Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation refers to the sex or gender of people who are the focus of a person's amorous or erotic desires, fantasies, and spontaneous feelings, the gender(s) toward which one is primarily "oriented". The alternative terms sexual preference and sexual inclination have similar meanings. Clinicians and those who believe sexuality is fixed early in life tend to use the former term; those believing sexuality is fluid and reflects preference and choice tend towards the latter terms.

History

Main articles: History of sexuality, Anthropological classification of homosexuality

Related Topics:
History of sexuality - Anthropological classification of homosexuality

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Anthropologists identify the following forms of homosexuality:

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• Age-structured - The partners are of different ages.
• Gender-structured - Each partner plays a different gender role.
• Egalitarian - The partners are of equal age (or age is of no relevance in the partnership structure) and both play the same socially-accepted sex role as heterosexuals of their own sex.

What we think of as "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" in modern times usually corresponds to the egalitarian model, which has become dominant in Western societies. Some historical and non-Western societies have institutionalized other forms of same-sex relations. Some scholars argue that using modern egalitarian terminology and identity concepts to describe these social arrangements is inappropriate and misleading.

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The pederasty practiced in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and other societies throughout history is one form of age-structured homosexual relations, sometimes considered a form of bisexuality (in modern terms).

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(The following paragraph requires and possible correction by someone familiar with the subject. )

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Some cultures, such as classic Greece and Rome, may have not classified sexual orientation (if at all) by the gender to which one is attracted, but by one's social position in relation to one's position or role during sexual activity. Although in ancient Greece Plato described three sexual orientations and defined them in myth with religious explanation for their existence in his Symposium. http://www.glbtq.com/literature/classical_myth,6.html As heterosexual men in the United States are still expected to refrain from engaging in sexual activity with other men, a free Roman male was expected not to be penetrated, with transgressors being similarly labeled as effeminate. A similar example was reported in Rome, with the well known "Satyricon" by Petronius Arbiter, wherein a common acceptance of pedophilia is also described.

Related Topics:
Ancient Greece - Plato - Effeminate - Satyricon - Petronius Arbiter - Pedophilia

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