O Fetiche Totêmico Da Sexualidade Masculina: Oito Erros Comuns (The Totemic Fetish of Male Sexuality: Eight Common Errors)

Abstract

The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir writes in The Second Sex that “biological facts [provide] one of the keys to the understanding of woman.” Yet, she quickly adds, “I deny that they establish for her a fixed and inevitable destiny” (1970 [1949]:29). This revolutionary thesis that detached female bodies from female destinies has been a cornerstone of feminism and women’s studies for several decades, sometimes captured in the aphorism that biology is not destiny. Since The Second Sex, our understanding of the biological facts have become more complex (see, for example, Anne Fausto-Sterling’s Sexing the Body [2000]). Some hallowed truths about bodies have been more difficult to dislodge than others. This chapter examines the notion of men’s sexual destiny, a topic widely taken for granted in the popular imagination yet sadly and oddly seldom examined by feminist and gender studies scholars.

Note: Downloadable document is in Portuguese.

Keywords: Men and masculinities, sexualities