The Danger of Desire: Anal Sex and the Homo/Masculine Subject

Abstract

Anal eroticism between men has been a recurrent focus in psychoanalytic theory for over a century. Many theorists conflate anal eroticism with danger, particularly danger to masculinity and male gender identity. Defensive resistance to aggressive penetration and fear of receptivity are repeatedly invoked to understand anal erotic excitement and actions. The author reviews numerous papers on this topic from a broad spectrum of psychoanalytic theories, including drive theory, queer theory, and relational psychoanalysis and seeks to expand the discourse on anal eroticism between men.

Although danger and dangerousness may be an aspect of individual anal erotic experience, it is not an essential or obligatory aspect of it; its construction as dangerous restricts the meanings that anal sexuality can carry. This imposes a defensive function on anal erotic desire or marginalized identity upon the practitioner when this is unwarranted.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am deeply grateful to the following for their generous assistance in the development and revision of this paper: Alexander Belser, Ken Corbett, Chuck Davis, Muriel Dimen, Sue Grand, Kirk Nurock, and Debra Roth.