M&D Saturday night in Delaware

[Judith A. Panetta]

Perhaps our limits ...our attitudes towards sexuality is
predicated on prejudice. What are the limits of any
relationship? Without a gender bias would it seem so
surprising that these two individuals would become
physically intimate? Not meaning to dredge up testimony from
a "not distant enough" impeachment...but... in our
definitions of sex we  erect a wall which puts a full stop
on intimate expression in situations deemed "inappropriate."
Sex is... handy for procreation. And you need both genders
for that. Sure, you bet cha. But technology has broadened
the spectrum. Sex is... a demonstration of affection when a
hand-shake just won't do. As I'm writing this,I'm beginning
to feel that terms like "gay" and "straight" are just bad
taste.

So what's the point? I remember reading the scene with
Ishmael and Queequeg - such tenderness. Homoerotic? I guess.
I'm not sure if I know what that means anymore. If the scene
must have a label, then so be it.  Ishmael became
immediately sympathetic to me , simply for his trust and
openess to the physical expressions of another. Does that
makes him "gay?" Gay-like? Maybe just gay-lite. Maybe we're
just ready for that trip.

And well then - there's those men of the hour: Mason and
Dixon. And although I'VE NOT FINISHED the book, it does not
surprise me that Mason would feel deeply for Dixon. For what
they've witnessed, what they've been through. Jeez...I want
to fuck them and I wasn't even there. But I digress. In the
context of the fiction, Mason & Dixon have so far developed
a deeply caring if contentous relationship out of shared
experiences. What response would be the appropriate and
non-gay? It seems sad that there can be no "affection beyond
a certain enclosure."

My... my...such a lot of wind from a flip remark from a
public historian. As I missed the first go-around for M&D -
forgive me if I'm waving a dead chicken.
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