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Homoeroticism issexual attraction between members of the same sex, including both male–male and female–female attraction.[1] The concept differs from the concept ofhomosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homosexuality" implies a more permanent state of identity orsexual orientation. It has been depicted or manifested throughout the history of thevisual arts andliterature and can also be found in performative forms; fromtheatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements (e.g., theWandervogel andGemeinschaft der Eigenen). According to theOxford English Dictionary, it is "pertaining to or characterized by a tendency for erotic emotions to be centered on a person of the same sex; or pertaining to a homo-erotic person."[2]
This is a relatively recentdichotomy[3] that has been studied in the earliest times ofancient poetry tomodern drama by modern scholars. Thus, scholars have analyzed the historical context in many homoerotic representations such asclassical mythology,Renaissance literature,paintings andvase-paintings of ancient Greece andAncient Roman pottery.
Though homoeroticism can differ from the interpersonal homoerotic—as a set of artistic and performative traditions, in which such feelings can be embodied in culture and thus expressed into the wider society[3]—some authors have cited the influence of personal experiences in ancient authors such asCatullus,Tibullus andPropertius in their homoerotic poetry.[4]
The term "homoerotic" carries with it the weight of modern classifications of love and desire that may not have existed in previous eras.Homosexuality as known today was not fully codified until the mid-20th century, though this process began much earlier:
Following in the tradition ofMichel Foucault, scholars such asEve Kosofsky Sedgwick andDavid Halperin have argued that various Victorian public discourses, notably the psychiatric and the legal, fostered a designation or invention of the "homosexual" as a distinct category of individuals, a category solidified by the publications of sexologists such asRichard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902) andHavelock Ellis (1859–1939), sexologists who provided an almost-pathological interpretation of the phenomenon in rather Essentialist terms, an interpretation that led, before 1910, to hundreds of articles on the subject in The Netherlands, Germany, and elsewhere. One result of this burgeoning discourse was that the "homosexual" was often portrayed as a corrupter of the innocent, with a predisposition towards both depravity and paederasty—a necessary portrayal if Late-Victorian and Edwardian sexologists were to account for the continuing existence of the "paederast" in a world that had suddenly become bountiful in "homosexuals."[5]
Despite an ever-changing and evolving set of modern classifications, members of the same sex often formed intimate associations (many of which were erotic as well as emotional) on their own terms, most notably in the "romantic friendships" documented in the letters and papers of 18th- and 19th-century men and women.[6] These romantic friendships, which may or may not have included genital sex, were characterized by passionate emotional attachments and what modern thinkers would consider homoerotic overtones.
Aesthetic philosopherThomas Mann argued in a 1925 essay that homoeroticism is aesthetic, whileheterosexuality isprosaic.[7]
Sigmund Freud, the founder ofpsychoanalysis, held viewpoints on sexual orientation embedded in his psychoanalytic studies onnarcissism and theOedipus complex, where "rather than being a matter only for a minority of men who identify ashomosexual orgay, homoeroticism is a part of the very formation of all men as human subjects and social actors."[8] Freud believed humans to be naturallybisexual, however also expressed interest in "the organic determinants of homoeroticism".[9]
Male–male examples, in the visual fine arts, range through history:Ancient Greek vase art;Ancient Roman wine goblets (TheWarren Cup). SeveralItalian Renaissance artists are thought to have been homosexual, and homoerotic appreciation of the male body has been identified by critics in works byLeonardo da Vinci andMichelangelo. More explicit sexual imagery occurring in theMannerist andTenebrist styles of the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in artists such asAgnolo Bronzino,Michel Sweerts,Carlo Saraceni andCaravaggio, whose works were sometimes severely criticized by the Catholic Church.[10]
Many 19th centuryhistory paintings of classical characters such asHyacinth,Ganymede andNarcissus can also be interpreted as homoerotic; the work of 19th-century artists (such asFrédéric Bazille,Hippolyte Flandrin,Théodore Géricault,Thomas Eakins,Eugène Jansson,Henry Scott Tuke,Aubrey Beardsley andMagnus Enckell); through to the modern work of fine artists such asPaul Cadmus andGilbert & George.Fine art photographers such asKarl Hammer,Wilhelm von Gloeden,David Hockney,Will McBride,Robert Mapplethorpe,Pierre et Gilles,Bernard Faucon,Anthony Goicolea have also made a strong contribution, Mapplethorpe and McBride being notably in breaking down barriers of gallery censorship and braving legal challenges.James Bidgood was also an important pioneer in the 1960s, radically moving homoerotic photography away from simple documentary and into areas that were more akin to fine art surrealism.[11]
In Asia, male eroticism also has its roots in traditionalJapaneseshunga (erotic art), this tradition influenced contemporary Japanese artists, such asTamotsu Yatō (photography artist),Sadao Hasegawa (painter) andGengoroh Tagame (manga artist).
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Female–female examples are most historically noticeable in the narrative arts: the lyrics ofSappho;The Songs of Bilitis; novels such as those ofChrista Winsloe,Colette,Radclyffe Hall, andJane Rule, and films such asMädchen in Uniform. More recently, lesbian homoeroticism has flowered in photography and the writing of authors such asPatrick Califia andJeanette Winterson.
Female homoerotic art by lesbian artists has often been less culturally prominent than the presentation of lesbian eroticism by non-lesbians and for a primarily non-lesbian audience. In the West, this can be seen as long ago as the 1872 novelCarmilla, and is also seen in cinema in such popular films asEmmanuelle,The Hunger,Showgirls, and most of all inpornography. In the East, especiallyJapan, lesbianism is the subject of themanga subgenreyuri.
In many texts in the English-speaking world, lesbians have been presented as intensely sexual but also predatory and dangerous (the characters are oftenvampires)[citation needed] and the primacy of heterosexuality is usually re-asserted at the story's end. This shows the difference between homoeroticism as a product of the wider culture and homosexual art produced by gay men and women.[citation needed]
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The most prominent example of homoeroticism in theWestern canon is that ofthe sonnets byWilliam Shakespeare. Though certaincritics have made assertions, some in efforts to preserve Shakespeare's literary credibility, to them being non-erotic in nature, no critic has disputed that the majority of Shakespeare's sonnets concern explicitly male–male love poetry. The only other Renaissance artist writing in English to do this was the poetRichard Barnfield, who inThe Affectionate Shepherd andCynthia wrote fairly explicitly homoerotic poetry. Barnfield's poems, furthermore, are now widely accepted as a major influence upon Shakespeare's.[12]
The male–male erotic tradition contains poems by major poets such asAbu Nuwas,Walt Whitman,Federico García Lorca,Paul Verlaine,W. H. Auden,Fernando Pessoa andAllen Ginsberg.
Elisar von Kupffer'sLieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltlitteratur (1900) andEdward Carpenter'sIoläus: An Anthology of Friendship (1902) were the first known notable attempts at homoerotic anthologies sinceThe Greek Anthology. Since then, many anthologies have been published.
In the female–female tradition, there are poets such asSappho, "Michael Field", andMaureen Duffy.Emily Dickinson addressed a number of poems and letters with homoerotic overtones to her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert.
Letters can also be potent conveyors of homoerotic feelings; the letters betweenVirginia Woolf andVita Sackville-West, two well-known members of theBloomsbury Group, are full of homoerotic overtones characterized by this excerpt from Vita's letter to Virginia: "I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia [...] It is incredible to me how essential you have become [...] I shan't make you love me any the more by giving myself away like this --But oh my dear, I can't be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that." (January 21, 1926)
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The lines in the 1957Elvis Presley songJailhouse Rock "Number 47 said to number 3 'you're cutest jailbird I ever did see. I sure would be delighted with your company. Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me.'" are acknowledged to be a reference to homoeroticism.[13][14]
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WhileMainstream Christianity predominately condemns homoeroticism, some theologians and historians have concluded thatJesus of Nazareth had a non-heteronormative behavioral pattern, in some cases based onapocryphal texts.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Some also include the apostlesJohn andSimon Peter.[22][23]
Some speculate thatJohn the Baptist had homosocial or homoerotic behavior. In the Gospel of John (3:22–36), John the Baptist speaks of himself as the “friend of the bridegroom,” implying that the bridegroom of Christ (Matthew 9:15) is coming to meet his bride, though nothing specific to identify the bride. Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher, and all the rabbis at that time were married; there is no reference to a possible marriage.[24]
Some theologians and scholars claim that other Biblical figures engaged innon-heterosexual behavior such asJacob[25] andDavid and Jonathan,[26][27] as well as the canonized saintsFrancis of Assisi[28] andSaint Sebastian.[29]
Positive portrayals of homoerotic feelings in relationships, made at feature length and for theatrical exhibition, and made by those who are same-sex oriented.[citation needed] Successful examples would be:Mädchen in Uniform, Germany (1931);The Leather Boys, UK (1964);Scorpio Rising, U.S. (1964);Death in Venice, Italy (1971);The Naked Civil Servant, UK (1975);Sebastiane, UK (1976);Outrageous!, Canada (1977);My Beautiful Laundrette, UK (1985);Maurice, UK (1987);the Talented Mr. Ripley, US (1999);Summer Vacation 1999, Japan, (1988);Brokeback Mountain, U.S. (2005);Black Swan, U.S. (2010);Carol, UK/U.S. (2015) and most recentlyMoonlight, U.S. (2016),Call Me by Your Name, U.S./Italy (2017), andPortrait of a Lady on Fire, France (2019). Also of note is the 1990 feature-lengthBBC adaptation ofOranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Classical and medieval literature:
Literature after 1850:
Visual arts:
Performing arts:
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