Having Sex with Men Doesn't Mean You're Gay

The current book I'm reading, Roman Homosexuality, is hilarious, despite its rather dry and academic style and its author's propensity to say things like

Yet feminist scholars like Amy Richlin have directed our focus to certain fundamental continuities in discourses of gender and sex, reminding us of the unbroken tradition of oppressive patriarchal structures in Western cultures.

Aagh, I'm dying of boredom and overdose on scholarly wankiness! Luckily I can skip over those parts.

But the book is worth reading for its very detailed description of the Romans' concept of proper masculine behavior. Apparently, a real man is willing to have sex with any type of person (as long as he's doing the penetrating), man, boy, woman or girl, who is not his social equal. Thus, having sex with any number of slave boys, adult male prostitutes or non-Roman women is socially approved and what a real macho man does, but sleeping with freeborn Romans (besides your wife) is both reprehensible and makes you an effeminate wimp.

Here's a description of Seneca's on the Roman equivalent of homosexuals:

The revolting pursuits of singing and dancing have taken hold of these effeminates; braiding their hair and thinning their voices to a feminine lilt, competing with women in bodily softness, beautifying themselves with disgusting finery--this is the pattern of our young men.

And who do these dissolutes have sex with? Other citizens (their sex is not specified, since it doesn't matter)!!! Shocking! Meanwhile, the extremely macho Galba, known for his traditional morality, nonetheless preferred sex with adult males while his rival Otho was derided for his effeminacy due partly to his heterosexual relationship with Nero's mistress Poppaea.

According to Roman morality, then while Mark Foley is a terrible person (and murdering him would be justifiable homicide on the part of the pages), Larry Craig and Mark Oaten are upstanding citizens with fine family values; Strom Thurmond did nothing wrong but Bill Clinton is an effeminate pervert, especially given his expensive haircuts, snappy dressing, and saxophone playing. In other words, he's gay but Larry Craig isn't.

It's interesting to see how different morality can be, depending on the society.