Intergendered

The alleged state of being constitutionally neither male nor female.

It is commonly supposed in analist culture that gay men are "intergendered" and constitute a third sex somewhere between men and women.

Thus being intergendered is used to explain and justify effeminacy and of course being anally-receptive during anal penetration.

In reality there's no evidence that gay or any other men who have sex with men are "intergendered."

Biologically -- that is, genetically -- there are two sexes, not three or five or ten.

Effeminacy, anal receptivity, and promiscuity can all be explained as behavioral responses to the widespread cultural belief that men who have sex with men are in some way women.

And indeed when men "come out" into gay life, they go through a process of acculturation in which they are taught to be anally receptive and to behave effeminately.

Were these men biologically or constitutionally "intergendered," they would not need to be acculturated.

Nor would they be capable of "passing" -- that is pretending to be nongay -- when the situation demanded such.

Men who have sex with men are not, then, "intergendered."

They're simply men who have sex with men.

For a further discussion of the intergendered myth, see Are Men Who Have Sex with Men Intergendered?

For a discussion of the true nature of sex between men, see Sex Between Men: An Activity, Not a Condition

See also Labels.


© Copyright 2016 by Bill Weintraub.
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