Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:14:51.433Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sexuality, Masculinity, and Confession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Abstract

The practice of confessing one's sexual sins has historically provided boys and men with mixed messages. Engaging in coercive sex is publicly condemned; yet it is treated as not significantly different from other transgressions that can be easily forgiven. We compare Catholic confessional practices to those of psychoanalytically oriented male writers on masculinity. We argue that the latter is no more justifiable than the former, and propose a progressive confessional mode for discussing male sexuality.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berggren, Erik. 1975. The psychology of confession. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Betcher, R. William, and Pollack, William S. 1993. In a time of fallen heroes. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
Boyle, Patrick. 1987. Parvitas materiae in sexto. In Contemporary Catholic thought. Washington, DC: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Bly, Robert. 1990. Iron John. Reading, MA: Addison‐Wesley Publishing.Google Scholar
Catechism of the Catholic church. 1994. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1980. The history of sexuality, Vol. 1: An introduction. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Gerzon, Mark. 1982. A choice of heroes. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Blu. 1990. Female sexuality and bodily functions in the Jewish tradition. In. Women, religion, and sexuality, ed.Becher, Jeanne. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International.Google Scholar
Haliczer, Stephen. 1996. Sexuality in the confessional: A sacrament profaned. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hassan, Riffat. 1990. An Islamic perspective. In Women, religion, and sexuality, ed. Becher, Jeanne. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International.Google Scholar
Hudson, Liam, and Jacot, Barnadine. 1990. The way men think. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kimmel, Michael. 1994. Masculinity as homophobia. In Theorizing masculinities, eds. Brod, Harry and Kaufman, Michael. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publishers.Google Scholar
May, Larry, and Strikwerda, Robert. 1991. Fatherhood and nurturance. Journal of Social Philosophy 22(2): 2839. Reprinted in Rethinking masculinity. 1996. Eds. May, Larry, Robert Strikwerda, and Patrick Hopkins. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metcalf, Andy, and Humphries, Martin, ed. 1985. The sexuality of men. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Moore, Robert, and Gillette, Douglas. 1992. The warrior within: Accessing the knight in the male psyche. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar
Seidler, Victor J., ed. 1991. The Achilles heel reader. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Seidler, Victor J., ed. 1992. Men, sex, and relationships. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soble, Alan. 1992. Why do men enjoy pornography? In Rethinking masculinity, 1st ed., eds. May, Larry and Strikwerda, Robert, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Originally published as a section of Soble's book Pornography. 1986. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Stoltenberg, John. 1990. Refusing to be a man. New York: Meridian Books.Google Scholar
Strikwerda, Robert, and May, Larry. 1992. Male friendship and intimacy. Hypatia 7(3): 110–25. Reprinted in Rethinking masculinity, 2nd ed.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamburinus, Thomas SJ. 1651. Explicationes in decalogum. Vol. 2. Lyons.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the self. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Zaretsky, Eli. 1980. Female sexuality and the Catholic confessional. In Women, sex, and sexuality, eds. Stimpson, Catherine R. and Person, Ethel Spector. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar