LogFAQs > #978693399

haloiscoolisbak posted...

Didn't like every Greek have some slave boy they fucked on the side

It feels like homosexuality was more accepted in that era than in any other in history

no.

even in ancient greece there was rampant homophobia with a huge stigma around being penetrated.

it's more complicated because "ancient greece" is a period of like 700 years and, generally, they seem to become more homophobic as time goes on.

man-boy "relationships" become institutionalized, but not everyone was going to do that. the normal spectrum of human sexuality is always present. Gay men lived together as partners, but there was, again, the taboo against actually being the "submissive" one in the relationship so they didn't talk about it.

ancient greeks didn't have words for sexual orientation and didn't think of it as an inherent part of your personality--it was more about what you did. it was expected that most people would have sex with men and women throughout the course of their lives. they did have the idea that people preferred a gender over the other (gender is nonbinary): plato talks about this: man-seeking-man souls, man-seeking-woman souls, etc. But to their minds, everyone has the potential to have sex with a man or woman, if their fancy strikes them to do so.

legally, in athens, you couldn't rape a slave, although im sure some did that. brothels with men and/or women were common, so it was expected that you go to a brothel. so much as hitting a slave would mean exile, even a slave you owned. i guess you could have sex with your slave provided the slave said it was consensual.

edit: it's important to remember that the biology of sexuality hasnt changed. there were bi, straight, and gay people in ancient greece. bisexuality was more acceptable, and seen as the norm, which probably encouraged people who would call themselves "straight" today to experiment and be open about it.

in other ways greece becomes increasingly the product of hyper-masculinity. it's not sex with a man that's the problem: it's being an effeminate gay man that disgusts the Athenian sensibilities.