Homosexuality for Pussies

As I continue to read Giovanni's Room, I am struck by how the discussion of homosexual relationships and intercourse differs so drastically between this novel and The Price of Salt. While Baldwin doesn't shy away from explicitly discussing the mechanics and imagery of the situation --the naked bodies, the passion of the kisses, the sexual desires present within the character -- the prose in The Price of Salt danced around the subject, describing lesbianism in very vague language, more relating to emotion rather than physical desire.

I find this to be the case most often in pop culture depictions of homosexuality. Male homosexuality is often depicted in terms of sex and the physical aspect of desire while lesbianism is assigned a more emotional, intellectual character. Until The L Word, lesbians were very rarely, if ever, discussed in terms of sex. Lesbians were the stereotyped commitment-philes, mythologized to move in on the second date, while gay men became the promiscuous smut-fiends, going into back-rooms of bars to engage in torrid affairs.

I feel this is why The Price of Salt may have been more disputed than Giovanni's Room (though neither was that dramatically censored). Though The Price of Salt treated lesbian sex very vaguely and tastefully, it still broached the subject. Homosexual men have long been associated with this idea.