Terms for homosexualities
The terms for predominant or partial same-sex affection in and of itself and, above all, the various terms for a person have arisen for various reasons, often contain a concept and different attributions. One speaks of homosexualities or also bisexualities in the majority when one recognizes that there were and are different social concepts in different cultures for same-sex sentiments and that these change in the course of history.
Interpretation sovereignty of modern terms
The creation of the terms Urning , homosexual or the use of the term third gender was a reaction to concrete social oppression and took place directly in the legal context through initiatives against the legal prohibitions. Homosexual then prevailed despite semantic problems and was mainly used and distributed in the medical / scientific context, which also provided some methods for "therapy" and sometimes implemented them under pressure or even coercion. In order to conceptually escape this cool environment and also as a provocation, the use of the formerly purely colloquial terms gay and lesbian as self-designations was forced. But today you also feel addressed by the expressions homosexual or same-sex and these are also used when both sexes are meant and you don't want to use a suitcase word.
The sexologist John Gagnon explains and asks the following:
" What is required is constant recognition of the fact that language use and interpretation are literally acts of social control, that" homosexual "and" homosexuality "are labels that have been imposed on some people and their behavior by others, and that these labels established the right of the latter to explain to the former the origin, meaning and moral value of their behavior. "
Terms throughout history
Until the beginning of the 19th century
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were mostly very derogatory expressions for same-sex sex and same-sex attraction. Most were colloquial, a few were also used in science, in fiction it was rarely used and was mostly paraphrased.
Many of the terms contained fairly direct allusions to the suspected “main” sinful sexual practice. Sometimes they were only written in Latin or Greek so as not to spoil the uneducated or children. In the German dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, for example, explanations of meanings for gay and gay people are written in Greek: gay παιδεραστειν ( paiderastein ); gay ο παιδεραστης ( ho paiderastes ). In earlier times, the permitted topics and how they could be dealt with depended on the group of people for whom a book was written due to the censorship .
The term sodomy , derived from sodomite (plural, and also colloquial singular, sodomite ), was widespread until modern times. Over the centuries this term went through a change in meaning; Originally, it referred to all same-sex acts (especially among male persons) in general, and thus also those that were not connected with penetration into the body. Around 850, the term in the pseudoisidor of Benedictus Levita (author of the local Capitularia Benedicti Levitae , forged Carolingian capitularies by Levita ) was expanded to include all sexual acts that did not serve to produce children (including, for example, anal intercourse, equestrian position and masturbation) and thus declared to be unnatural were, an argument later repeated and reinforced by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa theologica . In the High Middle Ages, sodomy was considered synonymous with heresy , often also with devil worship and witchcraft, due to its frequent joint use in indictments, among other things . Due to the argument of the supposed unnaturalness , sodomy was also Germanized as a sin against nature or unchaste against nature from the early modern era . (→ § 175 ) It was only from around the middle of the 19th century that the meaning in German changed to the exclusive designation for sexual acts by people with animals. This change in meaning began in the discourse within the Roman Catholic Church after the Second World War.
The pederasty experienced a similar meaning change. When the term came up again in modern times, contrary to its original meaning among the ancient Greeks, it mainly referred to anal intercourse, including heterosexual intercourse. At the same time there was the modern Germanization of boy abusers , which had more clearly male-same-sex connotations, but was apparently not necessarily associated with a certain age preference. In particular, the Latin translation pedicatio became the (medical) term for anal intercourse. Even in the 1930s, the police sometimes wrote pederasty as a reason for arrest on the card of a man who had engaged in same-sex activities.
For women there was tribady , or tribadic love , but also sapphic or lesbian love . These terms weren't quite as negative, and were often more erotic among men. The quite common addition “love” speaks for this.
For both sexes there was the Sodomite sin as well as fornication against nature .
Advent of movement
With Heinrich Hössli the efforts for an acceptance of same-sex lovers began. Understandably, one did not want to use any of the negative terms. Hössli published his first book in 1821 under the title Die Männerliebe ... , which in principle can have a man and a woman, with the addition ... of the Greeks .
Because the terms previously used seemed too negative to him, in 1864 Karl Heinrich Ulrichs introduced the terms Uranismus , Urning and Urninde , which apply to same-sex people , and the terms Dioning , Dioninge , which apply to people of the opposite sex .
Around the same time, the emerging modern medicine and neurologists took on more and more human nonconformities. In 1868 Karl Maria Kertbeny coined the term triple "monosexual, homosexual and heterosexual". Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia sexualis spread very widely from 1886 onwards .
In 1870 Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal introduced the terms "contrary sexual sensation" and "contrary sexual". These became the "sexual inversion" and the "inverted" via the detour via Italian, French and back translation into German. Johann Ludwig Casper's term “sexual madness” was also an attempt to “first find neutral terms”.
In the following years the terms Ulrichs, Kertbenys and Westphals were about equally widespread. In 1914, Magnus Hirschfeld noted that the term homosexuality had largely gained acceptance. But he also noted two major disadvantages of the term that still exist today and are noticeable. The most common meanings of the term homo in relation to humans are the Latin "man" or "human being" and not the Greek homós ("equal"). And the second part of the word comes from the Latin. As a result, “homo” is very often equated with man, homosexuality with male homosexuality and bizarre formulations such as “homosexuals and lesbians” are mostly used by heterosexual people. He finds even more disastrous the fact that under the impression of the ending "sexual" the word is often not captured and used in the sense of homosexual orientation or orientation , but in the sense of a sexual act .
The terms “ same-sex / same-sex / same-sex” appear for the first time in the early days of sexology around the turn of the century. They appear more frequently from 1910 after the impression arose that they were helplessly exposed to the many “foreign words for same-sex”. It is therefore possible that Kertbeny's hybrid words have been back-translated in order to get rid of the technical, medical coloring. In the yearbooks around the turn of the century there is also “(the) same-sex predisposed”. Same-sex people are also mentioned in Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz from 1926 .
post war period
From around 1900 to the 1960s there were repeated attempts in the movement to find suitable and positive terms, some of which became more widely known. For some, the compulsion to keep a low profile and to use something not immediately recognizable for everyone, such as modifications of boyfriend and girlfriend, also plays a role.
Hirschfeld's objections to the term homosexuality still exist, even if it is slowly declining. In 1981, Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg pointed out that even the well-willed does not know a more value-neutral term, but that this greatly reduces the homosexual individual to one aspect, sexuality, and thereby narrows it down. Even within the lesbian and gay movement there were discussions, confrontations and, as a result, work disabilities because there was no value-neutral term. In the six-volume edition of the Großer Duden (1976–1981) the editors add the comment “bes. from man to man ”. This reference is missing in the eight-volume edition (1993–1995). In 1990 Ernest Borneman points to public surveys where the majority of Germans believe that homosexuality means “sexual intercourse between men”. In the same year, the Correct Wording Dictionary indicates two different uses: “H. is related to men and women in (medical) terminology, but only to men in everyday language. ”This is particularly true of the noun homosexual.
In an article published in 1946 on the question of how to name oneself, Kurt Hiller also considers the designation of same-sex as possible, but points out that he does not think it is nice. And linguistically it is not entirely correct for him, since the attraction finds no expression. Even homosexuality sounds for him "bad and unclear". Despite Hiller's criticism, the word same-sex is used in some dictionaries, including current ones. The term same-sex is rarely used, but it is used.
In Austria the activists of the movement through the 4 paragraphs had been constantly confronted with the term same-sex since 1971 and it was also actively used in other contexts. Today it is widespread in the entire German-speaking area and is mainly used as an adjective for the more precise definition of act, attraction, relationship, experience, marriage, marriage, love, object, oriented, oriented people, feeling people, orientation, couple, partner, Person, sexuality and more. The term same-sex lifestyles is often used for the many different life concepts of the heterogeneous group of homosexuals, bisexuals, but also the inclined heterosexuals . Also for functions ("Representative for ..."), departments, advisory services and much more. It is also often used in historical history and sociology, as the concept of today's homosexual has only existed since Ulrichs, even if similar identities had existed before that.
In Switzerland , the term woman-loving woman is used more and more in this context. This is also the case with the subtitle of the 2015 book by the journalist and historian Corinne Ruffli (* 1979) about women-loving women over 70.
Legal texts
Through the threat of punishment and the penalties imposed, legal texts had an influence on homosexuals and society, and not least on science. In German-language legal texts, the gender of the person and the sexual act were always in the foreground. The sexual orientation Homosexuality , as a pure state or mere sensation, in contrast to concrete actions , was never of legal concern and was never used as a term there.
In a draft law of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1962, there was talk of "same-sex fornication"; Austria put this formulation into practice in 1971. From 1767 to 1971, the Austrian prohibitions were always gender-neutral, as it was equally punishable for women and men. After that, two paragraphs for gays and lesbians were valid until 1997. A short time later, the Austrian paragraphs of 1971 were adopted almost identically in Liechtenstein. The following formulations have been used over time in the specified modern states:
| year | country | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| 1507 | D-BA | “Straff der vnkeusch / so against the history of nature. [...] man with man / weyb with weyb / vnkeusch treyben ... " |
| 1532 | THERE | “Tightly the vnkeusch / so coated against nature. [...] man with man / woman with woman / to drive unchaste ... " |
| 1794 | D. | "... unnatural fornication which occurs between persons of the male sex ..." |
| 1871 | D. | "... unnatural fornication which occurs between persons of the male sex ..." |
| 1935 | D. | "A man who commits fornication with another man ..." |
| 1957 | FRG | "... the treatment of the problem of same-sex fornication ..." ( BVerfGE 6, 389 ) |
| 1962 | FRG | "Same-sex fornication" (draft criminal law) |
| 1969 | FRG | "... a man [...] who commits fornication with another man [...] ..." |
| 1973 | FRG | "A man [...] who performs sexual acts on a man [...] ..." |
| 1949 | GDR | "The unnatural fornication that occurs between persons of the male sex ..." |
| 1968 | GDR | "An adult who engages in sexual acts with an adolescent of the same sex ..." |
| 1767 | A. | "... vice of unchastity against nature, or sodomite sin [...] between persons of one sex, as man with man, woman with woman ..." |
| 1787 | A. | "... to perish carnal with one's own sex ..." |
| 1803 | A. | "... fornication against nature ..." |
| 1852 | A. | "... fornication against nature, that is [...] b) with people of the same sex ..." |
| 1971 | A. |
|
| 2001 | D. | "Two people of the same sex establish a civil partnership ..." |
| 2008 | CH | "... the registered partnership of same-sex couples. […] Two people of the same sex can register their partnership. ... " |
| 2010 | A. | "... the registered partnership of same-sex couples. [...] A registered partnership can only be established by two people of the same sex ... " |
In the case of anti-discrimination provisions, on the other hand, people usually talk about sexual identity or sexual orientation , since it applies equally to everyone.
literature
- Jody Daniel Skinner: Designations for the homosexual in German , 2 volumes, Die Blaue Eule, Essen 1999, Volume 1: A lexicological analysis and a lexicographical task . ISBN 3-89206-902-6 , Volume 2: A dictionary , ISBN 3-89206-903-4 (Dissertation University of Koblenz-Landau 1998, 152 and 380 pages).
- Klaus Müller: Language regulations. Coding of the 'homosexual' in the sexual pathology of the 19th century , in: FORUM Homosexualität und Literatur 4 (1988), pp. 74–92.
- Ernest Bornemann : Sex in the vernacular. The obscene vocabulary of the Germans , rororo 6329, Reinbek near Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-499-16329-2 ; Bebeg, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86789-710-5 .
- Kurt Hiller : On the question of the designation , in: Der Kreis XIV , No. 8 (August 1946), pp. 2-6.
Web links
- Vernacular - The Straight looked on the mouth , in: SPIEGEL special 08/1996 of 1 August 1996, p 113
- Sabine (Ayshe) Peters: Female homosexuality in public linguistic usage in the western zones and the FRG (1945–1997) , Düsseldorf 1997, OCLC 863280814 (Master's thesis, University of Düsseldorf, Philosophical Faculty, 1997, 81 pages ( full text online PDF, free of charge, 87 pages, 1 , 9 MB))
Individual evidence
-
^ A b Erwin J. Haeberle: Bisexualities - History and Dimensions of a Modern Scientific Problem , published in:
EJ Haeberle and R. Gindorf: Bisexualities - Ideology and Practice of Sexual Contact with Both Sexes , Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, p. 1– 39 - ^ German dictionary by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm. 16 vols. [In 32 partial volumes]. Leipzig: S. Hirzel 1854-1960. - List of sources 1971 .; Volume 15, Columns 2750 - 2755 gay - gay
- ↑ Yearbook for Sexual Intermediate Levels XXIII, p. 19
- ↑ Christian Mücke: Designation of behavior deviating from norms using the example of homosexuality (masch.-schr.) Master's thesis, Würzburg 1992, p. 124
- ↑ Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg: Homosexuality. The story of a prejudice , Frankfurt am Main, 1981
- ↑ Ernest Bornemann: Ullstein Enzyklopädie der Sexualität , Frankfurt am Main / Berlin, 1990
- ↑ Wolfgang Müller (Ed.): Correct choice of words. A comparative dictionary of related expressions . Mannheim - Vienna - Zurich, 1977, 1990
- ↑ Kurt Hiller : On the question of the designation , in: Der Kreis XIV No. 8 (August 1946), pp. 2-6.
- ↑ e-women-over-seventy-129050019
