"The misplacement of semen was not possible in lesbian encounters,"
You don't think that Aquinas was entertaining the same view on that issue that Queen Victoria did? I rather suspect we are speaking of an omerta on that subject rather than an exemption. The basic gist of Aquinan philosophy in this area is that non-generative sex was unnatural; that would certainly apply to lesbianism even if no explicit comment was made on the issue. Particularly given that Eve's actions had (to Aquinas) rendered woman a flawed value whose existence was only made other than a mistake by virtue of the fact that there was no other route to perpetuate the natural order.
"then the only reason that male homosexual relations could
be more offensive than, say, masturbation or withdrawal (onanism, after
Onan, who spilled his seed on the ground) would have to be the
conspiritorial/consensual nature of the act, requiring two people."
Exactly; the opprobrium on that issue related to a wider 'ethics of repression' (which in turn relates to the model of relations between man and god being essentially that of feudal servitude).
Incidentallt, I do hope this quibbling on my part has not created the impression that I am anything other than in general agreement with the principles of your original essay and generally consider it a fine piece of work.
---- This message was posted by kharin to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25764>
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