From: Lesley Hall <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 12:22:12 +0000

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: RE: Historical instances of sadomasochism/flagellation

docx2 wrote:

>

> Dear folks,

>

> I have a few references that many be useful. Ellis reports the

> following:

Thanks for those. Ian Gibson in _The English Vice_ cites the Pico della

Mirandola reference. Re the date of Meibomius, the only copy in the

British Library is the 1643 (4th) edition, presumably the one consulted

by Ellis, but it was first published in Leyden in 1629 (Gibson again).

At least this suggests a definite date for the first edition, unlike the

controversies over the first appearance of _Onania_ some time during the

first 2 decades of the C18th.

And also thanks to Terrence Lockyer for those helpful refs.

Lesley Hall

lesleyah@primex.co.uk

website: http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~lesleyah

From: "Lesley Hall" <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 13:07:01 -0000

To: "Histsex:For historians of sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: FWD: CFP: Special LGBTQ Issue of Peace and Change: Journal of Peace Research

Papers on Interrelationship Between Queer and Peace Politics

Publication Deadline: 2004-02-01

Date Submitted: 2003-12-30

Announcement ID: 136370

CFP: Special LGBTQ Issue of Peace and Change: Journal of Peace Research

For the special LGBTQ issue of Peace and Change to be published in April or

July 2005, we seek articles that will unhinge the politics of peace from

their anchors in a heteronormative tradition of scholarship and research.

Peace history and studies have recently implemented analyses of gender

stemming from feminist perspectives to revisit and reinterpret the politics

of security, bodies and war. Yet as a whole the field still lacks

appropriate attention to the ways in which queer analyses and interrogations

have the potential to alter the way people make sense of their social and

political worlds including its conflicts and potentials for peace. We seek

to address this void by organizing a volume of Peace and Change that will

take as central the complexities of sexuality in relation to activism and

nonviolence. In other words, just as we are calling on peace studies

scholars to rethink the possibilities of research and writing by using the

lens of queer theory, we are also asking scholars of sexuality/lgbt/queer

studies to participate in ongoing debates regarding the politics of justice

and peace.

How have the politics of AIDS, for example, complicated notions about peace,

activism and political effectiveness? What would a comparative study of the

effects, feasibility and privilege of ACT UP actions in different sectors of

the United States and abroad offer? How have lgbtq activists absorbed or

intervened in the politics of U.S. imperialism and global capitalism? What

can be learned from the linkages between non-traditional crusaders (like

lgbt activists) who take on seeming traditional crusades, i.e. anti-nuclear

movements? What measures would be helpful to implement or create regarding

the successes, failures and language of queer movement actions? What kinds

of political projects have been carried forth and by whom in the name of

lgbtq ³rights² and how have these played a role in conflict resolution? What

kinds correlations exist between the kinds of military use/ trafficking in

female and male bodies in the name of ³peace² or ³justice²? It is our hope

that these and other questions will tempt peace and lgbtq studies scholars

to reconsider notions of security, individualism, responsibility and

citizenship.

Please send completed papers or abstracts to both coeditors by February 1,

2004. Completed Essays will be due April, 15, 2004.

Kathleen Kennedy

History

Co-editor, Peace and Change

Western Washington University

516 High ST.

Bellingham, WA 98225

Karen C. Krahulik

LGBT Center/Women's Studies

Duke University

Box 90958

Durham, NC 27708

Email: kkennedy@cc.wwu.edu, krahulik@duke.edu

From: "Lesley Hall" <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 15:07:45 -0000

To: "Histsex:For historians of sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Fw: RVW: Isvan on Bibars, _Victims and Heroines_

> H-NET BOOK REVIEW

> Published by H-Gender-MidEast@h-net.msu.edu (October 2003)

>

> Iman Bibars. _Victims and Heroines: Women, Welfare, and the Egyptian

> State_. London: Zed Books, 2001. x + 330 pp. Bibliography, index.

> $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 1-85649-934-0; $25.00 (paper), ISBN

> 1-85649-935-9.

>

> Reviewed for H-Gender-MidEast by A. Nilufer Isvan, Department of

> Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook

>

> A Secondary Patriarchal Bargain

>

> This sensitively written and thought-provoking book is based on the

> author's fieldwork in seven poor neighborhoods within the

> Cairo-Alexandria conurbation. Even though a systematic survey was

> conducted in one of the research sites, the major portion of the

> empirical material used in the book come from in-depth informal

> interviews with over four hundred female heads of households. Bibars

> documents these women's experiences with state welfare bureaucracies

> and privately funded religious charity organizations. She is careful

> to include both Islamic and Coptic charities in her study, thus

> presenting the reader with a wide range of comparative cases. The

> author's attention to detail and unyielding scrutiny of her own

> theoretical positions constantly caution the reader against making

> facile interpretations or drawing hasty conclusions. Unfortunately

> for the reviewer, these very same features make this a difficult

> book to evaluate in a brief and concise manner.

>

> There are three main theoretical threads that run through the study,

> locating it at the crossroads of multiple debates. First, Bibars

> addresses the literature on the role of the state in reproducing

> gender systems. She successfully incorporates into her discussion

> conceptual frames formulated by scholars such as Nancy Fraser, Theda

> Skocpol, and Anne Orloff, making this more than just a book about

> Egypt. Feminist students of state formation and bureaucratic

> structures will find much to interest them in these pages. Second,

> the choice of empirical cases locates the book within the literature

> on poverty and welfare provision within the global capitalist system

> in general, and the feminization of poverty in particular. Last,

> but not least, the author challenges some current intellectual

> trends by exploring the limits of arguments about women's agency and

> everyday forms of resistance.

>

> To my mind, the book's most important empirical finding is the sheer

> pervasiveness and persistence of the classical patriarchal order

> within the worldviews of all the major actors of the narrative,

> including the poor women victimized by patriarchy and its attending

> mental constructs. Equally important is the finding that this order

> is no longer the dominant form of family/household formation in

> Egypt. Just as Judith Stacey argues, in the case of the American

> family, that the modern nuclear household has lost its dominance to

> a multiplicity of alternative household formations, which she

> describes as "postmodern," Bibars discovers that the classical

> patriarchal family system in Egypt has given way to its own

> postmodern forms.

>

> These stories of the women who are the main breadwinners of their

> households suggest to me that there are as many alternatives to the

> classical patriarchal household as there are ways for men to default

> on their end of the patriarchal bargain. Some of Bibars's

> informants are _de jure_ heads of household. That is, the absence

> of a male provider in their lives conforms to one of the patterns

> easily recognized by the state: widows, spinsters, unmarried

> orphans, and to a lesser extent, divorcees. The religious

> charitable organizations in the study, be they Islamic or Coptic,

> make it their priority to help orphans. To qualify for aid from

> these sources, women have to prove that they are widowed, and that

> they have dependent children. Many women in the study are what the

> author refers to as _de facto_ household heads. That is, even

> though there is a man in their lives, he has either abandoned them

> or is otherwise unable or unwilling to deliver on his end of the

> patriarchal bargain. The lives of these women provide the most

> poignant examples of "the new patriarchy" and its social, economic,

> and cultural consequences. They fall through the cracks of the

> welfare and charity systems because, the author claims, these

> systems are organized around the assumption that men are providers.

> Consequently, as long as a single woman's father or a married

> woman's husband is alive, she has no legitimate claims to aid. Then

> there are the spinsters (never-married women aged forty-eight or

> older) who fail to provide proof of their virginity, thus failing to

> qualify for the state's spinster pension. What this picture makes

> very clear is that the state and/or religious foundations are

> willing to step in to help women who have kept their end of the

> patriarchal bargain (as wives, mothers, or chaste and honorable

> single women) but are, nonetheless, manless.

>

> Here, I disagree with the author on a matter of interpretation. She

> argues that the _de jure_ female household heads are victimized

> because gate-keepers of the social safety net simply refuse to

> believe that their husbands or fathers could fail to support them.

> In other words, she maintains that their patriarchal assumptions are

> blinding these officials to the realities of these women's lives. I

> see a somewhat more sinister process underlying the tragedy of these

> women. This "blindness" on the part of welfare providers is

> evidence of a less frequently addressed aspect of patriarchal

> systems, namely, the fraternal ties that they establish and nourish

> among men. In the long run, these welfare agencies would suffer

> serious blows to their legitimacy if they were to put themselves in

> the position of judging men's success in providing for their women,

> or by taking under their wings women who have shamed their men by

> engaging in extramarital sex (as in the case of non-virgin

> spinsters). In short, I think that these women are victims of a

> tacit understanding, a secondary patriarchal bargain, if you will,

> whereby men respect each other's honor by acknowledging each

> others's rights over women (daughters, sisters, wives). The welfare

> agencies are simply behaving like honorable men under a patriarchal

> order.

>

> Egypt is not alone in witnessing an unprecedented level of male

> default in the patriarchal bargain because there are global economic

> trends at play here. The decreasing bargaining power of labor and

> the related declines in job security and real wages have made it

> impossible for many men all around the world to earn a family wage.

> On the other hand, deep-rooted cultural beliefs that link

> masculinity to the provider role and femininity to reproduction and

> nurturing make it difficult for the social imaginary to acknowledge

> and assimilate this reality. The consequences, as they play out in

> individual life stories, are often tragic, as Bibars's book so

> eloquently demonstrates.

>

> Tragic as their lives may be, these women are not depicted as

> passive victims. They appear in the narrative as active agents who

> mobilize whatever resources are available to them in order to cope

> with the difficulties they face. As the author is quick to point

> out, these coping mechanisms have much in common with those utilized

> by other oppressed groups, be they slaves, industrial workers, or

> landless peasants. It has become fashionable to refer to these

> mechanisms as everyday forms of resistance or, as James Scott called

> them, "weapons of the weak." However, Bibars disagrees. Using de

> Certeau's distinction between opposition and resistance, she claims

> that these mechanisms operate within the oppressive system,

> acknowledging its basic assumptions, and thus reinforcing the

> oppression. They are acts of opposition, not resistance. The

> resulting picture, then, is a very pessimistic one: any coping

> mechanism short of organized rebellion against patriarchy only works

> to strengthen its hold on the lives of its victims.

>

> The author is painfully aware that this theoretical position is not

> exactly popular within postmodern feminism, or post-colonial

> cultural theory circles, and that it leaves her open to criticism

> for observing these women through "Western eyes," for depicting them

> as victims who collude in their own victimization, and for imposing

> moral judgments where cultural relativism is called for. Worse, she

> is concerned that her analysis might feed into a neo-orientalist

> discourse equating Islam with oppression, especially gender

> oppression. I believe that her fears are unfounded.

>

> I would like to take her to task on these points, though not exactly

> for the reasons she anticipates criticism. I have no serious

> quarrels with her analysis of the reproduction of patriarchy through

> the actions of oppressed women. Neither do I think the book

> necessarily provides fuel for neo-orientalism. I do, however, find

> her approach to Islam lacking in appreciation of the subtleties of

> current debates surrounding such practices as reveiling. For

> example, she writes: "Although there are several attempts to

> reinterpret the place of women and gender in Islam, there is no

> doubt that when Islam is used by states or religious groups as a

> form of political expression, it curtails women's autonomy" (p.

> 109). This is one of the few references in the whole book to the

> complex issue of the role and meaning of Islamic identity in the

> lives of disadvantaged women. I believe those issues merit more

> attention. For example, Bibars consistently brushes aside--in the

> sense that she refrains from exploring the full implications of--her

> finding that her respondents report better experiences with Islamic

> charities than with state bureaucracies. In reporting these

> findings, she is quick to add that Islamic NGOs are as infused with

> patriarchal assumptions as the state, and that "[i]n the slums,

> six-year-old girls are veiling to gain access to the 'orphan's

> sponsorship' programme, a clear sign of these programmes at work"

> (p. 107). What, then, are we to make of women's reports that they

> feel more respected as human beings in the hands of religious

> officials than when at the mercy of state bureaucrats? Why are they

> systematically humiliated and stereotyped as ignorant, stupid, and

> incompetent by state welfare agencies but not by Islamic charity

> workers? Why do they not complain as bitterly about having to veil

> their little girls as having to wait whole days outside state

> offices only to be told to come back next week? I believe these

> findings deserve more analytic scrutiny than they receive, and hold

> important clues about the attraction of religious identity--and its

> visible symbols--to disadvantaged people who feel marginalized and

> dehumanized by the secular apparatuses of modern nation states.

>

> As mentioned above, the book's narrative strategy makes it very

> clear that these women are far from passive dupes of an oppressive

> system. However, this does not necessarily imply that they are

> feminist heroines. I see their daily struggles as combining

> elements of subversion and, yes, resistance, with accommodation and

> collusion. Unlike the author, I would argue that systems of

> oppression can be subverted from within, and that small, everyday

> defiances do occasionally accumulate into serious systemic

> challenges. It does not necessarily follow, however, that she is

> wrong in her assertion that the coping mechanisms adopted by her

> informants reproduce important aspects of patriarchy. In the final

> analysis, these tensions between collusion and resistance are bound

> to impose changes on existing patriarchal norms. However, the

> outcome will not necessarily be a feminist utopia. This leaves much

> room for scholarly analysis and feminist praxis.

>

> Finally, it is very clear from the empirical evidence she recounts

> (though less so from her analysis of it) that Islam is not at the

> root of women's oppression. The gender ideology and resulting

> practices are extremely diffuse, and totally permeate all levels of

> Egyptian society, including the state, the Islamic charities, and

> the Coptic Church. Furthermore, examples of this tension between

> economic reality and gender ideology and related processes such as

> the feminization of poverty, and the second (and even third) shift,

> are global issues. Bibars provides us with insights into how these

> global tensions play out within a specifically Egyptian context,

> while at the same time remaining in touch with broader theoretical

> debates.

>

>

> Copyright (c) 2003 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits

> the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,

> educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the

> author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and

> H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses

> contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

Sent: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 22:30:34 +0200

To: "History of Sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism/flagellation

On Thursday, January 01, 2004, Lesley Hall wrote

: Re the date of Meibomius, the only copy in the British Library

: is the 1643 (4th) edition, presumably the one consulted by Ellis,

: but it was first published in Leyden in 1629 (Gibson again).

In which case, if the play *A Nice Valour* (sometimes listed as *The Nice

Valour*) does contain explicit reference to erotic flagellation (which I

have still not been able to check), it would be earlier: my reference books

present as the standard view that it was a collaboration by Fletcher and

Middleton, though it appears in collected editions of Beaumont and Fletcher.

Anyhow, the first known printing is 1647, but Francis Beaumont (d. 1616),

John Fletcher (d. 1625), and Thomas Middleton (d. 1627) were all dead by the

time of the Leiden edition referred to by LH.

Terrence Lockyer

Johannesburg, South Africa

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 00:37:44 +0200

To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>

Subject: Eduardo Galeano, "The Heresy of Difference"

I thought this piece, the URL of which was posted to Classics-L, might be of

interest to some on this list:

http://www.progressive.org/jan04/gal0104.html

Terrence Lockyer

Johannesburg, South Africa

From: "Gert Hekma" <G.Hekma@uva.nl>

Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 11:51:02 +0100

To: <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: RE: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism/flagellation

Dear friends,

there are two interesting new books on the history of flagellation, but regrettably for most of you, they are not in English. Follows a part of my Book Ends that will be published this spring in Sexualities.

(and a happy new year to all of you)

Gert Hekma

Estela V. Welldon wrote for the series "Ideas in Psychoanalysis" a short and hostile essay from a traditional point of view Sadomasochism (Duxford MA/London: Icon and Totem, 2002). The practice is "a solution, of sorts, to unbearable psychic pain" and may give immense pleasure, but "at a cost of real intimacy and with the potential for real damage to others".<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Welldon wants to put an end to the "cycles of abuse" of SM that the historian of religion Patrick Vandermeersch rather likes to promote. He offers in La chair de la passion. Une histoire de foi: la flagellation (The flesh of passion. A history of belief: flagellation; Paris: Cerf, 2002) a passionate history of flagellation from its controversial Christian beginnings in the eleventh century. Its main defender was amazingly the same Petrus Damianus who railed against sodomy. In the seventeenth century the whip became the viagra of those times while its use moved from medical to sexual practice in the eighteenth. Vandermeersch gives a profound treatment of sexology and Freudianism and ends with a plea for a Christian belief that includes not only the mind, but also the body. The book also contains a description of a still existing flagellation ritual in the Spanish village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Niklaus Largier's Lob der Peitsche. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Erregung (Praise of the whip. A cultural history of excitement; Munich, Beck, 2001) treats more or less the same history but his endless citations and peregrinations through history make the book a difficult read. His interesting illustrations do not make up for the difference.

Peter Weibel edited for an exhibit on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and masochism in Graz, the 2003 European cultural capital, two fat volumes Phantom der Lust. Visionen des Masochismus in der Kunst (Phantom of Lust. Views on masochism in the arts; Munich: belleville, 2003). The first has many texts on the issue and the second the imagery. The publisher himself, Michael Farin, edited Phantom Schmerz. Quellentexte zur Begriffsgeschichte des Masochismus (Phantom pain. Original texts to the conceptual history of masochism; Munich: belleville, 2003) with articles and booklets by Richard von Krafft-Ebing who coined the terms sadism and masochism, Ivan Bloch, Sigmund Freud, Ernst Schertel and other sexological and literary experts. He published many other books on the subject, for example half a dozen on Sacher-Masoch, his biographical writings and his wife Wanda. The mentioned books are enormous, each about 500 pages. Much smaller is the elegant and informative biography Leopold von Sacher-Masoch by Lisbeth Exner (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2003).

From: Lesley Hall <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 15:09:41 GMT

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: FWD: RVW: Davis. Bending over Backwards

Lennard J. Davis. Bending over Backwards: Disability,

Dismodernism, and Other Difficult Positions. Foreword

by Michael Bérubé. Cultural Front Series. New York:

New York University Press, 2003. 224 pp. Notes,

bibliography, index. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-8147-1949-

X; $19.00 (paper), ISBN 0-8147-1950-3.

Reviewed by Susan Burch, Department of History and

Government, Gallaudet University.

Published by H-Disability (November, 2003)

Lenny Davis's admirers will welcome his most recent

work, Bending over Backwards: Disability,

Dismodernism, and Other Difficult Positions. This

compilation of nine separate essays offers a panoramic

view of the author-activist's evolving ideas about

disability, disability studies, and literary

historical criticism. It covers a breadth of topics--

the human genome project, ADA court cases, concepts of

citizenship, the history of the novel, homosexuality,

postmodernist theory, the rise of Disability Studies,

etc. A recent addition to the NYU series Cultural

Fronts, which seeks to promote works of cultural

criticism with policy implications, this is not

intended primarily for an audience of historians.

Still, Davis's work offers creative and challenging

examples that may be useful to our discipline and

particularly to Disability historians.

Davis argues that disability, as a category of

identity, has the potential to transform the

postmodern notion of identity. In previous works,

which include Enforcing Normalcy and The Disability

Studies Reader, Davis outlined the social, scientific,

and linguistic processes that inform the meaning

of "disability." In an edited collection of his

parents' correspondence, Shall I Say a Kiss, and in

his own memoir, My Sense of Silence, Davis revealed in

poignant and personal images the complexities of

living as/with Deaf people. Inspired by Jacques Lacan

and Michel Foucault, Davis melds the theoretical with

the personal.

His most recent work is primarily a collection of

pieces previously published and the result of

dialogues Davis had with himself and others since

their publication. Consequently, some chapters overlap

in content and argument. Still, taken together, they

reveal a steep evolution of understanding. In writing

this book, Davis strives to remind scholars of the

pervasive presence of disability, and its manifest

possibilities for clarifying and reconceptualizing

academic and practical definitions of identity and

status.

Several chapters in Bending over Backwards summarize

arguments previously made by Davis in his other books;

most widely known is his contention that the

nineteenth century witnessed a watershed change in

conceptions of humans from ideals to norms,

exemplified by the rise of eugenics. Included in this

argument, Davis elucidates the extent to which the

idea of normalcy has been tied to, created by, and

developed with the idea of abnormal bodies. Several

chapters from this newest installment go further,

linking disability in new ways to the legal system,

American politics, the environment, technology, and

the economy. Moreover, Bending over Backwards sharpens

the application of disability to cultural studies and

postmodernist theory, challenging the theoretical

basis of identity politics and social constructionism,

and promoting instead what he calls "dismodernism."

Rather than tack on disability to the traditional

interpretive troika of race, class, and gender, Davis

provocatively suggests that disability embodies,

supplants, and transcends these postmodernist

classifiers. According to Davis, it is in part

disability's instability as a category that will allow

Disability Studies the chance to "provide a critique

of and a politics to discuss how all groups, based on

physical traits or markings, are selected for

disablement by a larger system of regulation and

signification. So it is paradoxically the most

marginalized group--people with disabilities--who can

provide the broadest way of understanding contemporary

systems of oppression" (p. 29).

His introduction, entitled "People with Disability:

They Are You," goes further than most disability

theory scholarship. Augmenting the position that

disability directly and indirectly influences

everyone, Davis advocates a broader civil rights

mandate by linking disability much more closely with

legal, cultural, governmental, and social matters. His

solution is called dismodernism, which incorporates

the value that protections offered to any class be

offered to all classes (p. 30). With this theory,

Davis conveys the potential of dismodernism

succinctly, asserting, that "[i]mpairment is the rule,

and normalcy is the fantasy. Dependence is the

reality, and independence grandiose thinking. Barrier-

free access is the goal, and the right to pursue

happiness the false consciousness that obscures it.

Universal design becomes the template for social and

political designs" (p. 31).

Several chapters may be of particular interest to

historians of Disability. Chapter 1, "The End of

Identity Politics and the Beginning of Dismodernism,"

offers a coherent description of the parallels between

historical expressions of minority identities,

particularly framed by literary criticisms of Jacques

Lacan, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Judith

Butler. Critiquing genetic interpretations of

disability and normalcy, Davis relocates the

discussion of essentialism. He makes perhaps his

strongest case for the instability of identity and the

value of dismodernism here. Using the example of

transgender politics and intersexed people, Davis

reveals the "dissolving boundaries" of traditional

identity categories (p. 17). The human genome project--

a common target for disability scholars--also plays a

prominent role in this essay. Yet Davis raises fresh

and cogent questions about the meaning of "correct"

or "real" genomes--what is the ideal, and how is that

being defined? For instance, he questions what it

means to eradicate certain conditions that may

ultimately prevent those individuals from experiencing

other disabling conditions.

The chapter "Bending over Backwards" is particularly

strong and illuminating. In it, Davis outlines the

Americans with Disabilities Act and specific current

cases testing the ADA. This close reading of legal

texts emphasizes the ways cultural norms frame such

documents and judicial decisions. The references to

common historical and contemporary popular images of

disability broaden the implications of the case

studies, demonstrating in vivid ways the construction

of disability. "Go to the Margins of the Class," which

focuses primarily on the brutal murder of James Byrd

Jr., is one of the finest pieces Davis has created. In

1999 Byrd, a citizen of Jasper, Texas, was dragged

behind a truck for two miles, before he ultimately was

dismembered and killed. Viewing this hate crime with

equal and intensified attention to the issue of

disability produced superb, shocking results. This

reviewer, like many, had heard nothing of Byrd's

impairments--seizures and debilitating arthritis--when

national media covered the case. Davis potently

challenges the premise that certain identities are

more important than others in hate crimes, and in

society generally. The writing is crisp and focused;

his explanation of evidence and his analysis will

appeal to the historically trained.

Although it was not his primary aim to do so, Davis's

increased attention to the economic factors that

compound physical and mental impairment was greatly

appreciated by this reader. A multitude of his

examples depict the intimate and inextricable tie

between class circumstances and experiences of

disability. Genetic testing, for example, occurs

mainly in affluent societies and for its members (p.

21), and the majority of people with disabilities are

poor, under or unemployed, and undereducated (p. 28).

Especially in his study of employment law and

disability, he illuminates the "dissolving boundaries"

of identity and brings disability into closer

proximity to the mainstream world. It is hoped that

Davis will continue to probe this issue in future

works.

This book was not intended, nor does it qualify, as

a "history collection." Its interdisciplinary nature

and strong theoretical and literary criticism

framework necessitate a different standard of argument

than historians apply. Thus this review cannot fairly

critique the sources using traditional historical

measures. It should be noted, however, that Davis's

primary evidence reflects the diverse nature of his

pieces. He cites many classic texts in Disability

Studies, including Freakery, Claiming Disability, The

Black Stork, and Nothing about Us without Us. He

frequently references his own previous works, as well

as critical literary studies, British novels, current

American legal briefs, and recent New York Times

articles. Several of the pieces in this collection,

while historical in nature, might have benefited from

greater attention to past evidence of activism. "The

Crip Strikes Back," for instance, shares many

similarities with Paul Longmore's work on the League

of the Physically Handicapped; Bob Buchanan's work on

deaf laborers and activists resonate with and

contradict Davis's position that before the 1970s

different populations of people with disabilities did

not previously see commonality with others (p. 11).[1]

One regret this reviewer had with the work was the

relative absence of direct evaluation and theoretical

study of Deafness with/versus disability. As a leading

theoretician of disability and the son of deaf

parents, Davis is uniquely poised to review both. His

provocative ideas about the instability of identity

and the powerful advantages of embracing disability

might well challenge or at least complicate the tense

relationship between the Deaf world and people who

identify as disabled. The collection would have

benefited significantly from more thorough

copyediting, too; the endnotes are inconsistent and

often inaccessible. Davis should be commended for his

provocative discussion of the human genome project and

his previous work on the impact of eugenics. He could

go still further with his analysis of the role of

science and popular culture; his next work--on what he

calls "bioculture"--promises to address this topic

more fully.

Like Paul Longmore's recent memoir-collection Why I

Burned My Book, Davis's compilation ultimately allows

readers to see the ebb, flow, and evolution of

positions as well as the complex and difficult

personal relationship between scholar, activist, and

member of the disability community. In Bending over

Backwards, the author acknowledges at the outset that

the pieces do not fit neatly together. Since many

chapters repeat similar themes and assume some

grounding in Disability Studies and Davis's previous

works, it may be less useful to students or general

readers. Some of the repetition may prove useful in

the end, however. Many selections, for example,

address issues of control and marginalization, lending

themselves naturally as complementary pieces to works

like Inventing the Feeble Mind, Illusions of Equality,

or sections from The New Disability History. Davis's

theoretical components, especially his critiques of

Foucault, could counterbalance the lack of such study

in virtually all Disability social histories.

Bending over Backwards may not be not an easy read for

traditional historians; the essays are highly

theoretical, often reading as a keen stream of

consciousness. Something Davis does particularly well

is juggle theory and activism deftly, employing

language that makes their overlap plain to academics

who claim they are not activists, and activists who

stake no claim on theory. The writing is quirky at

times, sarcastic at others, and the high spiritedness

of the book may challenge those who prefer more

straightforward, tangible explanations. Still, this

kind of cutting edge historicization-meets-literary

criticism may delight many, opening new ground for

interdisciplinary dialogue.

Thus even with its limitations, Bending over Backwards

remains an important and useful work for historians as

a template for examining the myriad ways disability

and Deafness infiltrate vital aspects of our identity,

including laws, cultural icons, literature, and

citizenship.

Note

[1]. Paul Longmore, "League of the Physically

Handicapped and the Great Depression: A Case Study in

the New Disability History," Journal of American

History 87:3 (2000): pp. 888-921; and Robert Buchanan,

Illusions of Equality: Deaf Americans in School and

Factory, 1850-1950 (Washington: Gallaudet University

Press, 1999).

From: Wrdynes@aol.com

Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 11:40:08 EST

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: Historical instances of sadomasochism

Cc: Wrdynes@aol.com

Everyone knows that the history of ancient Greece and Rome is replete with

instances of human cruelty. Yet the ancient world seems to have known sadism

without masochism (that is the willing acceptance of pain or the threat of it).

Why this asymmetry?

A possible exception is the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries at

Pompeii. This villa is aptly named, because although the scenes show individuals

seemingly willingly accepting flagellation, their purpose has never been

convincingly explained. At least not to my knowledge, for there is a constant flow of

new scholarship on thise hauntingly beautiful scenes.

Best, Wayne R. Dynes

From: "Lesley Hall" <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 20:55:15 -0000

To: "Histsex:For historians of sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: FWD: RVW: McBee on Rotskoff, _Love on the Rocks_

> H-NET BOOK REVIEW

> Published by H-Women@h-net.msu.edu (January 2004)

>

> Lori Rotskoff. _Love on the Rocks: Men, Women, and Alcohol in Post-World

> War II America_. Gender and American Culture Series. Chapel Hill and

> London: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. 307 pp. Notes,

> bibliography, index. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-8078-2728-2; $18.95 (paper),

> ISBN 0-8078-5402-6.

>

> Reviewed for H-Women by Randy D. McBee <randy.mcbee@ttu.edu>, Department

> of History, Texas Tech University

>

> Engendering the Alcoholic

>

> In her engaging history of alcoholism and the alcoholism movement, Lori

> Rotskoff explores the gendered history of drinking from the turn of the

> century to the early 1960s. Rotskoff notes that in the late-nineteenth

> century alcohol was identified primarily with the saloon. In

> particular,

> the saloon was a major site of a larger bachelor subculture where men of

> various ethnic backgrounds enjoyed the company of other men and scorned

> the domesticating influence of women. Indeed, the saloon was central to

> the construction of male identity that was based largely on the values

> of

> all-male camaraderie and the rejection of familial obligations.

> Rotskoff

> notes that the avid saloon-goer represented "dissolute manhood," which

> stood in stark opposition to the other major construction of male

> identity, "respectable manhood" (p. 18). Respectable manhood, as

> portrayed by temperance reformers, cherished the man's role as father

> and

> as husband. Respectability required commitment to the breadwinner

> ethic,

> but men could also enjoy the fruits of their labor at home. In fact,

> unlike "dissolute manhood," which was viewed as a threat to the family's

> well being, "respectable manhood" viewed the family as central to a

> man's

> identity and as a source of his pleasure.

>

> Prohibition and then repeal, Rotskoff argues, led to the "normalization"

>

> of social drinking, the glamorization of "restrained" drinking among

> middle-class folk, and the growing popularity of heterosocial drinking.

> Indeed, Rotskoff argues that after repeal marketing campaigns reinforced

> the acceptability of social drinking in polite company, cocktail scenes

> were often the "rule rather than the exception for many dramas and

> comedies produced during the 1930s" (p. 45), and "alcohol melded into

> the

> dominant culture" (p. 40). Most important of all, Rotskoff notes that

> during this period various scientific, medical, and other

> self-credentialed authorities replaced a moralist view of drinking as a

> sin with a therapeutic conception of drinking as a sickness. Other

> scholars, Rotskoff explains, have examined the social and political

> environment in which the development of a new alcoholic identity took

> shape, but they have not "adequately explored the cultural implications

> of

> that identity" (p. 66).

>

> In particular, Rotskoff explores what she calls the "engendering" of

> alcoholism. She uses the term engender to "denote the formation of new

> institutions and forms of therapy associated with the alcoholic

> movement"

> and to refer to matters of gender and the family (p. 4). Rotskoff, for

> example, examines the ways in which alcoholism was a manifestation of

> the

> anxiety and rootlessness Americans experienced in the 1940s and 1950s.

> Alcoholism was linked to fears of effeminancy, and alcoholic men who

> failed to engage in normal heterosexual relationships were even accused

> of

> being latent homosexuals. This understanding of the alcoholic, Rotskoff

> asserts, stood in sharp contrast to the earlier image of the rugged,

> hard-drinking man who epitomized the masculinity of the saloon era. Yet

> she argues that alcohol did not prevent men from establishing their own

> masculine identity. Social drinking, which was identified as a normal

> and

> healthy sign of masculinity, allowed men to further their careers and

> fulfill their expected roles as breadwinners.

>

> Popular culture also picked up on these changes. According to Rotskoff,

> films like _The Lost Weekend_ helped educate the public about changing

> conceptions of alcoholism. _The Lost Weekend_ was not only the first

> film

> that featured a main character who was an alcoholic but also presented

> alcoholism as a disease. Through the main protagonist, Dan Birnam, the

> film explores the anxiety associated with the post-World War II period

> and

> the role of alcohol. Birnam suffers from a troubled psyche along with

> bouts of drinking that prevent him from developing a strong commitment

> to

> his marriage and from ultimately attaining mature manhood, a

> representation distinctly different than earlier images of drinking as a

> common expression of masculinity.

>

> Rotskoff similarly extends a gendered analysis to Alcoholics Anonymous

> (AA). Besides helping men deal with their alcoholism, AA, Rotskoff

> argues, was a site for reconstructing manhood. AA was a largely

> middle-class and male organization that emphasized sociability to help

> replace the all-male camaraderie associated with male culture and

> alcohol.

> The organization also stressed reciprocity through spiritual and

> therapeutic gift exchange--literally the gift of sobriety that was

> passed

> along to new members. In addition, the confessional stories or

> narratives

> in which AA members engaged allowed them to confront their days of

> "dissolute manhood" and in the process build up their manly esteem

> through

> a discussion of their past exploits. Sometimes, Rotskoff notes, these

> manly tales of bravado could lead to relapse, but they were just as

> likely

> to persuade men to discuss the tranquility and peace of mind they

> eventually found through marriage and a domestic lifestyle. While these

> different visions of manhood stood in bold contrast to one another,

> Rotskoff argues that they were essential to the formation of what she

> calls sober manhood.

>

> Rotskoff also considers the gendered history of the alcoholic's wife.

> According to Rotskoff, it was not until after WWII that experts began to

> stress the need to treat alcoholic marriages. Much of their work blamed

> wives for their alcoholic husbands. In particular, their research

> typically argued that a husband's chronic drunkenness was a sign of a

> dysfunctional family in which husband and wife deviated from

> conventional

> sex roles. While the husband remained sober, the wife deferred to him

> and

> allowed him to assume his expected role as head of the household. But

> with each set back on the part of the husband, the wife became more

> frustrated, often feeling insecure and shameful and eventually

> compelling

> her to assume the husband's and father's role. The family's sex-role

> inversion was generally thought not only to be temporary but recovery

> from

> alcoholism was dependent upon the wife relinquishing these duties and

> the

> husband once again assuming the role of breadwinner. In short, a

> healthy

> family, Rotskoff explains, "required allegiance to traditional sex-role

> prescriptions" (p. 159).

>

> Alcohol Anonymous and Al-Anon Family Groups were even more important in

> shaping popular perceptions about women's expected role. While some men

> objected to the involvement of their wives because they threatened the

> masculine culture of AA meetings, AA was soon praising women's

> contributions and arguing that its philosophy would "do wonders for

> domestic relations" (p. 167). While pre-Prohibition narratives about

> alcohol portrayed women as the victims of hard-drinking men who had

> abandoned them, AA and Al-Anon depicted wives who supported their

> husbands

> through their recovery. In the process, AA and Al-Anon offered wives a

> program of emotion management and a way to fulfill their own needs. In

> particular, AA and Al-Anon stressed that an alcoholic's recovery

> depended

> upon his wife's emotional restraint or a wife who was understanding,

> patient, and tolerant. The potential conflict and problems associated

> with such a sacrifice could lead to separation or divorce, but women

> typically looked for ways to keep the family together. Along the way,

> they often turned toward their AA and Al-Anon family to fulfill their

> own

> emotional needs and hence locate their own sense of fulfillment, which

> ultimately reinforced traditional gender role expectations.

>

> Rotskoff offers an extraordinarily vigorous examination of the gender

> dynamics of the alcoholism movement and AA throughout a good portion of

> the twentieth century. Along the way, she provides insight into the

> ways

> in which masculinity and femininity were constructed during this period,

> how gender identities shaped ideas about domesticity, sexuality, and

> sobriety, and how these dynamics relate to existing works about

> Prohibition, the Depression, and the Cold War. In particular, Rotskoff

> skillfully compares and contrasts how these identities changed over

> time,

> paying particular attention to the pre- and post-Prohibition eras and to

> both masculinity and femininity. Equally impressive is her use of

> popular

> culture. Besides using publications from so-called "experts," from the

> leaders of the alcoholism movement, and from men and women struggling

> with

> alcoholism, Rotskoff routinely examines films throughout the period. In

> the process, she shows how the issues/debates surrounding the alcoholism

> movement affected movies and how movies represented changing ideas about

> alcohol and the impact of AA.

>

> With these comments in mind, more on the impact of class identities

> would

> have been useful. In her introduction, Rotskoff explains that her

> research focuses primarily on middle-class white Americans, and she

> effectively shows that middle-class men and women increasingly dominated

> representations about alcohol and the alcoholism movement. Yet

> comparing

> the ways in which middle- and working-class men and women understood

> alcohol would undoubtedly shed light on many of the changes she

> discusses,

> just as looking at both men and women provide insight into the nature

> and

> organization of gender identities. How, for example, did different

> classes of men respond to criticisms of hard drinking and dissolute

> manhood as well as the growing importance of sobriety to constructions

> of

> gender? And to what extent did that version of male identity remain

> important despite the middle-class preference for sober manhood?

> Indeed,

> a more explicit discussion of the class dynamics surrounding alcoholism

> might illuminate the ways in which men of both classes struggled with

> sobriety, and it might allow us to get beyond the division between

> "dissolute manhood" and "respectable manhood" or at least see how

> various

> behaviors allowed men to bridge the gap between the two.

>

> These minor comments notwithstanding, Rotskoff offers a provocative

> analysis of the alcoholism movement, which illuminates the gender and

> family dynamics surrounding alcoholism and the larger historical context

> in which these issues took shape.

>

>

>

> Copyright (c) 2004 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits

> the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,

> educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the

> author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and

> H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses

> contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 23:54:29 +0200

To: "History of Sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

On Monday, January 05, 2004, Wayne R. Dynes wrote

: Everyone knows that the history of ancient Greece and Rome is replete

: with instances of human cruelty. Yet the ancient world seems to have

: known sadism without masochism (that is the willing acceptance of pain

: or the threat of it). Why this asymmetry?

Pehaps it is only apparent; due to our patchy evidence. In the mild forms

of "sadomasochism" or "flagellation" on Attic red-figure vases, consisting

principally of the threat or act of slapping a sexual partner with a sandal,

there is no indication that the slapped party is not a mutual and

enthusiastic participant. Also, the more extravagent predilections

described by Suetonius, *Nero* 29, suggest an element of masochistic fantasy

(whether we believe them of Nero or not) - a sexual game devised by Nero

himself at the climax of which he plays the "victim". I am, of course, here

working on the assumption that masochism is an active disposition, rather

than passive endurance. Also, if one is (as some like Otto Kiefer certainly

have) to see "sadism" in cruelty that is not overtly sexual, one might

equally see a form of intellectual masochism in the various forms of

asceticism that developed in the Greco-Roman world.

Terrence Lockyer

Johannesburg, South Africa

From: "docx2" <docx2@ix.netcom.com>

Sent: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 20:54:45 -0800

To: <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

Dear folks,

I am not sure that cruelty is synonymous with sadism or that instances of cruelty were necessarily sexual exciting. So it is not clear to me that there was sadism without masochism in ancient Greece and Rome. Clearly there were power dynamics at that time that could have been used by individuals with those interests. A man that preferred sex with slaves, rather than "free" women. A man that enjoyed being cuckolded or being married to a shrew. Less is known about women and they had fewer options to act on their desires. I believe that a man who served as the insertee in sex with other men, would have been a desirable role for someone with submissive tendencies. I say all of this without being an expert on the history of ancient Greece and Rome.

I have been unable to find out if the erotic frescoes of Pompeii, which are reportedly a list of activities available in a brothel include flagellation. Does anyone have a reference to where I can see pictures of these frescoes?

Take care,

Charles Moser, Ph.D., M.D.

From: "vern bullough" <vbullough@adelphia.net>

Sent: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 08:35:46 -0800

To: <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: RE: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

Dear readers> I collaborated on an article on "Sadism, Masochism, and

History," which appeared in Roy Porter and Mikculas Teich, Sexual

Knowledge and Sexual Science, pp. 303-322. I had written much of it

several years earlier but found a reluctance among editors of sex

journals to publish such articles. Vern

From: IIRE <peter.iire@antenna.nl>

Sent: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 17:48:24 +0100

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: RE: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

To add to the list: there's an amazingly vivid picture of an SM

threesome in an Estruscan tomb painting at Tarquinia (Latium).

--

Peter Drucker - Amsterdam - http://www.iire.org/peter.html

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

Sent: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 20:17:24 +0200

To: "History of Sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Scholia Review: Lambert on Hubbard

I thought the review below might be of interest, although it seems to me

that Lambert underestimates the evidence for "age-equal" relationships (and

shows no sign of knowing the visual evidence), and he also fails to observe

that age-inequality is as characteristic of Greco-Roman 'heterosexuality' as

of Greco-Roman 'homosexuality'.

Terrence Lockyer

Johannesburg, South Africa

--

<i>Scholia Reviews</i> ns 13 (2004) 16.

Thomas K. Hubbard (ed.), <i>Homosexuality in

Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic

Documents</i>. Berkeley: University of

California Press, 2003. Pp. xvii + 558, incl.

translation credits, an introduction, bibliographical

notes, index and 35 halftones. ISBN 0-520-

23430-8. US$34.95; UK£24.95.

Michael Lambert,

University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg

In this book, Hubbard collects 'in as complete a

form as is possible' (p. xv) translated excerpts

from the literary and documentary evidence

concerning 'homosexuality' in Greece and Rome,

from the archaic Greek to the Greco-Roman

period, excluding texts written under Christian

influence. Introductions to each section, as well

as extensive footnotes, aimed at the general

reader, and very thorough bibliographical surveys

for each period, make this volume an accessible

and invaluable resource, which should be in every

university library.

Having said this, it is a volume which has to be

used with caution (as is the case with many

collections of translated texts). Hubbard's

'curious reader not immersed in the cultural

history of Greece and Rome' (p. xv) may well

find her/himself bewildered; 'the more

experienced students of antiquity' will probably

find themselves (as I did) returning frequently to

the original Greek and Latin sources, to check on

the word/s translated as 'fag', 'queer',

'faggotry', 'homosexual inclinations', 'pervert',

'boy', 'youth', 'slutting around', 'mixed grill of

boys', 'inborn qualities', 'sex-drive', 'males

beyond nature', 'boy-toy', 'hairy-arsed queens',

'over-aged male hustlers', 'wanton lesbianism',

and so on.

From the outset, Hubbard makes it clear that he

has collected these texts from a particular

ideological perspective on gender, sex and

sexuality, which shapes his interpretation of

same-sex relations in antiquity. In his preface, he

refers to 'same-gender relations' or 'same-

gender eroticism' (p. xv); later he uses the terms

'same-sex relations or same-sex behaviour' (p.

447). Clearly, Hubbard does not endorse the

careful distinction made between sex and gender

in much feminist and gender theory, emanating

from scholars, who would adopt the

constructionist rather than the essentialist

perspective on human sexuality. However,

Hubbard does not adopt the term

'homosexuality' because he believes that sexual

identity is transhistorical, but 'as a convenient

shorthand linking together a range of different

phenomena involving same-gender love and/or

sexual activity' (p. 1). In addition, he strongly

believes that analysis of a range of ancient texts

suggests that 'some forms of sexual preference

were, in fact, considered a distinguishing

characteristic of individuals' (p. 2).

Furthermore, believing that Greek and Roman

sexual behaviour cannot be reduced to any single

paradigm, Hubbard rejects the 'age-differential'

model of male same-sex relationships and the

active-passive polarity inherent in it, because, he

believes, there is enough textual evidence of

'age-equal activity' to subvert any interpretation

rooted in 'victim categories' (p. 11). Although

Hubbard never clarifies what fundamental

premises of Dover, Boswell, Foucault and

Halperin he disagrees with (p. xvi), he

presumably refers to the 'older-younger' /

'active-passive' model which underpins these

scholars' well-known interpretations of Greek

male same-sex relations.

However, the evidence collected for 'age-equal

relationships' is so rare (and problematic) that

much of it is not evidence at all, and one is left

suspecting that the exception simply proves the

'age-differential' rule (for which the evidence in

Hubbard's collection is overwhelming).

For example, in one of Theognis' poems (excerpt

1.65, p. 44), the editor believes that the fact that

other boys find Cyrnus sexually attractive 'makes

it clear that youths were attracted to and slept

with other youths of the same age' (p. 5).

However, the Greek (unlike the English

translation) clearly distinguishes between the

<i>pais</i> (Cyrnus), all the other youths

(<i>neoi</i>) and the man (<i>aner</i>), the

fictive speaker whose desire is presumably

unreciprocated. I fail to see what this poem has

to do with age-equal relationships; what is at

issue is lack of mutuality in an age-unequal

relationship (a familiar topos).

There are other examples of pushing flimsy

evidence too far. The entrance of the glamorous

Charmides into the palaestra attracts the admiring

gazes of the younger boys (5.4., p. 172) but

lustfully admiring gazes from one's

contemporaries do not make for 'intimate male

attachments, even among age-equals' (p. 163).

Similarly, I cannot see how Meleager's poem

about the delicate Diodorus who casts a 'flame

upon his young age-mates'(6.40, pp. 294f.)

appears to explore an age-equal relationship 'in

which roles become readily reversible' (p. 271).

The Strato poem, about a threesome, to which

the editor also refers (p. 271), has no reference

to age at all (6.76, p. 303); the other Strato

poem cited (6.84., pp. 304f.) is indeed about

reciprocal sexual role-playing amongst youths,

but it is about brute sex (hence the imagery), not

'age-equal relationships'. 'Youth obviously

delights youth' (5.9; pp. 234f.), but I suspect

that when it comes to male same-sex

relationships in classical antiquity, Plato's

comment on this proverb is more apt: '. . . you

can even have too much of people your own age'

(p. 235).

With regards to awareness of sexual preferences

and characterizing people on the basis of this, I

cannot believe that this begins with Archilochus

(p. 2), especially as 'man's nature <i>is not the

same</i>' (1.1., p. 25) is largely editorial

conjecture. A nascent awareness of innate

preferences certainly seems to underly

Aristophanes' famous myth in Plato's

<i>Symposium</i> (p. 3), but there is no real

evidence to suggest that this was a 'widespread

perception' (amongst whom precisely?). In fact,

the very use of 'sexual preferences' and

'characterizing individuals' conjures up the thorny

issue of identity and its relationship to sexuality

(or rather, the discourse around sexuality), a

post-modern rather than pre-modern concern.

Even in the later Roman period, I am not sure

that there could have been a 'homosexual

subculture' with its specific fashions, speech and

cruising spots: as Williams has perceptively

shown,[[1]] sub-cultures of this kind flourish only

in environments where the dominant form of

masculinity is overtly hostile to penetrative sex

between men (which hegemonic Roman

masculinity never was). Effeminate <i>cinaedi</i>

are indeed the butt of savage satire in Juvenal,

Martial, Petronius and Apuleius (all included in

Hubbard's sourcebook), but these are men who

publically parade their enjoyment of passivity in

such a way that it undermines the prevailing code

of masculine values. One can presumably engage

in active and passive sex with men without ever

being labelled a <i>cinaedus</i>, or ever

identifying oneself as one (as do the gaggle of

made-up queens in Apuleius).

If a collection of source material in translation is

to work effectively, the editor has to be very

careful about the translations used. Hubbard

notes that he and his team of translators

attempted to 'strike the delicate balance between

fidelity to the original and felicity of English

expression, further complicated by my demands

for uniformity within the volume on certain

semantic issues' (p. xvii). These 'semantic issues'

are never clarified, but presumably one such issue

is the translation of <i>cinaedus</i>, for which

Hubbard reluctantly adopts 'pervert' in many

passages, as he believes that the range of the

word's uses 'seems potentially to include anyone

who is perceived as sexually excessive or

deviant' (p. 7). Yet how is a Latinless reader,

interested in understanding Roman attitudes to

sexuality, rather than the attitudes of various

translators, to cope with the fact that

<i>cinaedus</i> is also translated in this

collection as 'faggot' ( 7.40, p. 327), 'fag' (9.25,

p. 425; 9.28, p. 426), 'fairy' (9.38, p. 431),

'queer' (9.39, p. 438) and 'queen' (10.15, p.

475)? Hubbard usually indicates (and this is

essential) when <i>cinaedus</i> is translated as

'pervert', but there should be explanatory

comments on all of these.

Some of the translations do not quite attain

Hubbard's 'delicate balance' (for example, Daryl

Hine's version of Theocritus <i>Idyll</i> 23, pp.

285ff., and the editor's translation of Statius

<i>Silvae</i> 2.6.21-57, pp. 427f.), but the

majority are largely accurate and lively. The

editor often indicates (in footnotes) the Greek

(transliterated) and Latin for important concepts

(e.g. the Greek for 'friendship, desire and erotic

desire' p. 254, n. 148), but this practice should

have been used more consistently, especially if

the sourcebook is to be used for any meaningful

analysis of love, desire and same-sex

relationships in antiquity.[[2]]

NOTES

[[1]] C. A. Williams, <i>Roman Homosexuality.

Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical

Antiquity</i> (Oxford 1999) 220-24.

[[2]] For the general reader, the notes are, on the

whole, exceptionally helpful. A few are not: the

Kerameikos is a little more than the northwest

part of Athens (p. 61, n.7; cf. n. 65, p. 471); in

Rufinus' poem (Hubbard 6.52, p. 297), in which

the poet-lover claims that he is no longer boy-

crazy, but is now mad for women, and his discus

is now a rattle (clearly a sexual reference), rattle

(<i>krotalon</i>) is glossed with: 'the

<i>sistrum</i> was a musical instrument used in

the worship of the goddess Isis . . .'! (n. 71). I

cannot understand n. 23 on p. 65. There are very

few misprints: I noticed Lambert and Szesnat

(1984) -- the date should be 1994; Euripid (p.

71, n. 34); Praetonium (p. 377, n. 79).

From: Julian Carter <juliancarter@mindspring.com>

Sent: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 14:40:35 -0500

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: Classicists: plea for translation help

Dear classicist colleagues,

I'm writing about an early 20th century image--a publisher's

colophon, to be exact--that features a standard image of a hand

passing a torch to another hand, and includes a Greek tag. I fear I

took Latin instead, and am stumped. Would one of you be so generous

as to translate it for me? Transliterated to the best of my ability

it reads:

LAMOADIA EXONTES DIADOSOTISIN ALLELOIS

However, I find that if I ask MSWord to transliterate, it becomes:

LAMWADIA ECONTES DIADWSOUSEIN ALLAHLOIS

Any help figuring this out would be much, much appreciated.

--

Julian Carter, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Gender Politics

Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in the Humanities and Social Thought

New York University

From: "docx2" <docx2@ix.netcom.com>

Sent: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 16:54:26 -0800

To: <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

RE: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochismI think I found a picture of that fresco on the Internet at the URL below. I am not sure that this depicts SM, we need to know that the people were doing it for erotic enjoyment and that it was consensual.

Take care,

Charles Moser, Ph.D., M.D.

http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/theopompus/index.html

From: IIRE <peter.iire@antenna.nl>

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 09:15:39 +0100

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: Re: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

>I think I found a picture of that fresco on the Internet at the URL below.

Yes, the third illustration ("Tomb of the Floggings") is the one I had in mind.

>I am not sure that this depicts SM, we need to know that the people

>were doing it for erotic enjoyment and that it was consensual.

If SM is defined as including only consensual acts, then I agree that

it would be extraordinarily difficult to reach any conclusion,

particularly in reference to a slave society like the Etruscans'

where very great power inequalities made the definition of consent

problematic. (One of the Romans' indictments of the Etruscans is that

the Etruscans allowed their women "two much freedom" and were "too

kind" to their slaves, but who knows if that was based on anything or

if so what.) But given everything that is known about Etruscan tomb

paintings - they are understood consistently to portray Etruscans

after death engaging in the activities they most enjoyed in life - I

think the scene can safely be considered erotic.

Peter

--

Peter Drucker - Amsterdam - http://www.iire.org/peter.html

From: a2534304@Smail.Uni-Koeln.de

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 10:52:06 +0100 (MET)

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: IASLonline: Siebenpfeiffer on Kuenzel, _Vergewaltigungslektueren_

IASLonline has recently published the following review.

__________________________________________________________

Künzel, Christine:

Vergewaltigungslektüren.

Zur Codierung sexueller Gewalt in Literatur und Recht.

Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2002.

ISBN: 3-593-37141-3.

(Rezensiert für IASLonline von Hania Siebenpfeiffer)

http://iasl.uni-muenchen.de/rezensio/liste/siebenpf1.html

__________________________________________________________

Stefan Blaschke.

From: a2534304@smail.uni-koeln.de

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 11:27:49 +0100

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: literaturkritik.de January 2004: reviews

The new issue of literaturkritik.de (January 2004) contains some reviews of

interest.

___________________________________________________________________________

Jean Claude Bologne: _Nacktheit und Prüderie: Eine Geschichte des Schamgefühls_.

Translated by Rainer von Savigny und Thorsten Schmidt. Weimar: Verlag Hermann

Böhlaus Nachfolger, 2001.

Reviewed by Alexandra Pontzen

http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=6714&ausgabe=200401

Frigga Haug (ed.): _Historisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch des Feminismus: Abtreibung

bis Hexen_. Vol. 1. Hamburg: Argument Verlag, 2003.

Reviewed by Rolf Löchel

http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=6715&ausgabe=200401

Claudia Benthien / Inge Stephan (eds.): _Männlichkeit als Maskerade: Kulturelle

Inszenierungen vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart_. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag,

2003.

Reviewed by Rolf Löchel

http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=6707&ausgabe=200401

___________________________________________________________________________

Stefan Blaschke.

From: Lesley Hall <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 15:44:23 GMT

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: FWD: RVW: Women in African Colonial Histories

H-NET BOOK REVIEW

Published by H-Women@h-net.msu.edu (January 2004)

Jean Allman, Susan Geiger, and Nakanyike Musisi, eds.

_Women in African

Colonial Histories_. Bloomington: Indiana University

Press, 2002. 352

pp.

Maps, photographs, notes, index. $54.95 (cloth), ISBN

0-253-34047-0;

$24.95 (paper), ISBN 0-253-21507-2.

Reviewed for H-Women by Meredith McKittrick

<mckittrm@georgetown.edu>,

Department of History, Georgetown University

Exploring the Diversity of African Women's Colonial

Experiences

This volume is a sweeping look at women's experiences

in, and

interaction

with, colonialism in Africa. The geographical balance

is welcome:

chapters cover the Portuguese, French, British and

Belgian empires and

every major geographical region of sub-Saharan

Africa. The actors in

these chapters include royal women, midwives, spirit

mediums,

missionaries, nationalists, guerrillas, market women,

urban dwellers,

and

more. The editors's claim that the

chapters "challenge the notion of a

homogenous 'African women's experience'" is not

exactly ground-breaking

(p. 1). Nevertheless, the book vividly illustrates

the diversity of

women's encounters with colonialism, and it

demonstrates how chronology,

the colonizing power, geography, and women's status

all worked together

to

create that diversity.

Allman and her colleagues make no apologies for

producing _women's_

history, as opposed to gender history. Indeed the

editors argue, as

some

others have done, that the move toward gender history--

in which men, as

well as women, are studied as gendered historical

subjects--can, in some

cases, serve to further the omission of women from

historical

investigation. Without constantly seeking to recover

women's historical

experiences, the introduction argues, gender history

has no content upon

which to stand; gender and women's history therefore

inform each other.

The volume only touches on this point briefly, but

given the heated

debate

that still rages over the relationship between women's

and gender

history,

it would have helped to explore this further.

The focus of the volume is on women as agents who

negotiated colonialism

rather than as "hapless victims." Is this to some

extent beating a dead

horse? Women's and social history have grown up

together and

necessarily

informed each other. At this point, it seems fair to

say, there is a

good-sized body of Africanist historical literature

that treats women as

agents, and the editors acknowledge this. The

introduction correctly

states that, nevertheless, there continues to be a

great deal of work

produced that never addresses gender or women; it also

notes that other

edited volumes on women in African history have

focused more on

colonialism's impact on women rather than on how women

themselves dealt

with colonialism. _Women in Colonial African

Histories_ also argues

that

the volume of literature on women and colonialism is

now such that "we

can

begin to explore trans-national and trans-colonial

processes and to draw

meaningful comparative insights into the ways women

shaped and were

shaped

by the colonial world" (p. 2). In this spirit, most

of the chapters

attempt to situate its dominant theme within a

comparative framework,

noting the differences or similarities with what has

been argued for

other

times and places within Africa. These comparisons are

frequently quite

brief, often a paragraph or less. Thus Jane

Turrittin's essay on

colonial

midwives in French West Africa makes a passing

reference to the training

of medical auxiliaries in Belgian and British

colonies; Holly Hanson's

study of women's loss of political power in Buganda

explores comparable

cases in somewhat greater depth. Other chapters make

no comparative

references. More could have been done with the

comparative nature of

the

volume, certainly; but where they exist, even minimal

attempts to

situate

the individual case studies in a larger context are

greatly appreciated.

The other element which unifies the essays is that

each includes the

text

of a primary source within the chapter. Most are at

the end; a few are

incorporated into the historical analysis.

Methodologically, the

presence

of these sources--which range from life histories to

court cases and

colonial reports--offers readers a chance to see the

materials which

inform the scholars's work. Sometimes this adds

little to the analysis

as

the most compelling material is already quoted in the

text. But in the

best cases, it enriches the text and offers more

opportunity for thought

and discussion, as well as offering the opportunity to

show students in

a

classroom how history is done. In Victoria Tashjian

and Jean Allman's

chapter on how cocoa farming changed the meaning of

marriage in colonial

Asante, the transcribed interview at the end of the

text reinforces the

argument that conjugal labor changed under cocoa

farming, but also

raises

issues the chapter does not raise, such as the

development of women's

expectations that they would be granted a share of a

husband's cocoa

farm.

In cases where colonial representation of women is an

issue, the texts

show readers firsthand the kinds of language that

colonials used in

talking about African women.

Probably the most frustrating thing about the volume

is also its most

valuable: the diversity of the stories that it tells,

to the point

where

the reader struggles to find common themes despite the

attempts at

comparison or the unifying feature of reproducing

primary sources. The

lack of a conclusion in the book further underscores

this sense of

fragmentation. Indeed, there seems to be little

shared by Tswana royal

women engaging with Christianity in the 1890s,

Nigerian women protesting

warrant chiefs and the loss of their markets in 1929,

Mozambican women

participating in interracial courtship in the 1930s,

and Guinean women

violating gender norms in the nationalist movement in

the 1950s. It

reinforces the book's argument that women's

experiences of colonialism

were not monolithic but were instead shaped by

multiple forces and

agendas. But it also returns us to the question,

posed by gender

historians, of what if anything unites "women" as a

historical category.

Copyright (c) 2004 by H-Net, all rights

reserved. H-Net permits

the redistribution and reprinting of this work

for nonprofit,

educational purposes, with full and accurate

attribution to the

author, web location, date of publication,

originating list, and

H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online.

For other uses

contact the Reviews editorial staff:

hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.

From: Lesley Hall <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 15:50:29 GMT

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: FWD: RVW: Pomeroy. _Spartan Women_.

H-NET BOOK REVIEW

Published by H-Women@h-net.msu.edu (January 2004)

Sarah B. Pomeroy. _Spartan Women_. Oxford and New

York: Oxford

University

Press, 2002. xvii + 198 pp. Preface, figures, notes,

appendix,

bibliography, index. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-19-513066-

9; $19.95

(paper),

ISBN 0-19-513067-7.

Reviewed for H-Women by Thomas J. Sienkewicz

<toms@monm.edu>, Department

of Classics, Monmouth College

Spartan Women in the Spotlight

Sparta has been the subject of a number of books

published in the second

half of the twentieth century, including K. T.

Chrimes's _Ancient

Sparta_

(1949) and Paul Cartledge's _Sparta and Lakonia: A

Regional History

1300-362 B.C._ (1979), a second edition of which has

recently appeared

(2002). Generally, books and articles about Sparta

and Spartans have

tended to concentrate on the history of the city-

state, its rivalry with

Athens, its unique constitution, and the military

organization of

Spartan

society. Such is certainly true of Cartledge's newest

book _The

Spartans:

The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece,

from Utopia to Crisis

and Collapse_ (2003).

Pomeroy herself has been in the vanguard of scholars

who have reoriented

the focus of Spartan studies away from the masculine-

dominated world of

war and government to the private lives of individual

Spartans, and

especially of Spartan women. Indeed, her landmark

_Goddesses, Whores,

Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity_

(1975), which included

significant and detailed information on Spartan women

as well as women

from other parts of Greece, has generated a long

bibliography of books

and

articles on topics like the wealth of Spartan women,

their education,

marriages, and role in politics. As Pomeroy notes at

the beginning of

her

preface, however, _Spartan Women_ is the "first full-

length historical

study of Spartan women to be published." For this

reason alone, the

book

promises to become an influential text for ancient

historians,

especially

those interested in women's studies.

Pomeroy follows the lives of Spartan women, in

individual chapters, from

their childhood and education (chapter 1), to marriage

(chapter 2), and

roles as mothers (chapter 3). She also examines the

lives of elite

women

(chapter 4) and women of the lower classes (chapter

5). In chapter 6

she

deals with the role of Spartan women in religious

matters. While the

general organization is topical, discussions within

individual chapters

tend to be chronological, as Pomeroy traces the

changes in the lives of

Spartan women through the traditional timeline of

Greek history from the

Archaic period (c.750-490), through the Classical (490-

323) and

Hellenistic periods (323-30), and into the Roman

period (30 b.c.e-395

c.e.).

This study will, unfortunately, be more accessible to

ancient historians

than to the general reader because Pomeroy assumes

some familiarity with

Spartan history and with general features of Spartan

society. Yet, in

some ways, Spartan material needs to be examined in

its own context, for

which even the traditional timeline of Greek history

noted above is less

meaningful than the following five major events in

Spartan history: the

Second Messenian War (c.735-c.715) resulted in

Sparta's conquest of its

neighbor Messenia, the subjugation of its inhabitants

as helots, and the

establishment of the Lycurgan constitution and the

communal,

militaristic

society for which Sparta is best known. The battle of

Leuctra (371

b.c.e.)

marked the first major military defeat of Sparta and

gave the Messenian

helots their freedom. The reign of the Spartan king

Agis IV

(c.244--241)

witnessed an attempt to revitalize the old Spartan way

of life, but led

to

a period of political upheaval and eventual conquest

by the Romans in

195.

A final period of revival took place in Roman Sparta

during the second

century c.e. History of the ancient city ends with

its capture by the

Goths in 395.

Pomeroy herself acknowledges the difficulties of

following a

purely chronological approach to her subject. The

Spartans themselves

tended to practice revisionist history. References to

the revival of

the

Lycurgan constitution in the third century b.c.e and

the second century

c.e., for example, may not accurately describe the

original constitution

but rather its later reinterpretations. For these

reason, Pomeroy's

history of Spartan women can be considered

chronological in only the

broadest sense of that term.

The topical organization of this book is useful for

those interested in

tracing the evolution of various aspects of the lives

of Spartan women.

It

is less helpful to the reader eager to place women

into the more

familiar

history of Sparta. A timeline of important Spartan

women and

significant

events in the history of Spartan women, for example,

can only by culled

from this book by collating information from

individual chapters. This

reader, at least, would have liked an additional

chapter offering such a

coherent historical overview.

The closest Pomeroy comes in this book to such a

coherent overview, but

without an historical context, is in her

conclusion, "Gender and

Ethnicity," where she summarizes the preceding

chapters and draws some

conclusions about Spartan women, in terms of their

differences from

other

Greek women and their contributions to the Spartan way

of life. Here

Pomeroy shows how the image of Helen of Sparta as a

beautiful, wealthy,

man-dominating woman served as a norm and model for

historical Spartan

women but not for women in other parts of Greece.

Unlike Athenian women

who lived in seclusion, Spartan women lived very

public lives, trained

openly and with men, and were known for their beauty.

Spartan women

were

definitely better fed and educated than women in other

parts of Greece.

For much of Sparta's history women controlled much of

the city's wealth.

They also seem to have maintained a remarkable control

over their own

fertility compared to other Greek women. In

particular, Pomeroy

emphasizes the active role that Spartan women played

in all aspects of

Spartan life, especially in choosing their sexual

partners, rearing

their

children, influencing their adult sons, and, above

all, maintaining the

norms on which Spartan life was based (in such tales

as the Spartan

mother

telling her son to come home "with his shield or on

it").

A particularly valuable part of Pomeroy's book is the

appendix on

"Sources

for the History of Spartan Women," which offers a

comprehensive survey

and

evaluation of all the evidence on this topic, both

literary and

material.

Pomeroy begins with two cautions about the literary

evidence. First of

all, the few extant ancient written sources on Spartan

women tend to be

influenced by foreign, especially Athenian,

stereotypes of Sparta.

Indeed,

much of the literary evidence about Sparta comes from

non-Spartans like

Euripides, Plato, Xenophon, and Plutarch. While some

of these authors

reveal great admiration for the Spartan way of life,

they remain,

nevertheless, outsiders. Pomeroy's second caution is

that the female

voice in these sources is only indirectly heard in

literature produced

by

males. Pomeroy suggests that the Spartan woman can

perhaps be heard in

the voices of the girls speaking in the poetry of

Alcman, in epigrams

about women like the one celebrating the chariot

victories of Cynisca,

and

in Plutarch's collection of _Sayings of Spartan

Women_. Even the names

of

Spartan women are not well documented, partly, Pomeroy

suggests, because

so much of the literature was written by non-Spartans,

especially

Athenians for whom it was inappropriate to mention the

name of a

respectable woman in public.

Pomeroy's survey of sources is arranged first by type

and then by

chronology. Beginning with literary sources, she

moves from the poetry

of

Alcman in the Archaic period, to references to Spartan

women in Athenian

drama and philosophical texts like those of Plato and

Xenophon in the

Classical period, to authors like Plutarch in the

Hellenistic, Roman and

Byzantine periods. Pomeroy's overview of the

treatment of Spartan women

in various ancient authors and periods is an important

feature of this

appendix. Also of note is her section on secondary

sources in which she

observes that most studies of Sparta have either

lacked an interest in

women's topics or misinterpreted the evidence. She

cites Cartledge's

_Sparta and Lakonia_ (1979), noted above, as an

example of the former,

and

his important study "Spartan Wives: Liberation or

Licence?" as an

example

of the latter.[1] Pomeroy suggests that Cartledge's

description of

Spartan

women as passive victims of their husbands is based

upon modern rather

than ancient views of sexuality and gender

relationships. A very

different view of these women emerges when their lives

are compared to

those of their contemporaries in other parts of Greece.

In her survey of sources Pomeroy also examines the

material evidence for

the lives of Spartan women. Archaeological finds

include thousands of

lead female figures excavated at the sanctuary of

Artemis Orthia as well

as significant pottery, bronzes and inscriptions from

Laconia.

Photographs

of several of these artifacts are included among the

illustrations in

this

book. Compared to other parts of Greece, however, the

amount of

material

representing women in Sparta is sparse. Since much of

the artwork in

the

rest of Greece was devoted to the theme of male

domination and

suppression

of women, Pomeroy suggests, the general lack of such

artwork in Sparta

may

have resulted from and reinforced the more active role

Spartan women

played in their society.

Finally, it should be noted that Pomeroy's

bibliography, while

extensive,

is actually a list of "Works Cited" and therefore not

comprehensive. It

does not, for example, include references to major

studies of Sparta

like

H. Michell's _Sparta_ (1964) and A. H. M. Jones's

_Sparta_ (1967).

Note

[1]. "Spartan Wives: Liberation or Licence?"

_Classical Quarterly_ 31

(1981), p. 84-105.

Copyright (c) 2004 by H-Net, all rights

reserved. H-Net permits

the redistribution and reprinting of this work

for nonprofit,

educational purposes, with full and accurate

attribution to the

author, web location, date of publication,

originating list, and

H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online.

For other uses

contact the Reviews editorial staff:

hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.

From: Kevin Reilly <kevin.reilly@ptsem.edu>

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 15:53:16 +0000

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: New books

Just out, "An Interpretation of Desire: Essays in the Study of

Sexuality" John H. Gagnon, University of Chicago Press.

Due in March, "Beyond the Reproductive Body: The Politics of Women's

Health and Work in Early Victorian England" Marjorie Levine-Clarke, Ohio

State University Press.

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 19:55:48 +0200

To: "History of Sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Classicists: plea for translation help

Cc: <juliancarter@mindspring.com>

On Tuesday, January 06, 2004, Julian Carter wrote

: I'm writing about an early 20th century image--a publisher's

: colophon, to be exact--that features a standard image of a

: hand passing a torch to another hand, and includes a Greek

: tag. I fear I took Latin instead, and am stumped. Would one

: of you be so generous as to translate it for me? Transliterated

: to the best of my ability it reads:

:

: LAMOADIA EXONTES DIADOSOTISIN ALLELOIS

:

: However, I find that if I ask MSWord to transliterate, it becomes:

:

: LAMWADIA ECONTES DIADWSOUSEIN ALLAHLOIS

:

: Any help figuring this out would be much, much appreciated.

The tag is based on a sentence from Plato, Republic 328a, which may be

transliterated (this is not an exact science) as

: lampadia ekhontes diadwsousin allelois

In Plato, this is part of a question from one character about a torch-race

mentioned by another, and this part asks, "Will those carrying the torches

pass them on to each other ... ?" On its own (i. e., without interrogative

indicators), it could also mean simply "Those carrying (ekhontes) the

torches (lampadia) will pass them on (diadwsousin) to each other

(allelois)". I presume the printer is using it in general reference to the

figurative "torch-bearers" of knowledge?

Terrence Lockyer

Johannesburg, South Africa

From: "Paul Snijders" <paulsn@wanadoo.nl>

Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 21:33:32 +0100

To: <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Classicists: plea for translation help

I'm just curious, being interested in the history of sexuality, but

especially in the history of books about sexuality of the early 20th

century - what is the name of this publisher?

Paul Snijders

www.fokas.nl

From: "Donna Larsen" <ladydonna85@hotmail.com>

Sent: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 03:54:38 +0000

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: SM and the DSM

I am taking Abnormal Psychology this quarter. I have question about how

Sadism and Masochim are presented in my textbook in realtion to what I think

I know has tranpired with these diagonis when they were changed in the DSM

IV.

In my Abnormal Psych book, which is new enought that it talks about the

mental health of the nation after the Twin Towers Attack, still speaks of

Sadism and Masochim as a pathology with out the new changes in the DSM IV

such as consent being involved, and they make no real distinction between

nonconentual criminal sadits, and consentual sadomasochists.

What does it take for the Textbooks to catch up with the DSM IV, did this

same kind of thing happen when Homosexuality was removed from the DSM.

Do libaries store previous copies of DSMs so I can get a look at the way the

definitions were previously written? I will be getting a chance to do a

class presentation at the end of the quarter, it will be a group

presentation, but perhaps I can talk a group into helping me present this,

and this may be an oppoutunity to educate some of my future collegues.

From: Lesley Hall <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 13:48:46 GMT

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: FWD: CONF: Age, Gender and Domestic Culture

Age, Gender and Domestic Culture

Location: United Kingdom

Call for Papers Deadline: 2004-02-28

Date Submitted: 2004-01-07

Announcement ID: 136433

This interdisciplinary symposium will be held at Royal

Holloway College, University of London on 3 July 2004.

It will address the importance of age and gender to

domestic culture, aiming to encourage discussion

across disciplines and from both historical and

contemporary perspectives. All proposals for papers

dealing with this broad theme are invited but speakers

might also like to consider one or more of the

following issues:

Age, gender and the definition of house, home and

domestic space.

Intergenerational conflict and co-operation in the

home.

Lifecycle and changing roles, relationships and

authority in the home.

The division of domestic space and duties according to

age and gender.

Family rituals and celebration and their impact on

gendered and/or age-related responsibilities,

relationships and behaviour.

Textual and visual representations of age and gender

and domestic life.

Domestic goods, their use and meaning according to age

and gender.

Dr Nicola Pullin

Age, Gender and Domestic Culture Conference

Bedford Centre for the History of Women

Royal Holloway

University of London

Egham, TW20 0EX

United Kingdom

Email: bedford.centre@rhul.ac.uk

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

Sent: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 15:45:31 +0200

To: "History of Sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: RE: Historical instances of sadomasochism

Earlier in this thread, I referred to scenes of apparently consensual erotic

use of slapping with a sandal on Attic red-figure vases. Some of these may

be found via the references to plates at the top of p. 220 of

- John Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period. A

Handbook (London : Thames and Hudson 1975)

Some visual evidence from ancient Greece is discussed, in relation to more

recent art of sexual sadomasochism, and with some bibliography, by

- Martin Kilmer, "Sexual Violence: Archaic Athens and the Recent Past", in

E. M. Craik (ed.), 'Owls to Athens': Essays on Classical Subjects Presented

to Sir Kenneth Dover (Oxford : Clarendon Press 1990), pp. 261-77

Kilmer's conclusion is that:

"When we talk of sadism, or of masochism, in Greek paintings such as those I

include here, which are typical of the late archaic period, we are clearly

talking about a very different phenomenon from the sadism and masochism we

have seen in the small selection of examples by European and North American

artists and in the one Japanese painting which I have used as a parallel and

as a contrast to them."

Kilmer's distinction is based largely on what might be called the "level" of

sadism or masochism. His starting point (p. 261) is the following (which I

have not yet seen)

- Mark Golden, 'Male Chauvinists and Pigs', E/chos du Monde Classique /

Classical Views 32 (1988) 1-12

Also earlier in this thread, Charles Moser wrote

: I am not sure that this depicts SM, we need to know that the people

: were doing it for erotic enjoyment and that it was consensual.

I think it is extremely difficult to project modern standards of consent

backwards, or to interrogate ancient sources with this standard (because on

the one hand we do not possess for the ancient world the volume or kind of

personal testimony we do for more recent periods, while on the other we must

make allowance for vastly different social conditions and mores), and the

difficulty increases the further back one goes. Also, in textual or visual

depictions, there is the problem of fantasy. Consider Sade himself, for

example, whose fictions do include consensual sadomasochistic behaviour, but

also include much non-consensual, and in some cases, such as the *One

Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom* or *Juliette*, this escalates until it is

the dominant mode (while in *Justine* it is throughout). This is a

consequence partly of Sade's conception of "libertinism". I do not, though,

think that we can pick through his work, taking some scenes as evidence of

"sadomasochism" in 18th-century France, and rejecting others, merely by the

standard of "consent".

Terrence Lockyer

Johannesburg, South Africa

From: JNKATZ1@aol.com

Sent: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 15:41:02 EST

To: histsex@topica.com, QSTUDY-L@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU,

SOLGA-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU

Subject: Original Village Voice on Stonewall?

For an exhibit at Yale University on lesbian and gay history, to open

February 7, does anyone have an original copy of the Village Voice account of the

Stonewall Riot? (I know it is on microfilm.)

Thanks, Jonathan Ned Katz

From: "docx2" <docx2@ix.netcom.com>

Sent: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:50:54 -0800

To: <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

Just a few comments below on Terrence Lockyer's post.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

To: "History of Sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 5:45 AM

Subject: RE: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

<much snipped>

> Also earlier in this thread, Charles Moser wrote

>

> : I am not sure that this depicts SM, we need to know that the people

> : were doing it for erotic enjoyment and that it was consensual.

>

> I think it is extremely difficult to project modern standards of consent

> backwards, or to interrogate ancient sources with this standard (because

on

> the one hand we do not possess for the ancient world the volume or kind of

> personal testimony we do for more recent periods, while on the other we

must

> make allowance for vastly different social conditions and mores), and the

> difficulty increases the further back one goes. Also, in textual or

visual

> depictions, there is the problem of fantasy. Consider Sade himself, for

> example, whose fictions do include consensual sadomasochistic behaviour,

but

> also include much non-consensual, and in some cases, such as the *One

> Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom* or *Juliette*, this escalates until it

is

> the dominant mode (while in *Justine* it is throughout). This is a

> consequence partly of Sade's conception of "libertinism". I do not,

though,

> think that we can pick through his work, taking some scenes as evidence of

> "sadomasochism" in 18th-century France, and rejecting others, merely by

the

> standard of "consent".

>

>

I agree it is very difficult to project modern standards on any age in

history. There is no consensus of how to define SM today. I think it is

obvious that SM can be easily confused with violence if the context is not

known, which seems to be case in ancient Rome and Greece. (SM is to

violence as consensual coitus is to rape). Additionally, many people who

have "SM" fantasies are not interested in actually pursuing them. Some

individuals would argue that modern SM is NOT consensual, as no sane person

would consent and if not sane he/she cannot consent.

It is not clear to me that de Sade was a sadist; some think he was a

masochist, others would suggest that he was an early sexologist cataloging

all the ways to have sex, and I am sure there are other opinions. It is

important to remember that most of his experiences were fantasies written

while he was in prison.

My definition above, which I admit is not perfect, is a reasonable starting

place. If we found evidence that the acts were consensual and the purpose

was erotic enjoyment, then we would have some common ground to compare the

two time frames. Clearly, I do not mean to imply that the SM of today is

the same phenomenon of the SM-type behavior of the ancient world.

Take care,

Charles Moser, Ph.D., M.D.

From: "docx2" <docx2@ix.netcom.com>

Sent: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 21:01:52 -0800

To: <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] SM and the DSM

Dear Donna,

Dr. Kleinplatz and I have been struggling with this issue for some time now. It is not your textbook, but the APA and the DSM that are out of step. I suggest that you read our articles below to get a feel for the problem and its history. By the way, the DSM-IV-TR is the newest edition and it takes a step backwards from the earlier DSM-IV.

Good luck!

Charles Moser, Ph.D., M.D.

Moser, C & Kleinplatz, P.J. DSM-IV-TR and the Paraphilias: An Argument for Removal. Journal of

Psychology and Human Sexuality, in press.

[WWW document] URL http://home.netcom.com/~docx2/mk.html

Moser, C. Are any of the Paraphilias in the DSM mental disorders? Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol.

31, No. 6, December 2002, 490-491.

Moser, C. & Kleinplatz, P.J. Transvestitic fetishism: Psychopathology or iatrogenic artifact? New Jersey

Psychologist, Vol. 52, No. 2, Spring 2002, 16-17.

[WWW document] URL http://home.netcom.com/~docx2/tf.html

Moser, C. Paraphilia: Another Confused Sexological Concept. In: P. J. Kleinplatz (Ed.)

New directions in sex therapy: Innovations and alternatives, Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge, 2001,

91-108.

From: a2534304@Smail.Uni-Koeln.de

Sent: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 15:48:00 +0100 (MET)

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: Fwd: CFP: Querelles-Net

The electronic journal Querelles-Net is looking for reviewers for books on

women, gender and the law. But there will be also an open section for

other books on women and gender

Stefan Blaschke.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 10:02:08 +0100

From: "HSK (Ruediger Hohls)" <hsk.mail@GESCHICHTE.HU-BERLIN.DE>

Reply-To: H-NET Liste fuer Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte

<H-SOZ-U-KULT@H-NET.MSU.EDU>

To: H-SOZ-U-KULT@H-NET.MSU.EDU

Subject: CFP: Querelles-Net: Rezensent/-innen fuer Ausgabe 13 gesucht:

Schwerpunkt "Recht" - Berlin 05/04

From: Ulla Bock <bocku@zedat.fu-berlin.de>

Date: 06.01.2004

Subject: CFP: Querelles-Net: Rezensent/-innen für Ausgabe 13 gesucht:

Schwerpunkt "Recht" - Berlin 05/04

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Querelles-Net.

Rezensionszeitschrift für Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung

01.05.2004, Berlin

Deadline: 01.05.2004

Liebe Leserinnen und Leser,

im Juli erscheint die 13. Ausgabe von Querelles-Net mit dem Schwerpunkt

Recht.

Unten finden Sie einige Vorschläge zur Rezension für den Schwerpunktteil

(weitere Vorschläge unter

http://www.querelles-net.de/2003-11/vorschau.shtml#dreizehn ). Sie

können auch gerne andere Neuerscheinungen zur Rezension vorschlagen. Wir

freuen uns auf Ihre Anmeldungen, Vorschläge und Wünsche.

Richten Sie Ihre Rezensionswünsche bitte an: redaktion@querelles-net.de

Redaktionsschluß für diese Ausgabe ist der 1. Mai 2004.

Ihre Redaktion Querelles-Net

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deutscher Juristinnenbund e.V. (Hg.): Juristinnen in Deutschland.

Die Zeit von 1900 bis 2003. 4. Auflage. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2003.

Grimme, Mark-Alexander: Die Entwicklung der Emanzipation der

Frau in der Familienrechtsgeschichte bis zum

Gleichberechtigungsgesetz 1957. Frankfurt/M: Lang 2003.

Großekathöfer, David: 'Es ist ja jetzt Gleichberechtigung'.

Die Stellung der Frau im nachehelichen Unterhaltsrecht der

DDR. Köln, Weimar: Böhlau 2003.

Höbenreich, Evelyn, Rizzelli, Giunio: Scylla. Fragmente

einer juristischen Geschichte der Frauen im antiken Rom.

Wien: Böhlau 2003.

Künzel, Christine (Hg.): Unzucht, Notzucht, Vergewaltigung:

Definitionen und Deutungen sexueller Gewalt von der

Aufklärung bis heute. Frankfurt/New York: Campus 2003.

Notz, Gisela: Frauen in der Mannschaft. Sozialdemokratinnen

im Parlamentarischen Rat und im Deutschen Bundestag

1948-1957. Bonn: Dietz 2003.

Töngi, Claudia: Geschlechterbeziehungen und Gewalt. Eine

empirische Untersuchung zum Problem von Wandel und

Kontinuität alltäglicher Gewalt anhand von Urner

Gerichtsakten des 19. Jahrhunderts. Bern: Haupt 2002.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Querelles-Net.

Rezensionszeitschrift für Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung.

http://www.querelles-net.de

hg. v. der Zentraleinrichtung

zur Förderung von

Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung

an der Freien Universität Berlin

Königin-Luise-Straße 34

14195 Berlin

Fon: ++49-030-838-5-62 52

Fax: ++49-030-838-5-61 83

Email: redaktion@querelles-net.de

Hinweise für Beiträge zu Querelles-Net

<http://www.querelles-net.de/intern/beitragen.shtml>

URL zur Zitation dieses Beitrages

<http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=2351>

_________________________________________________

HUMANITIES - SOZIAL- UND KULTURGESCHICHTE

H-SOZ-U-KULT@H-NET.MSU.EDU

Redaktion:

E-Mail: hsk.redaktion@geschichte.hu-berlin.de

WWW: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de

_________________________________________________

From: "Terrence Lockyer" <lockyert@mweb.co.za>

Sent: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 14:11:10 +0200

To: "History of Sexuality" <histsex@topica.com>

Subject: Re: [histsex] Historical instances of sadomasochism

On Friday, January 09, 2004, Charles Moser wrote

: I think it is obvious that SM can be easily confused with violence

: if the context is not known, which seems to be case in ancient

: Rome and Greece.

Very much so. For one classic example of this confusion, or rather

conflation, from classical scholarship, see Otto Kiefer's *Kulturgeschichte

Roms unter Besonderer Beruecksichtigung der Roemischen Sitten*, which was

published in English (but with a somewhat misleading title, as part of a

series of similarly titled works) as

- Otto Kiefer, Sexual Life in Ancient Rome [tr. Gilbert and Helen Highet]

(London : Routledge and Kegan Paul 1934)

This includes a chapter (pp. 64-106 in the English) entitled "The Romans and

Cruelty" in which Kiefer begins by appealing to "a work by the Viennese

psychoanalyst Stekel entitled *Sadism and Masochism*" (p. 65), and goes on

to refer to everything from corporal punishment, to Roman methods of torture

and execution, to the public spectacles - practically anything *except*

overtly sexual behaviour. This fits into a grand narrative espoused by

Kiefer, according to which "the gospel of love" (p. 106) was an inevitable

consequence of "Roman sadism".

But in some Greco-Roman cases (such as vase-painting) there is a clearly

sexual component and we can make a reasonable guess as to "context": there

are numerous Attic red-figure vases showing scenes of sexual behaviour from

courting to explicit genital sexuality; and usually no indication that the

participants are to be read as anything but willing. Now, there is also -

to my knowledge at least (though scenes of this type are still not always

well-published, and many remain in restricted or private collections) - no

scene of more serious "sadomasochism"; however, the mild form of

"flagellation" with the use of a sandal is clearly shown by context to be

connected with what CM termed "erotic enjoyment", and is also quite standard

(and it is worth noting that throughout Attic vase-painting

scene-composition tends to be somewhat formulaic, presumably due both to the

known tastes of the market and the physical conditions of vase-painting and

manufacture, which require relatively rapid application of decoration). So

I think we can say that some Athenians at least were capable of conceiving

of the infliction and receipt of (albeit mild) physical pain as elements of

mutual sexual behaviour by willing partners for "erotic enjoyment".

CM wrote

: (SM is to violence as consensual coitus is to rape). Additionally, many

: people who have "SM" fantasies are not interested in actually pursuing

: them.

I am well aware of this; hence my caution in my previous post about using a

standard of "consent" in dealing with texts or images: in viewing visual or

reading textual depictions of apparently or possibly non-consensual sexual

use of behaviours such as flagellation, we need to remember precisely that

these may be fictional fantasy enjoyed by individuals who themselves did not

participate in or derive enjoyment from *non*-consensual behaviour, but

*may* have participated in or derived enjoyment from consensual behaviour;

or who may have participated in or derived enjoyment from neither. I

think we have to be cautious in our reading, but I don't think we can regard

a scene as unrelated to what we would term "SM" merely on the basis of the

absence of clear indications of what we would term "consent".

CM wrote further

: It is not clear to me that de Sade was a sadist; some think he was

: a masochist, others would suggest that he was an early sexologist

: cataloging all the ways to have sex, and I am sure there are other

: opinions.

I am aware both of the disputes over Sade's motives and of the conditions of

his writing. My point was precisely that in his case we know a good deal

about his life (in which, as I recall, there is some evidence of masochistic

behaviour) and we have his fictional works depicting *both* consensual

sadomasochism *and* extremely violent non-consensual sadism for sexual

purposes. Whatever the motives and reasons behind his treatment by the

authorities of the day, and the truth of the charges he did face, he was

never accused of anything remotely approaching the extremes of his writings.

So it seems clear that in his case we have works depicting the imaginative

possibilities of his period (and the assurance, internal to the text, that

these behaviours could be considered sexually enjoyable), but in which the

process of unravelling his or others' tastes in regard to actual behaviours

is an extremely difficult matter: we can neither dismiss his work tout

court as unrealized fantasy, nor accept it as even a remotely accurate

representation of reality.

I do, by the way, take CM's implied point about the problems of using Sade

in discussions of "sadism" or "sadomasochism": indeed, given the variety of

behaviour described in his work, the common noun is radically

unrepresentative of its eponymous figure, and, even if restricted to

behaviours of which his work may be regarded as distinctively

representative, might equally well have been used to cover the present range

of "sadomasochism".

Finally, since this thread has moved on to definitions, I thought I'd

mention the rather peculiar one on p. 1213 of

- Della Thompson (ed.), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English.

Ninth Edition (Oxford : Clarendon Press 1995)

where we find "sadomasochism ... n. the combination of sadism and masochism

in one person"! Of course, COED9 still defined both constituent terms

exclusively in terms of "perversion" virtually unchanged since the 1951

fourth edition or before. I have not checked more recent editions.

Terrence Lockyer

Johannesburg, South Africa

From: "Donna Larsen" <ladydonna85@hotmail.com>

Sent: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 02:54:56 +0000

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: Re: [histsex] SM and the DSM

Thank you, I was not aware that their had been yet another change to the

DSM, I will now need to get all three of the versions so I can make

comparisons.

From: Lesley Hall <lesleyah@primex.co.uk>

Sent: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 15:15:01 GMT

To: histsex@topica.com

Subject: FWD: RVW: Sarti. _Europe at Home: Family and Material Culture_

H-NET BOOK REVIEW

Published by H-Women@h-net.msu.edu (November 2003)

Raffaella Sarti. _Europe at Home: Family and Material

Culture,

1500-1800_. Translated by Allan Cameron. New Haven and

London: Yale

University Press, 2002. xi + 324 pp. Illustrations,

notes,

bibliography, index. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-300-08542-

7.

Reviewed for H-Women by Carole Collier Frick,

Department of

Historical Studies, Southern Illinois University

Edwardsville

Food, Clothing, and Shelter: The Domestic Realities of

Early Modern

Europe

Although influenced by Braudel's "l'histoire

universale" approach,

author and historian Raffaella Sarti, in her book

_Europe at Home_,

does not present a distant historical perspective

devoid of

humanity, as some sweeping historical studies such as

hers tend to

do. She does have a broad jetliner perspective of

family and

material culture over time and space (Europe over a

three-hundred-year period), but one that touches down

continually to

the most intimately specific of perspectives. Sarti

has artfully

brought together the Annales' poles of quantitative

data and

personal mentalite, beginning her narrative with the

moving story of

homeless people, to clearly distinguish between the

situations of

not having a house or habitation, and not having a

family. They

were not the same. Often, in this tumultuous early

modern period,

entire family groups were forced by poverty to beg and

roam as a

dispossessed and miserable unit--truly "les

miserables."

Originally published in Italian in 1999 as _Vita di

casa: Abitare,

mangiare, vestire nell'Europa moderna_, this English

translation has

been rendered by Allan Cameron. In addition to the

seven chapters

here, this edition also includes an updated

bibliography, an

expanded final chapter, and some clarifications on

various topics as

diverse as clothing, economics, and the Jews of