The Missing Myth: A New Vision of Same-Sex Love

by Gilles Herrada

If homosexual behavior is an aberration from the standpoint of reproduction, why is it widespread among humans, primates, and a myriad of other animal species, and why has it been favored by evolution? And if homosexuality is considered a moral problem based on religious beliefs, why were more homosexuals exterminated under the brief reigns of such secular regimes as the Communists and the Nazis than during the entire Christian Inquisition. Why is everything about homosexuality always a paradox?

In The Missing Myth, Gilles Herrada tackles the many questions about the role and meaning of homosexuality in the evolution of our species and the development of civilization: what evolutionary edge same-sex relationships have provided to the human species; what biological mechanisms generate the sexual diversity that we observe; why homosexual behavior ended up being prohibited worldwide; why homophobia has persisted throughout history; why the homosexual community resurfaced after World War II; and others.

In this heartfelt, beautifully written, and painstakingly researched text, the author sculpts a vision of homosexuality that integrates its biological, sociological, cultural, ethical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. Stressing the connection between the social status of homosexuality and how same-sex love is depicted in the myths of a particular culture, The Missing MythM advocates the creation of a new mythos--not only informed by all the fields of knowledge, but also inclusive of the beauty, truth, and goodness of same-sex love.

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction, History, Queer, Queer Lit

416 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2013

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is much to admire in this book, although it took me a very long while to complete it. I found the author's prose a little lumpy and repetitive - he breaks one stereotype of the homosexual writer, in that he is no stylist. However, when he gets onto some genuinely intriguing research material, on homosexuality in the animal kingdom (notably the great apes) and historical instances of socially acceptable same-sex sexual relationships, this is compelling. Herrada's tracing of the gradual slide in homosexuality's social acceptability during the Axial age is enlightening and convincing. He speaks a lot of sense on the subject of the nature/nurture debate, although it's not a debate I personally find very interesting and goes back to my main issue with the book - when the subject is interesting, the book is; when it is not, the writing doesn't engage.

The final section of the book attempts a visionary look at what a future mythos of homosexuality might be, as well as delineating a taxonomy of gay personal development. This was my least favourite part of the book, as for every sentence which feels inspiring and genuinely insightful, there are fifty which feel jejune, idealistic and utopian. There's a whiff of New Age self-help snake oil about the author's conclusions. His closing affirmation of Foucault's attractive idea that homosexual culture and consciousness is created and not merely discovered and also that it might inspire new forms of heterosexuality is very attractive. Yet Herralda's failure to engage with the real lives of gay men, including that of his personal hero Foucault (who certainly had feet of clay) makes me suspect that the theory has taken rather too much precedence over the realities of human existence. This is linked into my feeling that the author, despite pretending to speak for a universal homosexuality, is too in thrall to one practised by middle-aged, middle-class, white, New York-dwelling academics. Finally, for a book about homosexuality, he seems to have very little to say about the sex drive and humanity's extremely problematic relationship with it. I kind of wish he'd read some Camille Paglia to balance his Foucault.

All of that said, the book is a genuine addition to the homosexual studies and so, with the above reservations, recommended.

[Michael Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a book I will undoubtedly re-read. In the Missing Myth Herrada uses Ken Wilbur's Integral approach to great effect in illuminating the co-evolution (physical,cultural and individual) of homophobia and homosexualities (the latter expression used to highlight the variety of forms it has taken). Being somewhat well read, much of what he covered was already familiar to me, but his approach to the subject jolted me periodically with perspectives on that familiar material I had not previously considered. As just one of a number of examples: that in a very real sense it was the early church fathers, and not queer theorists, who actually created the modern concept LGBT with their reinterpretation (contradicting both the books of Ezekiel and Hebrews) of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and subsequent use of "Sodomy" as an umbrella term. In many ways it left me wanting more, which is not necessarily a good thing with non-fiction. I would have liked a more thorough exploration of the Mythic element from a book titled The Missing Myth, but I didn't find it deficient enough in that regard to subtract even a single star. Excellent, thought provoking, read.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aside from its leaden prose that is a torture to read my main complaint against this book is that while it covers and references varied areas of human knowledge in its attempts to create an explanation of same-sex love and why it is persecuted and what it may look like in the future and offer the world never manages to see that it is writing about and from within and to a very specific mental/cultural milieu based in amongst middle class white males in New York. It is the same mistake that so many of the early post Stonewall activists made in imagining that what they had experienced growing up in 1950's suburban USA was the experience everyone had. Well not only was it not the same as the experiences of gay men in thee rest of the world it was not even the experience of American gay men growing up pre-WWII.

I do not deny the importance of the American gay liberation movement to inspiring and forcing the pace of change in thought and practice elsewhere but way to much of what came out in terms of 'thought' and 'theory' was blinkered in its way of seeing or understanding the rest of the world. That so much of the pontificating was made by people who spoke only English is not surprising when you remember that the USA had an 'intelligence' service which broadcast the theories of analysts of the of the 'communism world' who couldn't read the front page Pravda.

As an example of the very limited awareness of those New York activists it is worth remembering how they ignored, dismissed, despised and actively sought to separate themselves from drag queens - the future was butch and clone - yet who is at the forefront of gay pride today and who has been relegated to an embarrassed memory - like the costumes ABBA wore when they first sang 'Waterloo'?

I don't believe we need to look at the behaviour of monkeys or delve in genetics to explain and/or justify same-sex attraction - it has always been there - what was new and unique in history was that a heretical out growth of a bizarre middle eastern religious sect managed to acquire the power and influence to foist their novel obsessions with sexual behaviour (amongst other strange ideas) on first the lands of the Roman empire and then 1,500 hundred years later, as Europe entered its heyday as top continent, on the rest of the world. Christianity's views about sex in general, not simply same-sex behaviour, were uniquely contrary to most established practices The idea of 'sex' being moral or tied up with what is good or bad, unconnected with rules purely pertaining to behaviour, was new as was the concept of sin. It was sin and the criminalisation of specific sexual behaviour and acts which was important because those prejudices were later foisted upon the laws and customs of their colonies and into the ways of thinking of the colonial elites which eventually threw off Western control.

For me a great deal of what gays/queers/homosexuals had to fight against and prove was the result of Christianity. But even that is not monumental - the position of Christian religion in perpetrating prejudice against same-sex behaviour in the USA and, for example, Europe is vastly different.

I could go on and on but at its simplest Mr Herrada is fighting daemons and searching for answers specific to the USA and probably specific to the intellectual environment within New York's academic circles circa the 1990's. I wonder how different the book would be if written in the last few years.

I honestly can't think of any reason why anyone, outside a gay studies course (and to be honest I can't imagine why anyone would want to attend such a course), would read through this incredibly badly written book. I will repeat myself same-sex love has always existed, we don't need to get lost in shamanistic traditions or gene research, the battle is prejudice and we (as in queer people) have no need to justify or explain our existence, or calm the fears of those who fear we are after their children. Can you imagine what we would think of a theorist trying to explain and justify the existence of people of colour through reference to animal behaviour and was busy trying to calm the fears of those who thought all non Caucasian males were obsessed with and intent on raping Caucasian women? It would be absurd. Books like this are absurd. If you imagine we need books like this then there is a problem.

[Alex Noya · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Missing Myth" is a groundbreaking LGBT study that aims to provide a framework for the development of a new gay myth that will help homosexuals understand the meaning of their life better and answer to some of the most important existential questions that they may have. From an epistemological point of view, I find the author's initiative, coming from the standpoint of Wilber's Integral Theory, as neccesary and important, in the current cultural context. However, one key question remains unanswered, as other reviewers observed, particularly the content and structure of this "missing myth". The author hints to examples from history, literature, movies, politics and science, that are, in my opinion, too fragmented and localized to be of any cultural significance whatsoever, from a global perspective (i.e. not just American or European).
An alternative viewpoint on this issue has been offered by James Neill in his book "The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies". Neill's position, at least in my understanding, is that the nature of the human species is ambisexual and most people fall in the middle of a Kinseyan continuum. That being said, authoritarian ideologies (particularly religion) can curb the continuum in such a way that it makes almost impossible to accurately determinate the same-sex behavior in a specific society. I also find Neill's view on the homosexual patterns that are present (and sometimes prevalent) in most societies (including peer relationships, which are neglected by Gilles Herrada, as mentioned in another review) more persuasive. If Neill is right, we just need to get rid of the heterosexual myth (i.e. most people are heterosexual and only heterosexuality is natural) and reveal the truth regarding our nature (according to our current scientific understanding): we are all ambisexual (even that this is also a myth but, just maybe, a better one). It is true however, that some epistemological structures need to be changed in order to adapt both the heterosexual and homosexual worldview to this paradigm. I agree with Herrada that science will have the primary role in the definition of this new paradigm.
Summing up, I recommend this book to any serious LGBTQ scholar. It is very well written, challenging and ambitious. I've heard that Gilles is working on a new book that aims to further develop the "missing myth". As a young gay man myself, I'm hoping to read this book as well. Thanks, Mr. Herrada for this amazing study!

[Larry-bob Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is about the ways homosexuality and homophobia have been represented in the mythoi (plural of mythos) of various societies.

The book is divided in three sections: The True (exploring scientific facts about homosexuality), The Good (about the way that societies have placed moral values on homosexuality), and The Beautiful (the subjective view.)

Some pre-Christian cultures has a place in society for homosexuality, though it was not identical with modern homosexuality, being instead either intergenerational or involving gender crossing. Likewise these cultures had homosexuality in their myths. Christianity had no place either in its mythos or in its culture for homosexuality.

One of the things this book accomplishes is to get the reader to think about homosexuality from the cultural point of view of homophobia.

Herreda cites science as a source of our current culture's mythos, citing for example the Big Bang theory as our new creation story. In the emergence of a new space of mythos for homosexuality, perhaps science can also be its basis.

One of the most thought-provoking sections were chapter 15, on The Unfolding of the Homosexual Self, exploring theories of homosexual identity development.

A section about the power of insults, particularly homophobic insults, also presents some captivating ideas.

One writer on homophobia whom I wish the writer had included is Sarah Schulman, author of Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. I think her insights on homophobia as a system that rewards its practitioners would have been helpful to examine in this context.

This is one of those big idea books - in some ways although it has nothing in common in terms of subject matter, in scope it made me think of Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

[Olaf Koopmans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought provoking, insightfull and interesting, but to scientific and academic for my taste. I was hoping for a more celebrating of diversity and less trying to proof that gays belong to the Human development. Very factual, but not very inspiring.
I did though appreciate his analyses of 'The Other' and 'The Unkown' in human culture and his argumentation that fear is the major driving force in our existence.
Also, his worldview on the moral progression of the Human race, especialy in light of what is happening to world, since he wrote the book, is a bit naive. But you can hardly blame him for that. He's certainly not the only one.
And last but not least, I definitly agree with him that as a gay community we do need to create our own positive stories and rolemodels, so a new generation of gays growing up, have something to look forward to, and strong gay personalities to look up to.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book, need to read again to to better review.

[Matt Root · Rating 5 out of 5]

A daring, provocative, and badly needed contribution.

[Mills College Library]

306.766 H564 2013