Contents:
- BOOK REVIEW: WAS LAWRENCE GAY ARABIA?
- LAWRENCE OF ARABIA WAS A GAY MISF WHO CREATED A NEW TYPE OF WARFARE AND HELPED SHAPE THE MIDDLE EAST
BOOK REVIEW: WAS LAWRENCE GAY ARABIA?
Lawrence's sexualy has been the subject of much bate, wh the suggtn first ma by the thor Richard Aldgton that he may have been gay. The Gay Love Letters of Lawrence of Arabia". Excerpts om My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuri, eded by Rictor Norton.
Often recent years, the life and achievements of Lawrence have been somewhat overshadowed by ntroversial claims published posthumo bgraphi ncerng his sexual orientatn, accatns that he had been a closet or self-reprsed homosexual. In the wake of his beg immortalized the 1962 David Lean classic “Lawrence of Arabia” a host of other bgraphers ro Aldgton’s at tails, makg the tillatg claim that he had been both homosexual and sadomasochistic.
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA WAS A GAY MISF WHO CREATED A NEW TYPE OF WARFARE AND HELPED SHAPE THE MIDDLE EAST
Prisons and garrisons often had personnel who specialized this abe, although there was nothg homosexual about . The Turkish soldiers perpetratg this war crime certaly never nsired themselv gay, like male rapists prison the act has nothg to do wh the sexual orientatn of the attacker or victim. Then as now the fear of beg labelled homosexual as a rult of such disclosure was a legimate fear, society havg the tenncy of blamg the victim of sexual asslt rather than the perpetrator.
Homosexualy was a taboo subject at that time, same sex rape was even more taboo. The spicn Lawrence was homosexual is likely to have been a natural by-product of his shockg disclosure, some rears fdg a homoerotic unrtone to his retellg of events. Then as now few unrstood the cint s historic ntext, the nsens beg only homosexuals are victims of same sex rape, that a man n protect himself and if he’s raped ’s bee he wanted to be.
There are certaly aspects of this post trmatic trospectn Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which many rears have mistaken as homo-erotic fluenc. If he was homosexual, though most likely asexual, wouldn’t add or subtract om his legacy, but the terts of historil scholarship ’s important to view facts their proper ntext.