“異性戀”的本來含義居然是……

The invention of ‘heterosexuality’

異性戀的歷史

The 1901 Dorland’s Medical Dictionary defined heterosexuality as an “abnormal or perverted appetite toward the opposite sex.” More than two decades later, in 1923, Merriam Webster’s dictionary similarly defined it as “morbid sexual passion for one of the opposite sex.” It wasn’t until 1934 that heterosexuality was graced with the meaning we’re familiar with today: “manifestation of sexual passionfor one of the opposite sex; normal sexuality.”

1901版的《道蘭氏醫學詞典》將“異性戀”定義爲“對於異性的一種不正常的或變態的興趣”。二十多年後，也就是1923年，《韋氏詞典》對“異性戀”也給出了類似的解釋，即“一種對於異性的病態的情慾”。直到1934年，人們纔開始尊重異性戀，並將其定義爲“對異性性慾的表現；一種正常的性取向”

Whenever I tell this to people, they respond with dramatic incredulity. That can’t be right!Well, it certainly doesn’t feel right. It feels as if heterosexuality has always “just been there.”

當我告訴人們這件事的時候，他們的反應都是難以置信。這不可能！是的，這看起來的確不可能。我們覺得似乎異性戀是自古以來就存在的。

While heterosexual sex is clearly as old as humanity, the concept of heterosexuality as an identity is a very recent invention (Credit: Getty Images)

儘管異性戀從人類產生那天就一直存在，關於它的定義卻是最近的產物。

There are many reasons for this educational omission, including religious bias and other types of homophobia. But the biggest reason we don’t interrogate heterosexuality’s origins is probably because it seems so, well, natural. Normal. No need to question something that’s “just there.”

我們在這方面的教育有許多缺失，造成這些缺失原因有許多，包括宗教偏見和其他類型的同性戀恐懼症。

But heterosexuality has not always “just been there.” And there’s no reason to imagine it will always be.

但是異性戀並非“生來如此”，並且我們也沒有理由覺得它永遠都會存在。

When heterosexuality was abnormal

異性戀的“非正常時期”

The first rebuttal to the claim that heterosexuality was invented usually involves an appeal to reproduction: it seems obvious that different-genital intercourse has existed for as long as humans have been around – indeed, we wouldn’t have survived this long without it. But this rebuttal assumes that heterosexuality is the same thing as reproductive intercourse. It isn’t.

第一項對“發明異性戀”這一話題所提出的反駁，通常和對繁殖的訴求有關：很明顯的是，異性性交活動的歷史和人類歷史一樣長——確實，如果沒有異性間的性交活動，我們也不可能存活如此之久。而對此提出的駁斥性觀點是，異性戀和以繁殖爲目的的性交活動是一樣的。但事實卻並非如此。

“Sex has no history,” writes queer theorist David Halperin at the University of Michigan, because it’s “grounded in the functioning of the body.” Sexuality, on the other hand, precisely because it’s a “cultural production,” does have a history. In other words, while sex is something that appears hardwired into most species, the naming and categorising of those acts, and those who practise those acts, is a historical phenomenon, and can and should be studied as such.

密歇根大學的同志理論家大衛·霍爾柏林（David Halperin）寫道，“性沒有歷史，”，一方面因爲性“是身體的基本功能”。另一方面，正是因爲性傾向是一種“文化產物”，它有自己的歷史。換句話說，儘管性是一種大部分物種身上都存在的現象，對於性行爲及其實施者的命名及分類，都應歷史地看待，我們可以並且應該進行調查和研究。

Or put another way: there have always been sexual instincts throughout the animal world (sex). But at a specific point in time, humans attached meaning to these instincts (sexuality). When humans talk about heterosexuality, we’re talking about the second thing.

換一種說法：性本能一直存在於動物世界（指“性行爲”）。但就在某個特定時間點，人們對這種性本能賦予了其他含義（即“性取向”）。因此當人們談論異性戀時，實際上是在談論後者。

So what changed? Language.

那麼，是什麼發生了改變？是語言。

In the late 1860s, Hungarian journalist Karl Maria Kertbeny coined four terms to describe sexual experiences: heterosexual, homosexual, and two now forgotten terms to describe masturbation and bestiality; namely, monosexual and heterogenit. Kertbeny used the term “heterosexual” a decade later when he was asked to write a book chapter arguing for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. The editor, Gustav Jager, decided not to publish it, but he ended up using Kertbeny’s novel term in a book he later published in 1880.

19世紀60年代末，匈牙利記者卡爾·瑪利亞·柯本尼（Karl Maria Kertbeny）造了四個詞來描述性體驗：異性戀、同性戀，單性戀和人獸戀（即手淫和獸姦），其中後兩個詞已經被人們遺忘。十年後，柯本尼才首次在書中使用了“異性戀”這個詞，當時編輯要求他爲一本支持同性戀合法化的書撰寫其中一章節。雖然當時的編輯古斯塔夫·耶閣（Gustav Jager）決定不出版這些內容，但不久後，他在1880年出版的一本書中還是用到了這個柯本尼創造的新詞。

The next time the word was published was in 1889, when Austro-German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing included the word in Psychopathia Sexualis, a catalogue of sexual disorders. But in almost 500 pages, the word “heterosexual” is used only 24 times, and isn’t even indexed. That’s because Krafft-Ebing is more interested in “contrary sexual instinct” (“perversions”) than “sexual instinct,” the latter being for him the “normal” sexual desire of humans.

這個詞再次出現是在1889年，那時奧地利——德國的精神病學家理查德·克拉夫·埃賓（Richard von Krafft-Ebing）在一本名爲《性精神病態》的描述性障礙的書中，中使用了這個詞語。但在這本將近500頁的作品中，“異性戀”這個詞僅被引用了24次，並且也沒有被編入索引之中。這是因爲，相對於“性本能”，克拉夫·埃賓對“相反性本能（性變態）”更感興趣，他認爲後者纔是人類“正常”的性慾表現。

Until this point in our Earth’s history, the human species has been furthered by different-sex reproductive intercourse. About a century ago, we attached specific meanings to this kind of intercourse, partly because we wanted to encourage it. But our world is very different now than what it was. Technologies like preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) are only improving. In 2013, more than 63,000 babies were conceived via IVF. In fact, more than five million children have been born through assisted reproductive technologies. Granted, this number still keeps such reproduction in the slim minority, but all technological advances start out with the numbers against them.

歷史發展到現在爲止，以生殖爲目的的異性性活動對人類這一物種的進化已經起到了積極作用。大約一個世紀以前，我們就對這類性活動賦予了特殊的含義，一部分原因是我們想要鼓勵這種性行爲。但是，現在的世界已經大不相同。胚胎植入前遺傳學診斷（PGD）和體外人工受精（IVF）等科學技術都在不斷髮展。到2013年，超過63,000名嬰兒通過體外人工受精出生。事實上，超過500萬嬰兒是在輔助受孕技術的幫助下誕生的。誠然，這在總出生人數上還是一個小數字，但是技術一直在進步。

The line between heterosexuality and homosexuality isn’t just blurry, as some take Kinsey’s research to imply – it’s an invention, a myth, and an outdated one. Men and women will continue to have different-genital sex with each other until the human species is no more. But heterosexuality – as a social marker, as a way of life, as an identity – may well die out long before then.

根據金賽（美國性學家）的研究，異性戀和同性戀之間的分界線不僅僅是模糊的——它更像是一個虛構出來東西，一個神話，一個過時的觀念。男性和女性仍然會發生異性性關係，直到人類不復存在那一天。但是異性戀——作爲一種社會特徵、一種生活方式、一種性取向——很可能在人類滅絕前就已經完全消失了。