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Abstract

Cross-cultural deconstructive study reveals that Western sexology has over-defined erotic meaning. The phenomenology of mystery"that which allures uncertainly, excitedly and suspensefully'-is considered as the noumenal substrate of anything erotic instead of some clear-cut "drive," "bio-instinct," or "fallenness." Furthermore, gender-as-gender-differences is persuasive but is inadequate to describe the profound interactivities of gender. Contemporary gender problems-abuse, phobias, sexism-are supported by commodified, over-differentiating gender conceptualizations. Gender-as-sharedmystery suggests that awestruck, reverential rapport indicates when people are most fully in the grips of gender and its challenge. Thus, "shared, entrusted mystery" seems a better name for what gender is, as poetics displace logical positivism as the more natural voice of erotic personhood.

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Eros as Mystery

Abstract

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