PASSIVE ROLES

Excerpts from the book, "A critique of social constructionism and Post modern Queer thoery by Rictor Norton":

Terms of contempt for homosexuals are common throughout history and across cultures. In Old Norse and Icelandic sagas, and in Finnish and Estonian languages, the most powerful terms of abuse are the words argr, ragr, and ergi, which all connote cowardice, effeminacy, sorcery and (receptive) male homosexuality. The terms probably derive from the archetype of the queer sorcerer (often a religious functionary acting as a scapegoat) found in many ancient societies and indigenous cultures. In modern Germanic languages arg just means ‘bad’. Similarly, the modern English word felon, criminal, comes from Medieval Latin felo/fello meaning ‘evildoer’, but this is derived from fellare, to fellate. In other words, the primal felon was a cocksucker. In fact the modern English word ‘bad’ derives from the Anglo-Saxon term baedling, meaning effeminate/receptive male. In countless languages the basic pattern for the most contemptuous terms of abuse is practically the same: the archetypal bad man is one who performs a shameful receptive/feminine role in sex, i.e. a queer, cocksucker, or cunt. They are all reducible to the single paradigm of the man who takes ‘the woman’s role’ in sex, hence the affinity of homophobia and sexism.