 
words: Wolf
This now archaic term was
used in New York's homosexual underworld early in the 20th Century to
refer to an adult man who pursued boys as sexual partners. The
wolf often identified as heterosexual, and his sexual behavior fit the
pattern of Greco-Roman pederasty. This
form of same-sex eroticism may have come to New York via Italian
immigrants. In many regions of Italy at the time, pederasty was
tolerated, or at least not as stigmatized as it is today.
Reference: For an account of the New York gay underworld early in
the 20th Century, see George Chauncey's 1994 Gay New York (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press)
© 1999
Andrew Wikholm
All Rights Reserved
|
