Boy Toys

Joanna Kenty explores a heteronormative trope of Roman political rhetoric which reflects a toxic understanding of power as not only masculine, but also as sexually dominant. In his orations, such as the Verrines , Philippics , and Pro Caelio , Cicero often attacks political opponents for being sexually in thrall to another man or a woman. Cicero’s sense of political virtue is strongly associated with a narrow sense of virility as domination over others. Furthermore, by the logic of this trope, women’s power is only ever represented as a tyrannical usurpation of men’s authority, achieved through the subjugation of weak men. It exists behind closed doors, and if it reaches the forum, that is a sign of major dysfunction. This link between sex and politics is thus predicated on the exclusion of women from the political sphere.

Art · Invective · Literature · Political science · Trope (literature) · Classical Antiquity Studies · Law