When people think of bottoming – performing the receptive role in sex – it’s not uncommon for them to think of stereotypes for gay men. Think limited edition Lana Del Rey vinyl, watching Call Me By Your Name, sniffing poppers while streaming Charli XCX, avoiding Chipotle.
But bottoming actually has a surprisingly versatile history. Historians, researchers and sexual therapists have all explained how bottoming has long acted as shorthand for submission, shame and, at its core, how the patriarchy views women and those who receive as nothing more than “passive holes”.
“The history of bottoming – or how bottoming has been historically thought about or imagined – is inseparable from the patriarchy,” Florêncio told PinkNews. “All homophobia is inseparable from the patriarchy because homophobia is a form of misogyny. You hate gay men because they are closer to women, as if they betray masculinity by being penetrated.”
Bottoming, Florêncio said, is the act of being “occupied” while topping is to “invade”. Notice the difference? “Historically, gays were the bottom,” Florêncio explained. “The top was not gay, they were men and just like all other men.” Florêncio feels that this isn’t surprising: “We had to invent a culture with what was there, and what was there was straight culture. So, even in our sexual behaviour and gender presentation, our identities are in response to that binary frame of heterosexual culture, of being masculine and feminine.”