Homosexual Desire
{{short description|1972 book}}
{{italic title}}
Homosexual Desire (French: Le désir homosexuel) is a 1972 book by French intellectual Guy Hocquenghem. The book is polemical and focuses on the desire of homosexual men, the power of the phallus as a cultural symbol, and sexual liberation. It was the first book in the queer theoretic movement of asociality.
Background
Guy Hocquenghem was a 25-year-old intellectual who founded the {{lang|fr|Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire}}, a radical French organization that opposed standard political organization and disassociated itself with making demands for the future.{{sfn|Bernini|2017|p=10}} He was active in the New Left and its internal disagreements over the nature of homosexuality, as well as the psychoanalytic theoretical scene in France.{{sfn|Bernini|2017|p=60}} He was a close friend of René Schérer, a French theorist who sought to eliminate negative cultural attitudes toward pedophilia and child sexuality.{{sfn|Paternotte|2014|pp=265–267}}
Publication and contents
Homosexual Desire, originally Le désir homosexuel,{{sfn|Schehr|1996|p=140}} was written by Guy Hocquenghem and published in the French language by Editions Universitaires in 1972.{{sfnm|1a1=Penney|1y=2004|1p=67|2a1=Shively|2y=1978|2p=3}} The book was translated into English in 1978 by Daniella Dangoor;{{sfn|Schehr|1996|p=140}} this translation was reprinted in the United States in 1993.{{sfn|Penney|2004|p=67}} In 2017, the book was translated into Spanish as {{lang|es|El deseo homosexual}} and Spanish critical theorist Paul B. Preciado contributed an afterword.{{sfn|Bernini|2017|p=83}}
The book is polemical and sought the liberation of homosexual men over their assimilation.{{sfnm|1a1=Bernini|1y=2017|1p=60|2a1=Schehr|2y=1996|2p=143}} The primary aim of the book is to reduce the symbolic value of the phallus over society; for Hocquenghem, the dominance of the phallus leads to the subordination of women and homosexual men, and many social problems can be traced to the phallus.{{sfn|Schehr|1996|p=143}} He argues that homosexual desire – inward feelings of same-sex attraction that are at once produced and repressed by heterosexist society{{efn-ua|Homosexuality as a distinct clinical pathology and identity was, for Hocquenghem, created in the 1800s. It was developed as a category to exclude certain groups of people from power and to maintain the social order.{{sfn|Bernini|2017|p=57}}}} – can be political, and that like the civil unrest in the May 68 movement, it can lead to the liberation of homosexual men.{{sfnm|1a1=Bernini|1y=2017|2p=57|2a1=Schehr|2y=1996|2pp=143–144}} In his argument, homosexual desire is focused on the anus (a valueless organ),{{sfn|Everett|2018|p=120}} so it cannot be concerned with futurity.{{sfn|Bernini|2017|p=10}} He argues that the repression of homosexual desire – not the death drive of Freud's psychoanalysis – leads to men lashing out in masochist fits of rage in attempts to liberate themselves (in modern parlance, internalised homophobia).{{sfn|Bernini|2017|p=57}} Hocquenghem's notion of sexual liberation also included children; he argued that children are oppressed by society for their sexuality, and that adult–child sex is not an inherently abusive practice.{{sfn|Paternotte|2014|p=267}}
Reception and legacy
The publication of Homosexual Desire preceded Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality by four years, another influential book in the study of desire and homosexual identity.{{sfn|Penney|2004|p=67}} It was the first queer theoretic work about queer antisociality,{{efn-ua|The first work is sometimes identified as Leo Bersani's essay "Is the Rectum a Grave?".}} a theory – advanced by writers like Lee Edelman – declaring homosexuality incompatible with many of society's values.{{sfn|Moore|Brintnall|Marchal|2018|pp=9, 32}}
Notes and references
=Notes=
{{notelist-ua}}
=Citations=
{{reflist}}
=Bibliography=
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book |last=Bernini |first=Lorenzo |title=Queer apocalypses: Elements of antisocial theory |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2017 |isbn=9783319433615}}
- {{cite book |last=Everett |first=Julin |title=Le queer impérial |publisher=Brill |date=2018 |series= Francopolyphonies |isbn=9789004365544}}
- {{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Stephen D. |last2=Brintnall |first2=Kent L. |last3=Marchal |first3=Joseph A. |title=Sexual disorientations: Queer temporalities, affects, theologies |date=2018 |publisher=Fordham University Press |edition=first |chapter=Introduction – Queer disorientations: Four turns and a twist}}
- {{cite book |last=Paternotte |first=David |title=Sexual revolutions |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2014 |editor1-last=Hekma |editor1-first=Gert |editor1-link=Gert Hekma |editor2-last=Giami |editor2-first=Alain |chapter=Pedophilia, homosexuality and gay and lesbian activism |series=Genders and Sexualities in History |isbn=9781137321459}}
- {{cite journal |last=Penney |first=James |title=The schizoanalytic protest: Homosexual Desire revisited |journal=Angelaki |volume=9 |issue=1 |date=2004 |pages=67–83 |doi=10.1080/0969725042000232405|s2cid=151857631 }}
- {{cite journal |last=Schehr |first=Lawrence R. |title=Defense and illustration of gay liberation |journal=Yale French Studies |issue=90 |date=1996 |pages=139–152 |doi=10.2307/2930361 |jstor=2930361 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2930361|url-access=subscription }}
- {{cite magazine |last=Shively |first=Charley |author-link=Charley Shively |title=Keeping Stonewall ... alive |magazine=Gay Community News |volume=6 |issue=16 |date=11 November 1978 |department=Book Review |pages=3, 7}}
{{refend}}
Category:1972 non-fiction books
Category:Books about psychoanalysis
Category:Books about the philosophy of sexuality
Category:French non-fiction books