foucault-and-the-iranian-revolution-janet-afary

Notes to Pages 147-1 54 291
14. James Davidson has suggested that, especially in his later writings, Dover was
influenced by contemporary homosexual practices in European and Mediterranean
societies, which he then read back into Greek society (2001, 29; see also Davidson 1997).
15. Aristotle describes a king who was overthrown by two of his young male lovers,
after the king broke his promises to allow one of them to marry his daughter 'and to
support the other's return to power in his city of origin. To Aristotle, the king's political
error lay not in the relationships themselves, but in his flouting of the rule of reciprocity,
which humiliated the young men. This lack of moderation and reciprocity in pursuing
one's desires was attributed to hubris (Politics 1311a39).
16. Foucault discusses Aristophanes, but only to show that he regarded same-sex
relations as normal. For Aristophanes as viewed by Plato, see his Symposium (lines 189-93).
17. These statements by Aristotle on gender are part of an attack on the greater gender
equality within the elite, as proposed in Plato's Republic. For some recent discussions of
Plato and gender, see the essays in Tuana 1994.
18. This "life-giving" quality of the semen defined the relationship between the
erastes and the paidika as well. The erastes not only had sex with the paidika, but
he also transmitted the phallus (i.e., virility and authority) to the paidika through
his semen, although this was not openly acknowledged. This old archetype whereby
authorityJlifeJpowerJvirility is transferred from the active to the passive partner appears
in the ancient myths of many cultures. We thank Houman Sarshar for pointing out this
connection.
19. As Suzanne Pharr has argued, a great deal of opposition to homosexuality stems
from misogyny: Misogyny gets transferred to gay men with a vengeance through the fear
that their "feminine" sexual identity and behavior could bring down the entire system of
male dominance and compulsory heterosexuality (Pharr 2001, 148).
20. Here Foucault skips a few centuries and looks at the changes that took place
during the first two centuries CE within the Roman context, when a growing sexual austerity
(for men) became more normative. Even more than in the classical Greek period, there was
a concern in medical texts about health risks involved with sex; hence the title of Foucault's
book, The Care of the Self. Fidelity to one's wife became a more highly regarded attribute,
and love of boys came to be seen as less dignified. Still, Foucault makes a distinction
between this Roman period and later Christianity, because once more, he argues, the new
limitations on sex in the Roman era were self-imposed.
21. The early twentieth-century German feminist Marianne Weber made an argument
that differed sharply from Foucault's on this point (1998, 215).
22. Plutarch (1957) assumed that consent always existed in marriage, but not in
relations between men and boys.
23. Rabinow objects to this and asks, "Why does sex have to be virile? Why couldn't
women's pleasure and boys' pleasure be taken account of without any big changes to the
general framework? Or is it that it's not just a little problem, because if you try to bring in
the pleasure of the other, the whole hierarchical. ethical system would break down?' At
this point, Foucault finally admits that this is in fact the case (1983, 346).