#piv critique
i was debating doing a longer post on this, and even though i don’t think i will, folks should read this https://www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/introduction.htm
a few interesting points:
it became considered a crime because it was considered a sin, and they were considered one and the same.
in the uk, pia had to be engaged in until ejaculation to be considered sodomy.
there was a big upswing in criminalizing sodomy, and expanding the definition of sodomy, especially in the 20th century. all us states criminalized it by 1960. the 70s (largely thanks to the gay liberation movement) saw many states decriminalize it, but it remained illegal in about half of the states until 2003 with the Lawrencedecision! (i actually remember this case in the news, when i was in high school, and i read how even at least unmarried heterosexual sodomy eg oral sex was typically still illegal then.) noteworthy too is that the vast majority of criminal cases were about oral sex, not pia. now, people hear sodomy and think pia only, that sodomy is synonymous with pia, but it actually was usually fellatio. and it shows that fellatio plays a far greater role in 20th century sex between men than pia does, contrary to how porn has reshaped and portrays male-male sex.
(this also coincides with the homophile movement of the 40s-mid 60s and gay liberation movement of the late 60s-70s. the sex that was had was mostly oral, manual, frottage, outercourse… there was not a lot of pia. it was generally an occasional thing with a special guy, and about 1 in 4 didn’t have pia at all. indeed, top/bottom, now seen as integral to gay/bi male identity, is a product of bdsm and porn. in most of the 20th century, top/bottom was in the bdsm world, not something specific to male-male sex. for example, the hite report on male sexuality’s mention of top/bottom is limited to bdsm, not male-male sex generally.)
In 1900, statutory wording of sodomy laws permitted, or apparently permitted, prosecutions for fellatio in 13 states and ten of those had changed their laws to permit such an interpretation since 1880. In no court before 1900 had fellatio been found to be “sodomy.” By 1920, the number of changes to sodomy laws to permit prosecution of fellatio doubled to 24, and 11 states had court decisions that the term “crime against nature” or “sodomy,” standing alone, covered acts of fellatio.
Today, and for several decades, fellatio is mentioned far more commonly in reported sodomy cases than is anal intercourse…
heterosexual sodomy (which increasingly included oral sex and some other sex acts) was often considered worse than homosexual because couples could have piv only (seen as the only natural, proper sex act), had “unnatural” (hahaha) sex in addition to, or even worse, without piv. only piv was acceptable because it was potentially reproductive and the most effective at reproduction eg penis-vulva had some pregnancy risk, but far lower than piv so even that didn’t cut it as proper sex (it also inherently provided a lot of stimulation of the vulva and clitoris, unlike piv). (bestiality/human sexual abuse of animals was also considered sodomy because it wasn’t potentially reproductive.) a man enaging in sodomy with a woman
seems worse that than [sic] of a Man or a Beast; for it seems a more direct Affront to the Author of Nature, and a more insolent expression of Contempt of his Wisdom, condemning the Provision made by him, and defying both it and him.
sometimes oral sex on men was criminalized while oral sex on women wasn’t, due to male judges, politicians, etc not being able to see non-piv/pia sex as sex, seeing the penis as still defining sex when other acts come close (the clitoris/vulva counts for less than nothing under a patriarchal definition of sex), men being more likely to engage in public or semi-public sex together then women are, frankly men being more behaviorally bisexual than women are (contrary to what most men want you to think), and being mighty fearful of male bi- and homosexuality. (so even if fellatio wasn’t real sex, it was realer than anything a man or woman could do with a vulva/clitoris.) male homosexual acts were also punished more harshly, even with death, whereas women got public humiliation, flogging, even being found not guilty because “the crime here alleged has no existence” (vulva-centric sex and sex between women don’t exist). sometimes, acts between men and women were illegal while between women they were legal (not recognized at all), because the penis defined sodomy, even in hetero cunnilingus. indeed, heterosexual cunnilingus was first prosecuted 25 years before lesbian cunnilingus was. marriage protecting on from sodomy charges/conviction is relatively new, starting in the 1960s, and not in all states (eg some states even continued prosecuting married couples in the 60s-70s, even through to the 90s). but some states even exempted unmarried hetero couplings from sodomy law
In 1935, the Oklahoma Supreme Court became the first in the nation to rule that cunnilingus was a “crime against nature.” The Court gave absolutely no analysis for its conclusion. What was “unknown” to women in 1921 became dangerous knowledge by 1935 that had to be outlawed. Courts in Florida, Alabama, and Maine followed Oklahoma’s lead in the next 15 years. Before widespread public knowledge of Lesbianism, cunnilingus never was considered a species of the “crime against nature.” After that knowledge was spread, it became consensus that cunnilingus was included in that historically narrower term.
masturbation sometimes even was seen as sodomy (indeed, even “encouraging” masturbation could be criminalized as sodomy, as i read in kinsey). mutual masturbation, usually broadly defined, would also be seen as sodomy (often manual, but also other manipulation of genitals).
Other states, such as Maryland and Oregon, used broadly worded sodomy laws that covered undefined terms such as “perverted practices” or “sexual perversity.” Under this wording, Oregon courts held both mutual masturbation and urination to be coverable. Michigan opted for the term “gross indecency,” which the state’s courts interpreted to include manipulation of another’s genitals.
the united states didn’t include some forms of sex as sodomy that other nations did (eg the link on sodomy in germany i gave earlier) eg thigh frottage, vulva-vulva contact, but they could still be considered unnatural, abnormal, perverted, gross indecency, etc.
other sections are interesting too eg how it was regarded as mental illness and punished with sterilization, institutionalization in hospitals and prisons, etc but this is getting too long.
