Opera News (19871, and Alexander von Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg other writers have explored homoerotic and Eine Florentinische Tragodie, Mario themes in Parsifal(1882),concerning the Castelnuovo-Tedesco's 7%eImportanceof youth who joins the homosocial society of Being Ernest, William Orchard's The Pic- the Knights of the Grail. In his 1983 film, ture of Dorian Gray, Hans Schaeuble's director Hans Jiirgen Syberberg found in Dorian Gray, Renzo Bossits L'usignuolo e Parsifal an androgynous duality and split la rosa, and Jaroslav Kriclta's The Gentle- his scenes between an actor and an actress. man in White. Wilde and the aesthetic The Earlier Twentieth Century. movement were satirized in Sir William Wagner influenced the compositions of Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan's operetta Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-19441, whose Patience (1881))but without mention of lesbianism is well attested. Smyth wrote his homosexuality. six operas, one of which is the only opera In Strauss' Elektra (1909), the by a woman ever presented by the Metro- outcast, rebellious heroine, who inspires politanopera, Der Wald(TheForest, 1902], the admiration and affection of one of the given two performances there in 1903. A solo serving wom'en, all but makes love to participant in the women's suffrage move- her timid, conformist sister Chrysothemis mentinEngland, Smythwroteitsanthem, in her attempt to convince her to join in "Shoulder to Shoulder" (1911 J, which has avengingtheirfather, Agamemnon'sdeath, been sung by the New York City Gay and some performers have made their Men's Chorus. The Concise Oxford Dic- embraces quite graphic. Created in the tionary of Opera says that Smyth's "enter- spirit of Mozart's Cherubino, the pubes- taining series of memoirs conveys consid- cent pageboy in Le Nove di Figaro, Octa- erable relish for the long struggle against vian, in Der Rosenkavalier (191l), is a suspicion of a woman who composed, and young nobleman played by a woman. did so with a robust professionalism that Gender lines blur still more when, like took men's breaths away ." Cherubino, this male character dons fe- Ned Rorem, writing in Opera male clothes for a ruse. Early productions News (19781, wondered if the reticent faced censorship problems not only be- PellCas, protagonist of Claude Debussy's cause the first scene finds Octavian in bed OPERA O with or in close proximity to the Mar- The Mid- and Late Twentieth schallin, but also because both performers Century. French homosexual composer in this erotic scene are women. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) wrote three In a 1987 German production operas. In the whimsical Les Mamelles de of Austrian composer Franz Schreker's Tirisias (1944, first performed 19471, with Die Gezeichneten (The Branded Ones, a text by Guillaume Apollinaire, husband 1918), hedonistic Duke Adorno and his and wife exchangesexes. Shegrows a beard close friend Count Tamare were played as and moustache, while he gives birth to bisexual. thousands of babies. In Dialogues des The homosexuality of Polish Carmilites (1957),after GeorgesBernanosl composerKarolSzymanowski(1882-1937) play, set during the French Revolution in is well documented. His King Roger(1926) the single-sex environment of the con- concerns a historical twelfth-century Si- vent, the relationship between the pro- cilian ruler who is torn between the Apol- tagonist Blanche de la Force and young lonian, represented by the intellectuals he Soeur Constance is depicted as a particu- summons to his court, and theDionysian, larly loving one. The monodrama La Voix personified by an Indian shepherd who Humaine (19591, a setting of a play from leads a wild bacchanal. Staging King Roger the 1930s by gay writer Jean Cocteau, for the Long Beach (California) Opera in consists of a woman's anguished telephone 1988, director David Alden highlighted conversation with the male lover who has homoerotic themes he detected there. left her. Lo Voix has an air of autobiogra- Szymanowski's earlier opera Hagith (writ- phy, understandably transmogrified with ten 1912-13, first performed 1922) was an alteration of pronouns at a time when it modeled on Salome. would have been nearly impossible to gain Austrian composer Alban Berg's acceptance for a dramatization of a break- Lulu, based on Frank Wedekind's plays up of a homosexual relationship. Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora's Box Homoerotic themes, both overt (190l),had a posthumous premiere (1937). and covert, figure prominently in the Its third act, long suppressed by Helene oeuvre of gay English composer Lord Berg, the composer's widow, was edited Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). Leading and orchestrated by Friedrich Cerha and roles in most of his works were created by firstperformedin1979.ThelesbianCount- his long-time lover, Sir Peter Pears ess Martha Geschwitz, who belongs to an (1910-19861, one of the few opera singers exclusive society of women artists, has to come out publicly during his lifetime. A seen Lulu's portrait en travesti as Pierrot, numberofwriters, includingPhilipBrett- and invites her to attend a ball dressed in author of the Cambridge opera handbook male costume. In her masochistic devo- Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes (1983) and tion, the countess contracts cholera in subject of an extensive Christopher Street order to substitute for her adored "angel" magazine interview by Lawrence Mass Lulu in a prison hospital. Called mad, (1987bhaveprobed the parallel between mannish, and unnatural by her love, the the composer's emphatic portrayals of countess never loses her dignity despite oppressed and ostracized individuals and the sordid circumstances into which her his own experience as a gay man living and love leads her. She declares her determina- writing in a hostile, repressive society. tion to attend law school and fight for In Britten's Peter Grimes (1945), women's rights but soon dies, with Lulu, based on George Crabbe's poem "The at the hands of Jack the Ripper. It is never Borough" (1810)) the protagonist, sensi- made clear whether or not the countess' tive, poetic and deeply troubled beneath relationship with Lulu develops into a his gruff fisherman's exterior, is shown in physical one. a brief tender moment with his boy ap- 4 OPERA prentice.Grimes'attachmentsto Johnand Lesbia as well as their other same-sex to his late predecessor William Spode are amorous adventures. definitely obsessive, if questionably erotic. In a Gay Sunshine interview, Grimes' neighbors in the small fishing openly gay American composer Lou Harri- village suspect him of abusing his appren- son (born 19 17)said of his colleague Virgil tices andgalvanizeintoalynchmobwhich Thomson (born 1896) that, though he drives Grimes to suicide. Billy Budd (195I ), "hasn't openly declared himself, . . . his with libretto by Eric Crozier and gay nov- gayness is an open secret." Thomson col- elist E. M. Forster, after Herman Melville's laborated with lesbian writer Gertrude Billy Budd, Foretopman (1924),traces the Stein on two operas, Four Saints in Three disastrous effects of the repressed attrac- Acts (1928, first performed 1934))dealing tion of two British naval officers--one with the lives of Spanish saints, and The irredeemably evil, whose feeling turns to Mother of Us All (1947), which had its jealous hatred, the other good, but du- premiere after Stein's death and has as its tybound-for the handsome sailor Billy, subject Susan B. Anthony's long crusade who is falsely accused of inciting mutiny. for American women's suffrage. Openly In The Turn of the Screw (19541, gay English conductor Raymond Leppard based on Henry James' 1898 novella, the (born 1927))who led an American bicen- ghostly servant Peter Quint, who "made tennial production of The Mother in Santa free" with young Miles while living, con- Fe, noted in a public television documen- tinues to exert influence over the boy from tary (1977) that the relationship of An- beyond the grave, as the late governess, thony and her companion Anne Howard Miss Jessel, does over her former charge, Shaw, depicted in the opera as devoted and Miles' sister Flora. mutually supportive, parallels that of Stein Britten's church parable Curlew and AliceB. Toklas (1877-19671, which he River (19641, whichincorporates elements called one of the great love affairs of the of the Japanese Noh style, includes century. Thomson's third opera was Lord the first serious female role in Western Byron (1961-68, first performed 1972). music drama composed for male voice in Other composers who have used Stein's modem times, that of the madwoman. texts as librettos include Ned Rorem, for (StephenSondheim wrote additional such the short opera Three Sisters Who Are Not parts in his 1976 opus about Japan, Pacific Sisters (1968))and A1 Carmines, who set Overtures.] her words in What Happened (19631, In Death in Venice (19731, which Circles (1967),The Making of Americans Britten based on Thomas Mann's 1913 (1972))Listen to Me (1975), and A Manoir novella, concerns the struggle of the intel- (1977). As "Gertrude S." and "Virgil T." lectual novelist Gustav von Aschenbach appear as characters in The Mother of Us with his erotic awakening, inspired by the All, so are Stein and Toklas, and Oscar ethereal youth Tadzio. The climax of the Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas as well, in first act, preceded by a driving crescendo, the cast list of Carmines' coming-out work is Aschenbach's realization and declara- The Faggot (1973). tion, "1 love you." As Britten, working in an era Slightly outside the realm of before gay liberation, made pacifism his opera, but sometimes staged by opera primary cause, so did gay American com- companies, Carl Orff's scenic cantata poserMarcBlitzstein(1905-1964)channel Catulli Carmina (1943)is based on sexu- his social consciousness into music the- ally explicit verses by bisexual Roman atre works dealing with laborers strug- poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (87-54 B.c.) gling against scoundrelly bosses, and with and concerns his love for the bisexual related issues, in The Cradle Will Rock OPERA 4

(1937))Regina (1949), and a 1952 adapta- after August Strindberg, and Bertha (19731, tion of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's about a Queen of Norway. Threepenny Opera (1928). At the time of In Argentine composer Alberto his death at the hands of sailors in Martin- Ginastera's Bomarzo (1967)) Pier Fran- ique, Blitzstein was at work on an opus, cesco Orsini, the hunchbacked Duke of commissioned for the Metropolitan Op- Bomarzo, is impotent with his wife, Giulia era, about anarchists Bart Vanzetti and Famese, and with the courtesan Penta- Nicola Sacco. Blitzstein's biographer Eric silea, but "dearly loves" his powerful male A. Gordon has pointed out a homoerotic slave Abul. Orsini dreams that wife, cour- touch in the original Broadway staging of tesan, and slave compete for possession of the opera Regina. Two black male ser- him. At Orsini's command, the faithful vants observe (through a window) a party Abul kills Maerbale, the Duke's brother, given by their rapacious white employer who dressed Orsini in female clothing as a and imitate actions of the guests. Among child and later became Giulia's lover. the targets of the men's mockery is an The Seventies and Eighties. The extravagant romantic scene, which they year 1970 brought the premieres of Ben reenact. Johnston's Carmilla, based on Sheridan La In Samuel Barber's Antony and Fanu's novel, which influenced Bram Cleopatra (1966))Antony and his young Stoker's Dracula, and concerning Laura's shield-bearer, Eros, have a tender farewell seduction by the vampire Carmilla, and scene. On the verge of defeat by Octavius Sir MichaelTippettls The Knot Garden, in Caesar, Antony bids Eros to run him which interracial male lovers Dov, a through with his sword. After words of musician, and Mel, a writer, undergo trials, affection and praise, the youth kills him- including humiliation, and separation by self to avoid having to slay his master. The heterosexual partners, before their re- libretto, after William Shakespeare's play, union. Operas based on plays by gay writ- is by Franco Zeffirelli (born 1923)) ers Federico Garcia Lorca (1899-1936)- filmmaker, and director and designer of Yerma by Heitor Villa-Lobos, a posthu- many operas, who came out publicly in an mous premiere-and Tennessee Williams' Advocate interview. Zcffirelli was a (1911-1983) Summer and Smoke by Lee protkgk of gay film director Luchino Vis- Hoiby, with libretto by Lanford Wilson- conti (1906-1976), who also staged and were introduced in 1971. (AWilliams short designed opera. Other gay opera directors story, "LordByron'sLoveLetter,"received or designers have been the Metropolitan operatic treatment by composer Rafaello Opera's Bruce Donnell, actor Charles de Banfield in 1955.)Conrad Susa's Trans- Ludlam, choreographer Mark Morris, formations (1973) uses as a text Anne photographer CecilBeaton, and artist David Sexton's poetic versions of fairy tales and Hockney. Gay librettists include lovers includes a lesbian interpretation of the Wystan Hugh Auden and Chester Kall- story of Rapunzel. The historical homo- man, for Igor Stravinsky's TheRake's Prog- sexual figure Henry, Lord Darnley ress and Hans Werner Henze's Elegy for (1545-1567), husband of the titular mon- Young Lovers and The Bassarids; Lang- arch, is a character in Thea Musgrave's ston Hughes for Weill's Street Scene; and Mary, Queen of Scots (1977).His enemies William M. Hoffman, author of As Is, a in the opera call him vain, ambitious, play about AIDS, for John Corigliano's A weak, and foppish. Slightly tangential, but Figaro for Antonia, commissioned by the pertinent to the topic of opera, is the Met for production in 1991. oratorio The Return of the Great Mother Operas of Ned Rorem, who came (19771, by composer Roberta Kosse (born out in his Paris Diary (1966)and New York 1947)and librettist Jenny Malmquist. The Diary (1967), include Miss Iulie (1965)) work celebrates matriarchy and women's 0:. OPERA relationshipswith w0men.A Lesbian Play Native called "Straussian." A major char- for Lucy (1978), with music by Tamara acter in Jay Reise's Rasputin (1988) is Bliss and libretto by Eleanor Hakim, ex- homosexualRussianprinceFeliksFelikso- amines the relationships amongDemeter, vich Yusupov, one of the murderers of the Hecate, Persephone, and Athena. mad monk Rasputin in 1916. While during the 1970s, gay opera Duringthe 1980s, operalost many fans were spoken of with hostility and talented individuals to AIDS, including contempt in print by soprano RCgine New York City Opera baritones and stage Crespin (High Fidelity, 1977) and actor directors David Hicks and Ronald Bentley, and aficionadoTony Randall (OperaNews Met tenor James Atherton, and Opera News and After Dark, 1972)) the decade also editor Robert M. Jacobson. Singers and found writers in the gay press, including conductors have participated in AIDS the Bay Area Reporteis George Heymont benefit concerts, such as "A GalaNight for and Gay Community News' Nicholas Singing" in East Hampton, New York Deutsch, a director, and Michael Bronslu, [1985),organized by Jacobson and openly beginning to write about opera from a gay manager Matthew A. Epstein and fea- gay angle. turing Aprile Millo, Jerry Hadley and oth- In A Quiet Place (1983)by Leon- ers, and "Music for Life", at Carnegie Hall ard Bernstein (born 19181, bisexual (1987),which benefited Gay MenlsHealth Frangois is Dede's husband as well as her Crisis andstarred LeontynePrice, Marilyn brother, Junior's former lover. While-to Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, SamuelRamey, the consternation of gay activitists-rela- Leonard Bernstein, and James Levine. tively few people who work in opera have During the 1980s, gay choruses openly declared their homosexuality were formed and began interacting with (apparently fearing loss of prestige or the operaworld. Opera singers Faith Esham employment in a profession heavily de- and Jane Shaulis have appeared with the pendent on voluntary public subsidy), in New York City Gay Men's Chorus, while the scurrilous, homophobic Bernstein: A the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus par- Biography (1987)) Joan Peyser discussed ticipated in San Francisco Opera perform- the homosexual orientations of numerous ances of Wagner's DerFliegendeHollander musicians who had not comeout publicly, and Parsifal. In 1988, the Portland, Ore- including the subject of her book, compos- gon, Gay Men's Chorus presented Lou ers Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Harrison's opera Young Caesar. While Samuel Barber, and Gian Carlo Menotti; Handel's GiuLio Cesare focuses on Julius and conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos Caesar's (102-44 B.c.) involvement with (Menotti later came out in an Advocate Cleopatra, Harrison's work explores the interview). Roman general and statesman's affairwith Homophobia mars Dominick the Oriental king of Bithynia, Nicomedes Argento's Casanova'sHomecoming(l985), IV. During this decade, Ira Siff, who sang also called Casanova, in which the Mar- tenor in A1 Carmines' worlzs, formed La quis de Lisle, described as asexual but Gran Scena Opera (1981)' which presents depicted as a mincing stereotypical homo- opera parodies, blurs gender with trans- sexual, is made the butt of the opera's vestite diva portrayals (notably Siff's climactic joke for his failure to indulge in Madame Vera Galupe-Borzslth], and in- heterosexual intercourse. Sam Michael cludes gay double-entendres in perform- Belich's Laius and Chrysippus (1986),with ances. Similar work has been done by a text by Opera Monthly contributor Sam David Clenny, who sang male soprano H. Shirakawa, depicts the love affair of with the Handel Society in the 1970s and Laius, father of Oedipus, and Chrysippus, took the travesti title part in his own La son of Pelops, in music the New York Contessa dei Vampiri (19871, and by Eng- OPPRESSION, CAY O lishman Michael Aspinall, who is billed as necessary on utilitarian grounds. The "the Surprising Soprano." analogies with the disadvantaged condi- tion of the aforenamed social categories BIBLIOCX"J'HY.David Hamilton, ed., shaped the notion of ugay oppression^^ as a The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987; pervasive set of wrongs inflicted by an Harold Rosenthal and JohnWarrack, establishment that imposed a heterosex- eds., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of ual norm on the whole of society. Obliga- Opera, Oxford: Oxford University Press, tory heterosexuality, the need to conceal 1979. one's sexual identity, the social ostracism Bruce~Michael and economic boycott to which known homosexuals were subjected, police ha- OPPRESSION,GAY rassment and sporadicviolenceat the hands The concept of gay oppression of hooligans, the entire structure of privi- was disseminated by the Gay Liberation lege which the Judeo-Christian tradition Front founded in New York City in the conferred on the patriarchal family-all summer of 1969 and by similar groups these burdens that the homosexual had to elsewhere that took GLF as their model endure in an intolerant society were as- and ideological paradigm. cribed to a system of oppression that the Early Statements and Back- Gay Liberation Front aspired to overthrow, ground. In a typical statement, the British with the rest the for Gay Liberation Front declared (December which the capitalist was held re- 1970)that its first priority was "to defend sponsible- the immediate interests of gay people An Italian writer appealing to the against discrimination and social oppres- classical Marxist tradition, Mario Mieli, sion.u It added that roots of the op- went even further, asserting that "the pression that gay people suffer run deep in monosexual Norm - . is based On the our society, in particular to the structure mutilationof Eros, and in particular on the ofthefamily, patterns of socialization, and condemnation of homosexuality. It is clear the Judeo-Christian culture. Legal reform from this that when we understand and education against prejudice, though W~Ythe homoerotic impulse is repressed possible and necessary, cannot be a perma- in the majority, by the whole mechanism nent solution. While existing social strut- society, will we be able to grasp how the tures remain, social prejudice and overt exclusive or at least highly predominant repression can always re-emerge. . . . GLF assertion of heterosexual desire in the therefore sees itself as part of the wider majority comes about-" He added that the movement aiming to abolish all forms of proceSS of repression began in childhood1 social oppression.^^ A~~~~ the social when homosexual tendencies are branded groups sufferingfrom one of the multifari- as ''feminine" and shameful, and thewhole ous formsof oppression, its manifesto listed subject is treated as unspeakable. women, black people and other national Realities of Oppression. Such minorities, the working class, young concepts were undoubtedly shaped in large people, and peoples oppressed by imperi- measure by the personal experiences which alism. many gay activists had to undergo at vari- hi^ billofgrievancesgrew out of ous times in their lives, when they con- the experience and the thinking of the fronted head-on the hostility of society N~~ ~~f~ in the late 196Os, which saw and its relentless pressure to conform to repressive practices at work in many areas the norm heterosexuality. Still later1 of Western society where the inferiorstatus they were able to see how across centuries of particular segments of the population Euro~eanhistor~homosexualshadbeen had been taken for granted or justified as the object of persecution as ferocious as 92 7 ...... y. .. .. *...... 9 OPPRESSION, CAY that inflicted on religious minorities and nic minorities. These incompatibilities ethnic groups, how the very existence of emerge when gay leaders meet exasperat- the homosexual minority had been denied ingrebuffs, as they oftendo, in their efforts by a church which claimed to uphold ide- to build coalitions with leaders of ethnic als of justice and humanity. In some re- blocs. Significantly, the late Harvey Milk, spects the oppression of homosexuals was one of the most successful practitioners of greater than that of demographic catego- coalition politics, achieved his goals mainly ries which may have been denied political with San Francisco's old-line labor move- and economic rights and been marginal- ment rather than with the city's ethnic ized by the practice of segregation and leaders. ostracism, but at least had a recognized Another difficulty has to do with place, however unenviable, in the social the broader contextualization of the idea order. The most crying aspect of the injus- of oppression. As practiced up to now, the tice was its invisibility to the rest of soci- analysis of oppression tends to be embed- ety, which either tacitly accepted it or was ded in two broader ideologies, neither of simply unaware that it existed. which now enjoys hegemony in any west- Appeals to the courts for the rec- em society. A major strand of the Judeo- ognition of homosexual rights had met Christian worldview sees the rich and with flat rejection on the grounds that powerful as obstacles to the work of re- homosexual behavior was per se immoral demption, for their heartless subjugation and illegal, while thevalidity of the ascetic of the poor and downtrodden stands in the morality was unchallenged. The further way of the achievement of a just society. pressure of ostracism served to keep the While this critique is currently most sali- victims of oppression from fighting back, ent in Liberation Theology, it has a sub- because their efforts would only intensify stantial biblical foundation, for the con- the rejection and marginality. Worst of all cept was acreation of theHebrew prophets was that many homosexuals internalized of the Old Testament, who lent it the full the guilt and self-reproach instilled by the force of their moral authority and power- attitudes of society. ful eloquence. A not dissimilar value- All these phenomena found par- contrast appears in Marxism, with its allels in the oppression of other social and perception of the class struggle between economic groups in the contemporary the exploiters and the proletariat-though world, and the sense of kinship and soli- it seeks to ground its interpretation of the darity with them buoyed the spirits of the phenomenon of oppression in an economic founders of the radical organizations that analysis rather than an appeal to religious "took to the streets" as part of the radical eschatology. Quite apart from thegrowing upsurge of the late 1960s. The goal of discnchantment of the larger society with "ending gay oppression" became part of both thcse ideologies, gay people have the universal struggle for justice and equal- many reproaches to address to both, owing ity which seemed to be inching forward to their histories of homophobia. with every independence movement in There is also a counterculture the former colonies and every campaign of concept that was loosely invoked in the a minority for the rights which it had been late 1960s as the right to reject as "oppres- unjustly denied. sive" every cultural norm or every demand Problems. Some difficulties arise made on the individual by society. Such an with this overall analysis of the situation approach ill coincides with the mounting of homosexuals in terms of oppression. need of advanced industrial societies for a First, the situation of homosexuals pres- highly self-disciplined citizenry, and is ents notable differences from that of eth- wholly incompatible with the renuncia- ORALSEX O tion of individual self-interest that collec- Mouth-to-Penis Activity. The tivist ideologies such as Marxism formally ancient Mediterranean peoples were fa- entail. miliar with this behavior in both its As has been noted, all subsequent homosexual and heterosexual forms. The analyses of oppression stem from the origi- Romans distinguished between fellatio- nalinsights of theHebrew Prophets. While in which the penetrating partner remains it is theoretically possible to devise a cri- relatively motionless, allowing his recep- tique of oppression independent of both tive partner to do most of the work-and the Judeo-Christian tradition and its Mam- irrumation, in which the penetrator en- ist offshoot, the task has not been seri- gages in vigorous buccal or laryngal thrusts. ously attempted, and it is hard to see what Depending on the individual, both are felt framework might serve the purpose. De- to enhance the penetrator's masculinity: tached from the larger intellectual context in fellatio the beneficiary of the action that would give it meaning, the discourse luxuriates in making the other service him of oppression now seemsrhetorical. While completely, while in irrumation he has it undoubtedly encapsulates social and the converse satisfaction of being able to psychological realities, it does so in a par- give full vent to the impulse to aggressive tial way that many find unsatisfying. penile thrusts. In modern writings, how- ever, it is usual to refer to both forms BIBLIOGRAPHY. Dennis Altman, simply as fellatio; the street terms "cock- Homosexual Oppression and Liberation, New York: Outerbridge and Dienstfrey, sucking," "blow job," and "(givinglget- 1971; Norman Gottwald, The Bible and ting) head" are also current. Liberation: Political and Social Herme- There are three common posi- neutics, Berkeley: Radical Religion, tions in this form of sexual activity. In the 1976; Mario Mieli, Homosexuality and first, the penetrator stands, while his part- Liberation: Elements ofa Gay Critique, London: Cay Men's Press, 1980; Jacques ner kneels, sits, or crouches to take the Pons, L'oppression dons 1'Ancien erect member in his mouth. In the second Testament, Paris: Letourzey et Ant, main position, the penetrator lies on his 1981; Aubrey Walter, ed. Come To- back, and the insertee crouches over him gether-the Years of Gay Liberation, or lies between his legs. In the third posi- London: Gay Men's Press, 1980. Ward Houser tion, especially suitable for irrumation, the insertee lies on his back with head propped up, and the penetrator straddles ORALSEX his chest, leaning forward over his head Human oral sex may be said to be while thrusting forward. Of course there the one family of sexual practices that is are many variants and intermediate posi- truly universal, inasmuch as it is common tions. to heterosexuals, male homosexuals, and The novice fellator tends to be lesbians. Although oral sex is widely dif- inexpert in various ways that may prove fused among the world's societies, past frustrating to his partner. Since he has and present, no detailed studies have been usually not yet overcome thegagreflex, he made as to the reasons for its relative may take only the head of his partner's popularity-in comparison with anal sex, member in his mouth rather than for exampleand the relevant correlations deepthroating it, which is optimal. Fur- with other cultural traits. One reason why thermore, anxiety about ejaculation may many prefer it to anal sex is the absence of cause him to slow his movements or even the pain and discomfort often initially freeze up at the stage in which the tempo experienced by the passive partner in the of the action should be increased. With latter activity, particularly if thesphincter relaxation and experience these difficul- has not been sufficiently loosened. ties are usually overcome, and many prac- 03 ORALSEX titioners learn to swallow the semen, even the penis in a rubber condom, while anal developing an appreciation of variations in ones do. its taste. Lesbian OralActivity.Physically, There is a tendency to associate lesbian cunnilinctus does not differ in any the two very different roles in fellatio- essential way from heterosexual cunni- penetration and reception-with a hierar- linctus, the configurations of the mouths chy of beauty, age, and sexual orientation, of women and men being essentially the wherein the favored position is that of same. However, the fact that a woman is penetrator. With respect to the latter, many better able to gauge the physiological re- men who regard themselves as heterosex- sponses of another woman than is a man (a ual will accept a blow job ("tr;ldeU),claim- factor which also favors male fellators) ing that there is little diffcrencc between a allows for lengthy and subtle sessions that female and a male mouth; yet they show take advantage of the capacity of women revulsion at the slightest suggestion that for multiple orgasms. As with men, the they should return the favor. This attitude oral activity may be sequential, onewoman is characteristic of a certain type of adoles- sucking another first and then having the cent male prostitute. In toilet sex contacts favor returned, or the sixty-nine position it has been observed that younger men may be assumed. However, lesbian rela- expect to be fellated, but as they get older tions are less likely to be hierarchical, so will switch to the receptor role. Some that neither partner is "left in the lurch" older men are only active as cocksuckers, by receiving an inadequate amount of havinglong since given up the expectation stimulation. Contrary to popular belief, of having their own member orally stimu- modern lesbians rarely resort to dildoes, lated. By convention, regardless of the though electrical vibrator-usually not source of effort, the penetrator is consid- phallus-shaped-may be employed as a ered "active" and the insertee "passive." supplement to oral activity. Some hold that sixty-nine, in There is virtually no risk of vene- which the two partners fcllate one another real disease, including AIDS, in lesbian simultaneously, is ideal because of its activity. However, yeast and other infec- mutuality. Certainly this reciprocity of- tions of the vaginal region may on occa- fers a psychological advantage. Yet sixty- sion be transferred to the mouth. nine has real drawbacks. First, the position Variations. Some people enjoy decreases each partner's maneuverability. giving their partner a tongue bath, though Secondly, the distraction at one end tends the extent of this procedure is usually to cause a slowdown or even cessation of limited by the exhaustion of the tonguer's activity at the other. Finally, the tongue is saliva. Many restrict themselves to of necessity on the upper side of the penis, French kissing, laving the inside of the where it is less stimulating than it would outer ear, nipple sucking, or (less com- be if it were placed on the lower side. For monly) toe sucking. thesereasons, many prefer serial fellatio to Anilinctus or "rimming" is the the simultaneous mutual form known as tonguing of the anus. Although this is sixty-nine. mildly cnjoyable to the recipient of the In the 1980s oral-penile activity action, the main benefit appears to be the has become more popular as it has been psychological effect that the rimmer has of shown that the risk of contracting the acceptinghispartnertotally. In other cases, AIDS virus is either insignificant, however, the rimmer may be enacting his especially for the penetrator, or at least own self-abasement, and in a few extreme enormously lower than with penile- scenes his partner may even expel faeces anal activity. However, oral activities do which he then ingests. One need scarcely not usually lend themselves to shielding stress that anilinctus in all of its versions ORIENTATION, SEXUAL 9 is dangerous to health; it has been impli- ORGANIZATIONS cated in hepatitis and probably transmits See Movement, Homosexual. other diseases as well. Erotic urination may take place in or into the mouth, sometimes as an adjunct to oral sex; un- ORIENTATION,SEXUAL like faeces, however, fresh urine is nor- The expression sexual orienta- mally sterile and thus poses no compa- tion, which came into general use only in rable health problem. the 1970s, denotes the stable pattern estab- Legal aspects. In the canon law of lished by an individual of erotic and affec- the medieval church the definition of tional response to others with respect to sodomy included all forms of oral sexual- gender. Commonly two orientations, ity, whether the partners were of opposite heterosexual and homosexual, are recog- sexes or of the same sex, because the pos- nized; many would add bisexual. Attrac- sibility of fecundation was excluded in tions to sectors within the male and both. The prosecution of participants in female populations with respect to age, oral sexuality, however, has certainly been race, and the like are not normally less frequent than legal action against those regarded as orientations, nor are such engaging in anal penetration, and in regard paraphilias as eroticization of urine and to lesbians, virtually non-existent. sadomasochism (SIM]. While English common law took In comparison with older judg- over many of the canon law definitions, in mental terms, such as sexual deviation 18 17 a court decision excluded oral sexu- and perversion, sexual orientation has the ality from the definition of buggery, so advantage of value neutrality. In compari- that the crime was later prosecuted under son with the expression sexual preference, other statutes such thoseprohibitinggross it emphasizes that erotic attraction stems indecency, lewd and lascivious conduct, from the deep structure of the personality, and the like. In entrapment cases, how- and is not a mere choice or taste which can ever, the unsuspecting victim of the be easily altered. Moreover, the metaphor plainclothesman's advance may have of orientation, which originally referred to agreed to nothing more than one of the alignment according to the points of the forms of oral sex in order to find himself compass, suggests the possibility of vari- under arrest. ety among individuals, rather than the In the recent Georgia case of rigid eitherlor contrast that a strict polar- Bowers v. Hardwick, which went to the ity of heterosexual/homosexual implies. United States Supreme Court (1986),the Finally, the concept of sexual orientation party under indictment had been acciden- conveys something of the complex inter- tally observed in the act of fellating an- actions between the individual personal- other male; the court ruled that the Ameri- ity (itself made up of conscious and uncon- can legal precedents extending the right of scious components], on the one hand, and privacy to heterosexual intercourse did the changing scripts and cues being trans- not apply to sodomy. mitted by the social environment, on the other. Oneresponds to a subtle "landscape BIBLIOGRAPHY. Gershon Legman, of eros" as posited by society, but one does Oragenitalism, New York: lulian Press, 1969; Joann Loulan, Lesbian Sex, San so in keepingwith one's individual charac- Francisco: Spinsters Ink, 1985; Charles ter and experience. Silverstein and Edmund White, The Toy In the view of some, the expres- of Gay Sex, New York: Crown, 1977. sion should be altered to affectional orien- Ward Houser tation, to indicate a broader concern with the whole person, rather that overtly ex- pressed erotic or genital acts. Restriction * ORIENTATION, SEXUAL to the specifically erotic has also been felt When his wife Eurydice died of the bite of to be a defect of the term homosexual s poisonous snake and was taken to Hades, itself, hence the temporary popularity of Orpheus obtained her release by giving a the word homophile. concert for the ruler of the Underworld. In its remote origins, the term Warned not to look at Euridice on the trip orientation stems from architecture, where home, Orpheus yielded to temptation and it signifies the alignment of temples and lost her forever. Orpheus then gathered churches on an east-west axis (from ori- around him a group of Thracian young ens, "east"]. In psychology it has come to men, to whom he introduced the new mean awareness of one's position or direc- practice of pederasty. Greek vase paint- tion with reference to time, place, or iden- ings show this ephebic entourage en- tity of persons; also it denotes a tendency chanted by the splendors of his song. Yet to move toward a source of stimulation or Orpheus' influence provoked resentment aparticular direction, as in tropisms. From among the forsaken female companions of this nexus it is but a short step to the his new lovers. The women-sometimes concept of sexual orientation. The wide- identified with the maenads of the Di- spread adoption of the expression is re- onysiac cult-ganged up on him, attack- lated to the 1970s popularity of such ing the musician with spears, axes, and compounds as action-oriented, identity- stones. Orpheus was dismembered, his oriented, and success-oriented. It is pos- head separated from the rest. Eventually sible that the semantic modulation into the head floated away, still singing, to- the erotic sphere was anticipated by the getherwith his lyre. Orpheus' headwashed late-nineteenth-century Germanuse, with ashore on the island of Lesbos, where it respect to sex, of the term Richtung, "di- received the honor of a shrine. The shrine rection." could still be visited in ancient times, and Wayne R. Dynes reputedly the head might be heard faintly singing. Some scribes claimed to have taken ORIGINMYTHS down the words, which then presumably See Inventor Legends. provided the texts for the Orphic hymns. Around these hymns developed a religious cult, Orphism, whose role and significance ORPHEUS are still the object of debate by historians. Greek mythological figure, the Most images of Orpheus in Greek son of the muse Calliope, noted for his and Roman art are either representative magical art in music and poetry. Whether depictions of him as singer or dramatic Orpheus was a historical personality is scenes of his later career-his leadership of disputed, but if so he lived in the genera- the male band in Thrace, his death, and tion before the Trojan War, therefore in the survival of the head. These last the thirteenth century B.C. events were important to the Greeks not Orpheus in Antiquity. A number only because they laid the foundation of important aspects of the career of Or- for his influence after death, but because pheus are recounted by ancient Greek he was regarded as the inventor of ped- writers. Of Thracian origin, Orpheus pos- erasty. Although he was not the only sessed musical skill that could enchant candidate for this honor, his nomination animals and plants and cause them to do reflects the Greekpenchant for attributing his will. Trees would transplant them- significant cultural achievements to par- selves for him, while birds and even fish ticular individuals. The Eurydice episode, gathered to hear his song. As a member of which in modern consciousness has be- the expedition of the Argonauts, he beat comevirtually synonymous with Orpheus, time for the rowers and stilled harsh winds. was less important to the Greeks, and may ORTON, JOE 4 even be a later grafting onto the earlier formationgradually suppressed knowledge torso of legend. of the homoerotic themes of classical The Fortunes of Orpheus. The antiquity. Thus Ottavio Rinuccini's Middle Ages had a curiously divided con- Florentine opera Euridice of 1600 deals cept of Orpheus. To some early Christian only with the married Orpheu+he even writers, such as Clement of Alexandria, brought Eurydice back to her husband in a the element of cosmic harmony seemed happy ending. This tradition of suppress- uppermost, and he was even compared to ing his later career has been generally fol- Christ. During the later Middle Ages, lowed in all the arts. Toward the end of the however, the singer was subject to morali- nineteenth century there was a revival of zation: as a sodomite, he was seen as de- the tragic Orpheus, as seen in paintings by serving his fate. Odilon Redon and hvarez de Sotomayor, It was left to the neoBlatonic but usually as an emblem of the alienated circles of fifteenth-century Florence, with artist, and not as asexual innovator. To the their fondness for merging pagan wisdom modem gay movement was left the task of with ararified Christianity, to rehabilitate reviving the homoerotic Orpheus. Orpheus as seer, musician, and lover of men. The Greek Orphic hymns, now read BIBLIOGRAPHY. Wayne Dynes, "Orpheuswithout Eurydice," Gai Saber, once more, were hailed as evidence of 1(1978],278-86;Dorothy M. Kosinski, Orpheus' skill as a mystical theologian. In Orpheus in Nineteenth-Century 1480, apparently, Angelo Poliziano (Poli- Symbolism, Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Press, tian) created for the court of Mantua his 1989; Charles Segal, Orpheus: The Myth brilliant short play, La Favola di Orfeo.At of the Poet, Baltimore: JohnsHopkins University Press, 1988; JohnWarden, ed., Mantua Poliziano could have inspected Orpheus: The Metamorphosis of a Myth, the frescoes of the life and death of Or- Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pheus done by Andrea Mantegna six years 1982. before. In his play Poliziano boldly states Wayne R. Dynes that after losing Eurydice Orpheus tumed with great zest to his own sex. The Italian humanist's description of Orpheus' later ORTON,JOE (JOHN career echoes the Latin poet Ovid, with KINGSLEY)(1733-1767) some touches of his own. Alover of youths, English playwright and novelist. Orpheus "plucks the new flowers, the In the 1960s, Orton's works shocked Brit- springtime of the better sex when men are ish audiences and had a significant impact all lithe and slender." on the direction of contemporary drama, The finest artistic representation despite the slender canon he had produced of the revived ancient Orpheus is by a before he was bludgeoned to death in 1967 northern painter, Albrecht Diirer. In a by his long-time lover, Kenneth Halliwell, masterly drawing of 1494 he reworked an in a murder-suicide, sparked by artistic as earlier Mantegna design to show a heroic well as sexual jealousies. Orpheu-virtually a pagan martyr-dying Orton, self-educated under at the hands of frenzied maenads. The Halliwell's guidance after the two met banderole contains a German inscription while students at the Royal Academy of reading "Orfeus der erst puseran" (Or- Dramatic Arts, offered a cynical view of pheus the first bugger), a blunt expression human nature, grounded in violence, sexu- by which Diirer acknowledged the ality, exploitation, greed, narcissism, and musician's distinction as the inventor of ruthlessness, in plays that are nonetheless homosexuality. witty, urbane, and stylized. An artistic In the second half of thesixteenth descendent of Oscar Wilde, Orton wrote century the chill winds of the Counterre- drama that can be thought of as either + ORTON, JOE social farce, moral satire, or ethical par- HaroldPinter (oneof the few fellow drama- ody--or all three simultaneously. His tists Orton admired) to jar the British dramatic world is comedic, but blackly so, theatre from the complacency that had and homosexuality pervades the sex-in- characterized it for the many years previ- fusedworld of his theatre, in everyworkhe ous, allowing both America and France to produced. forge ahead into much more adventurous Before his and Halliwell's convic- dramatic territory. tion and jail sentence in 1962 for defacing Orton, however, never believed library books (a situation worthy of an his plays were as outrageous and improb- Orton plot), he had written little, collabo- able as did his audiences and critics, for his rating with his lover on the manuscripts of diaries demonstrate that much of his vi- four unpublished novels. After his release, sion came directly from his own life rather however, Orton began to write furiously, than from fanciful literary imagination. affected both by incarceration and his first For example, his addiction to sexual en- separation from Halliwell. In 1964, he counters in public toilets explains much wrote The Ruffian on the Stair and his about the pervasion of anonymous and brilliant Entertaining Mr. Sloane, the lat- indifferent sexuality in his written work. ter a touchstone to his vision of inherent Had he lived, his would have no doubt human depravity as a brother and sister try been one of the most pervasive presences to outmaneuver each other to seduce the in the drama of the last two decades, charmingly dangerous young man who but his few works have still had a pro- has begun to dominate and exploit them found influence in shaping the dual vision and their home. Also in 1964, he completed of current drama and its multiplicity of Loot, whose 1966 production made him a effect. celebrity, and his television play, meGood and Faithful Servant, an unusually bitter BIBLIOGRAPHY. John Lahr, Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of loe Orton, examination of the condition of the work- New York: Knopf, 1978; Simon ing classes-if still quite witty in form. In Shepherd, Because We're Queers: The 1966, he wrote 7'he Erpingham Camp and Life and Crimes of Kenneth HalliweLl an unproduced screenplay for the Beatles, and loe Orton, London: Gay Men's Press, Up Against It; in 1967, Orton produced 1989. Rodney Simard another television play, Funeral Games, and the play many consider to be his finest achievement, What the ButlerSaw, staged OWEN,WILFRED posthumously in 1969. His only other (1893-1918) independent work was a novel completed English poet. Born in Oswestry, in 1961, me Vision of Gombold Proval, Shropshire, Owen was educated at the published in 1971 as Head to Toe. Birkenhead Institute, Liverpool, and at Orton's drama was designed to University College, Reading. His relation- shock and disorient, motives clearly re- ship with his affectionate, devout but not vealed in the diaries he kept, and his work intellectual mother was the closest of his accomplished just that: it challenged the life, but a source of many difficulties. comfortable assumptions of London's tra- Despite her hopes and prayers Owen did ditional and safe West End and offered not become a clergyman but even lost his theatre audiences an amoralview of them- faith. A tutor at Bordeaux at the moment selves with an impact and shock of recog- World War I broke out, he returned to nition unmitigated by its witty and intel- England and enlisted in the Artists' Rifles ligent presentation. As a boost to the in 1915. In January 1917 he was sent to the "school of anger" of the previous decade, Somme with the 2nd Battalion Man- Orton's drama coupled with the works of chester Regiment. He was soon recording OXFORD 4 the horrors of life at the front in letters he Having grown up in a world in wrote home, and as a victim of "shell which homosexuality was unthinkable, shock" he was sent to convalesce at Owen may have repressed and denied his Craiglockhart War Hospital, near Ed- inclinations until Sassoon introduced him inburgh, where he met Siegfried Sassoon, to one of thevery few literary circleswhere another patient. For Owen itwas thefriend- "Uranianism" was accepted and casually ship of a lifetime, far more important to discussed. Sassoon's own ideas came from him than any previous literary encounter. the circle around Edward Catpenter, who Their conversations and subsequent cor- preached a gospel of idealized Uranian respondence gave Owen's poetic vocation love. From him Owen derived the aware- focus and meaning, and Sassoon's suppor- ness of these matters that illuminates his tive criticisms helped to curb his friend's last poems and his thoughts on religion tendency to lush overwriting. Recovered and war. His interest in young male beauty from his ordeal, Owen returned to France became one of the sources of his poetry. in August 1918. He was awarded the Owen discovered that the artistic tem- Maltese Cross, but was killed a week be- perament which he sought in himself was fore the Armistice while leading his men a function of his homosexuality, or to across a canal. reverse the equation, that his sexual ten- His brother, Harold Owen, delib- dencies were a boon for art and for human- erately tried to keep the poet's reputation ity. He also made the acquaintance of under the control of the family, turning Robert Ross, the intimate of Oscar Wilde, away researchers prying into Wilfred's whose life was ended by a scandal that personal life. He dreaded particularly that occurred in 1918. Thus Owen was heir to someone might raise the "frightful impli- two major strands of homosexual thought cation" of homosexuality. He even claimed in the early twentieth century-the ethi- that when pressed on the subject Wilfred cal and the aesthetic-and only his prema- had denied any personal involvement but ture death precluded their further unfold- admitted to an "abstract" interest because ing in his verse. homosexuality seemed to attract so many intelligent people. At the poet's own re- BIBLIOGRAPHY. Dominic Hibberd, Owen the Poet, Athens, GA: University quest his mother burned "a sack full" of of Georgia Press, 1986. his papers, and remarkably few letters to Warren /ohansson him have survived. Only four poems by Owen were published in his lifetime; the great ones, the chief poems, written during OXFORD the last twelve months of his life, were See Cambridge and Oxford. issued from the press in 1920 with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon, next to whom he is the greatest of English war poets.