[lbo-talk] Clash of Sexual Civilizations (was Re: ahmadinejad)

[Miles Jackson]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> On 9/25/07, James Heartfield <Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>   
>> Yoshie writes
>>
>> "But a majority of Iranians, apparently including their President, have not
>> adopted the idea of sexual orientations, nor have much of the rest of the
>> Third World."
>>
>> But Ahmadinejad's government seems sufficiently aware of the existence of
>> Iranian homosexuals to pass stringent laws against them.
>>     
>
> Laws are against certain sexual acts, not against certain categories
> of persons, in Iran.  Such laws must be overturned, as they have been
> here (though not until 2003:
> <http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html>).  I do not
> think, however, that one has to subscribe to the idea of sexual
> orientations to overturn them.
>
>   
I have to say that the above illustrates a trope that fascinates me 
(perhaps I'm easily entertained): the effortless leap from laws about 
specific sexual acts to the claim that there are "stringent laws" 
against homosexuals.  The notion that sexual activity is an expression 
of some stable, essential sexual identity is so socially entrenched 
that--it's difficult for us to recognize that the notion is socially 
created.  (Marx's argument about how we created God and then bow down to 
what we created comes to mind here.)

Miles