"There Is No Such Thing As a Well Adapted and Happy Homosexual" : Homosexuality in Czech Popular Sexological Manuals from the 1930s to 1990s
Abstract
The article concentrates on homosexuality in the Czech sexological manuals from the 1930s to 1990s. The analysis is inspired by Michel Foucault as well as gender studies and it focuses on prominent Czechoslovakian sexologists, such as Josef Hynie, Ivo Pondělíček, Jaroslava Pondělíčková-Mašlová and Antonín Brzek.
In the manuals, homosexuality occurs mainly as a masculine phenomenon. It is perceived as a disease or a corporal dysfunction which both determines character of a gay and excludes him from the group of healthy heterosexual individuals.
The apparent tolerance of the later manuals is redeemed by imposing heterosexual standards on homosexuals, by heterosexual colonisation of homosexuals: they have to be monogamous, exist in marriage-like pairs and - unlike bisexuals - must have intercourse with only one sex.