Article on Lesbianism

[starvingartist]

I recently came across an interesting article on lesbianism. What are your thoughts? Do you consider yourself to take an active or passive role in your relationships? The opinions in the article are historic in nature, however do they say anything about homosexuality today? Or are they outdated archaic ways that form a definitive dichotomy of sex, when in actuality one does not exists, for example are sexual roles either passive or active? In light of the current popularity or should I say coming out of recent bi sexual and lesbian women, I wonder if this trend has undertones of control issues, i.e. taking on active roles in relationships, etc. Or is it simply an attention seeking mechanism used by women today?

Part of the Article (it was rather long):

Female homoeroticism in Rome was frequently discussed and written about · Sources: we see evidence of this in Roman Medical writings, love spells, dream interpretations, astrological texts and comments by philosophers and dramatists · We also see in Roman Empire the rise of Latin Nouns for women who loved other women sexually (Lesbia - used by Clement of Alexandria, Tribas - used frequently by writers) · Bernadette Brooten argues that we can essentialize lesbians easier than gay men because "lesbians" or the equivalent Noun, have existed since the Roman Empire · The consistency of a lesbian concept may be due to the consistency of women's social status CENTRAL ISSUE: In phallocentric culture dominated by men, sex between women was seen through that lens - Women who had sex together violated the role of women serving men. This act flew in the face of male dominance. Furthermore, Men assumed that women must see sex as they did - with a penetrator and penetrated. One woman had to assume the role of a man and penetrate the other - an obscene act to men who were angered by the idea of women emulating men. · Act / Impact issue - a phallocentric question. For men whose sex is centered around penetration, the role of penetrator and penetrated is central. For women, this question is historically peripheral · Active / Passive issue for male writers - It deeply troubled male writers to consider who was the active and passive partners in woman/woman sex · Was an "Active" woman who inserted an object into another woman "Manlike" and deserving of scorn? Did the passive partner who allowed this woman to be a man deserve scorn as well? · Masculinity is attached to women for not submitting to men, as well as for acts they perform together · We do not know what the women thought of the active / passive issue, only what men had to say about it Sources for Female Homosexuality: Commissioned Love spells · Written by men, following secret formula · Read Page 83 Astrological Texts · Astrologers believed that the stars could cause "unnatural" behavior such as lesbian sex (male homosexual sex was deemed natural) · Because of a certain configuration of the stars when a girl was born, she would be a Tribas, virago, or other orientations · *Sexual orientations were not only homo, bi and heterosexual, but astrological orientations for unnatural women could include passive / active roles, age roles, attraction to foreigners, attraction between economic statuses, etc. · * Passive / Active roles were more important to the astronomers than male or female roles Medical texts · Doctors such as Soronos and Ephesos frequently wrote about Tribades as mentally ill · Whereas men who penetrate boys or men could be viewed as healthy, women who penetrated other women, or women who allowed themselves to be penetrated by a woman (not a man) were always viewed as sick ·