Page "Effeminacy" Paragraph 25

The late Greek ( possibly c. fourth century ), Erôtes (" Loves ", " Forms of Desire ", " Affairs of the Heart "), preserved with manuscripts by Lucian, contains a debate " between two men, Charicles and Callicratidas, over the relative merits of women and boys as vehicles of male sexual pleasure.

" Callicratidas, " far from being effeminised by his sexual predilection for boys ... Callicratidas's inclination renders him hypervirile ... Callicratidas's sexual desire for boys, then, makes him more of a man ; it does not weaken or subvert his male gender identity but rather consolidates it.

" In contrast, " Charicles ' erotic preference for women seems to have had the corresponding effect of effeminising him: when the reader first encounters him, for example, Charicles is described as exhibiting ' a skillful use of cosmetics, so as to be attractive to women.

'"