These Achillean Men: How Sexual Identity is connected with Social Hierarchy Modern society has a nuanced view of sexuality. The growing visibility and awareness of the LGBT community in modern culture has shaped opinions on sex and sexual identity, as well as gender. Most Americans subscribe to the idea that gender is a binary, and one can be attracted to one or the other. The idea that one can experience attraction to either genders or no gender is a fairly radical idea in American culture, and the idea that there are gender identities that exist outside of the binary of male and female is hard to process. In our modern eyes, the Greeks seem incredibly homosexual in words and behavior, as discussed by works such as The Iliad and Plato’s
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Social hierarchy, especially as part of the patriarchy, is kept in place in modern society by the leading class of white men ruling over women and people of color. The dynamics of race are less visible in sexual identity, but our society’s view of male and female sexual jobs is painfully obvious. 95 percent of people in western society define sex as penis in vagina penetrative sex, ending with male orgasm and ejaculation (Kinsey, 2010). This definition does not leave a lot of leeway for same gender sex, or sex between equals. If sex and sexual identity were not tied up into social hierarchy, the common definition of sex would be something less phallic. The expectation that the penetrated is to be the satisfier and the penetrator is to be satisfied is an ancient Greek ideal and is, as such, an outdated viewpoint. In The Symposium, Aristodemus makes a point of mentioning that while Achilles was the mightiest warrior of Athens, he was the beloved, not the lover, of his Patroclus. While Achilles is exalted by men as a great warrior, Aristodemus claims Patroclus, the lover, as the one exalted by the gods for his pursuing and his affection. This goes back to the modern practices of courting, where it is romantic for a man to chase a woman, even more so if she rejects his advances. He will be rewarded, culturally speaking, for his pursuit of her. This even leads to our modern rape culture, where a rejection of sexual advances is not taken seriously, instead, taken as a challenge. A woman who says no is a sexual conquest, a prize for the “worthiest” man to win. Rape culture exists because of our attitudes toward sexual identity and social
Social hierarchy, especially as part of the patriarchy, is kept in place in modern society by the leading class of white men ruling over women and people of color. The dynamics of race are less visible in sexual identity, but our society’s view of male and female sexual jobs is painfully obvious. 95 percent of people in western society define sex as penis in vagina penetrative sex, ending with male orgasm and ejaculation (Kinsey, 2010). This definition does not leave a lot of leeway for same gender sex, or sex between equals. If sex and sexual identity were not tied up into social hierarchy, the common definition of sex would be something less phallic. The expectation that the penetrated is to be the satisfier and the penetrator is to be satisfied is an ancient Greek ideal and is, as such, an outdated viewpoint. In The Symposium, Aristodemus makes a point of mentioning that while Achilles was the mightiest warrior of Athens, he was the beloved, not the lover, of his Patroclus. While Achilles is exalted by men as a great warrior, Aristodemus claims Patroclus, the lover, as the one exalted by the gods for his pursuing and his affection. This goes back to the modern practices of courting, where it is romantic for a man to chase a woman, even more so if she rejects his advances. He will be rewarded, culturally speaking, for his pursuit of her. This even leads to our modern rape culture, where a rejection of sexual advances is not taken seriously, instead, taken as a challenge. A woman who says no is a sexual conquest, a prize for the “worthiest” man to win. Rape culture exists because of our attitudes toward sexual identity and social