Bill Weintraub

Re: the magic of wrestling and fighting

7-20-09

Thank you Wrestleros!

A terrific post!

Something is wrong in the cultural point of view of man to man contact/love.

What's wrong of course is heterosexualization.

Under heterosexualization:

1. male-male affection, intimacy, love, and sex cease to be an activity -- something guys do -- and become instead a condition:

   first -- homosexuality;

   and then -- sexual orientation;

2. heterosexual sex roles -- male-female, dominant-submissive, top-bottom, butch-bitch -- are imposed on Men; and

3. traditional Male activities, in particular Fighting, are increasingly marginalized and made suspect.

All of which is destructive of the Male's Natural Masculinity.

This is something we've talked about here in our Man2Man Alliance a great deal over the last three years, and it's something I've talked about extensively in the last few posts which have gone up on this board.

And I'm recapitualating some of that most recent discussion in this post -- because new guys come to the Alliance each and every day, they don't always click on every link, and yet it's very very important -- for their sakes -- that they understand these concepts and ideas.

So:

What's very important for guys to understand is that "homosexuality" is a very recent concept among human beings.

In the past, sex between men was an activity -- something guys did.

Since 1869 -- that's just 140 years -- and to varying degree -- sex between men -- has been considered a condition -- "homosexuality."

That idea is wrong.

In reality, people in the past had it right: sex between men is an activity -- something guys normally and naturally do.

The idea of male-male affection, intimacy, sex, and love as a condition -- first called "homosexuality" and then called "sexual orientation" -- is a function of an historical process we call heterosexualization.

And we need to talk about that a bit more.

So, and like I said, the terms "homosexuality" and "homosexual" were coined 140 years ago in an effort -- a successful effort -- to turn what had been an activity -- sex between men -- into a disease -- "homosexuality."

What that meant was that just as, in the 19th century, there were people who were "tubercular," and who suffered from the disease called "tuberculosis"; so now there were to be males who were said to be "homosexual," and who would be said to suffer from the disease called "homosexuality."

That was a tremendous shift in the way human beings thought about sex.

Again, it turned what had been an activity -- sex between guys -- into a condition, a medical condition, an illness, a disease, for which doctors would then seek a cure.

And this shift, which was a "paradigm shift," a significant change in cultural norms, coincided with the historical process we call heterosexualization:

the destruction of same-gender spaces and relationships, and their conversion to almost exclusively mixed-gender spaces and relationships.

And this too was a tremendous shift in the way people lived.

And the practical effect of the combination of heterosexualization and the development of the concept of "homosexuality" was to isolate and ghettoize Men who engaged in any sort of same-sex affection, intimacy, and love.

Now -- as we've discussed before, including in from "homosexuality" to analism, the American Psychiatric Association removed "homosexuality" from its list of mental disorders in 1973.

Which meant that "homosexuality" was no longer a mental illness.

But the concept -- that there was something fundamentally different about "men who had sex with men" -- persisted.

And the result was the categories of sexual orientation, which I refer to as homosexuality's evil twin.

Because, in their effects, those categories are EVIL, and they're DIRECTLY related to the previous categories of "homosexual" and "homosexuality."

So -- "homosexuality" as a cultural concept was originally a condition -- a sickness -- a diseased way of being;

while "gay" is a sexual orientation and also a condition, the idea of which emerged out of "homosexuality," and, which, like the condition known as "homosexuality," is predicated upon the notion that any affection, intimacy, sex, and/or love between Men is a "deviation" from an alleged "heterosexual" norm.

As I said, the concept of "homosexuality" appears as society is beginning to heterosexualize.

While the concept of "sexual orientation" appears as heterosexualization triumphs -- and forces traditional understandings of Masculinity and Femininity underground.

The two poles of "sexual orientation" -- "gay" and "straight" -- work then to drive the male away from his Natural Masculinity:

to divorce Masculinity not only from same-sex love and affection; but also from Aggression -- Fighting Spirit -- Courage -- Virtue -- which is how Masculinity has traditionally been defined and demarcated.

Under heterosexualization, and the categories of sexual orientation, Masculinity is no longer to be defined by Fighting Spirit -- by Courage and Virtue --

but by a single sexual act:

penile-vaginal penetration.

This radical re-definition of "masculinity" is hideously destructive, and many of our modern ills, both male and female, derive directly from it.

Historically, then, Masculinity has not been about "sexual orientation" --

but about Fighting Spirit.

And it needs to be again.

So -- Wrestleros says that

when I was a child, when I used to play with my Ken's and I made them fight each other naked, and I hated the fact that they hadn't genitals, while Barbie had tits...

Nobody attemped to explain to me about the missing penis...

As a Male, Wrestleros knows that Males Fight and he KNOWS that the Male Genitals are an essential part of the Fight.

Yet Ken doesn't have genitals.

How can he fight?

He can't.

Even as a boy, Wrestleros very properly HATED the fact that the genitals were missing.

And "HATED" is his word: "when I used to play with my Ken's and I made them fight each other naked, and I hated the fact that they hadn't genitals"

He HATED that fact.

Because he knew, instinctively, that Male Fighting Spirit is linked to the Male Genitals.

And he sensed, instinctively, that the missing genitals were an attempt to DEPRIVE boys and Men -- of their Fighting Spirit.

That's why it didn't just bother Wrestleros -- he HATED it.

And rightly so.

It's a terrible wrong.

Yet that wrong permeates our culture.

As a consequence, Wrestleros says

It took me many years to understand that the wrong is not me.

So -- it took him many years --

But now, at least, he has found the Truth:

The wrong is not me.

Something is wrong in the cultural point of view of man to man contact/love.

Once again, Wrestleros is right.

Now -- there's another piece to the puzzle, and it's contained in this phrase:

after many years, I discovered the magic of wrestling and fighting

Right.

After many years, Wrestleros discovers the magic, and what I would say is the Uniquely Male Magic, of Wrestling and Fighting.

And look what happens:

He develops the concept and screen name of Wrestleros = Wrestle + Eros.

That's terrific!

Because it encapsulates the two essentials of being a Man:

Male-Male Aggression; and

Male-Male Attraction.

The boy who hated, and properly so, his anatomically incorrect Ken's, has become the Man Wrestleros -- who understands that he needs both male aggression and male attraction -- to be complete as a Man.

Aggression and Attraction.

Wrestling and Eros.

War and Eros -- and the Greek word for the God of War is -- Ares:

Ares and Eros -- Fighting and Loving.

The Man who would be whole -- the Naturally Masculine Man -- openly and joyously embraces both.

So -- Wrestle-Eros now understands that it's not him who's wrong.

It's the culture.

And he's now able to openly and joyously embrace the uniquely Male Magic of Fighting and Eros.

Which he celebrates in these images he's created:

Now -- some of you may not like these images.

Or you may like some and not others.

But you need to see them in the context of Wrestleros' life.

As a child, Wrestleros HATED the absence of genitals in depictions of Men who Fight:

when I used to play with my Ken's and I made them fight each other naked, and I hated the fact that they hadn't genitals

He HATED that fact.

As an adult and as a MAN, Wrestleros is able, using his computer, to correct the wrongs of his childhood by creating digital images of Manly Fighting as it's meant to be:

Naked and Unashamed.

Nude and Free.

Equal and Free.

The Primal Male Act:

Aggressively, Erotically, and Genitally correct.

And that's what he's done.

I thank Wrestlerors again for his terrific post and for his sharing of his vision of The Uniquely Male Magic of Fighting and Eros.

Thank you Wrestleros.

Bill Weintraub

July 20, 2009

© All material Copyright 2009 by Bill Weintraub. All rights reserved.