Sodomy's Penumbra
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3606259 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joseph J Fischel (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 14 |
| Pages | 2030-2056 |
| Publication date | 2017-12-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Homosexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-8369 • E-ISSN: 1540-3602 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00918369.2017.1293403 |
| PMID | 28278060 |
| OpenAlex | W2587750986 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
This article advocates a sodomitical approach to sodomy. Its approach is framed alongside and against three historical glosses on sodomy law: first, that sodomy law instantiates homophobia; second, that sodomy law targets sexual violence against boys; third, that sodomy law reaches assaultive sex against women that did not register as assaultive enough to qualify as "rape" by sexist juries. The first story of sodomy law is mostly wrong. The other two glosses pivot on protection: protection of boys or protection of girls and women. These accounts, tethered to identitarianism, underplay sodomy law's multiplicity, as a source and symptom of our conflicted understandings of when sex is sex and when sexual violence is rape. The first part of the article explains my choice of sodomitical sites. The second part complicates the story of sodomy as phobic. The third part complements the historiography of sodomy as protective against boys. The fourth part argues that the gloss on sodomy law as a corrective to disbelieved women is appealing but untrue. The final part makes the case that fellatio matters. The prevalence of forcible oral sex in sodomy cases intimates a cultural pluripotence of oral sex, as well as shifting definitions-in law and life-of sex and rape. This last story of sodomy law remains undetected under an identitarian radar
Criminology · Homosexuality · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Men who have sex with men · Political science · Sociology · Sodomy · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
Sex and Harm in the Age of Consent
Up Against a Wall
Redefining Rape
Feminists Theorize the Political
The Queen of America Goes to Washington City
State Austerity and the Racial Politics of Same-Sex Marriage in the US
From ?Welfare Queen? to ?Exploited Teen
Theorizing Yes
Object Lessons
And the Unnatural Afterlife of British Colonialism in Asia
Against Nature, against Consent
Is the Rectum a Grave
What Gay Studies Taught the Court
Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |