Craig Loftin:
Frank Leib bases this study of how men relate to one another largely around the writings of Edward Carpenter, a Victorian-era Anglican priest and lover of poet Walt Whitman. Men in contemporary society envision their relations as fiercely competitive, argues Leib. Carpenter and his discussions of “fierce companions” and “sacred homosexuality” (similar to Whtiman's notion of the manly love of comrades) offers an alternative model where masculine bonding can transcend boundaries such as race and class. Leib shows that intimate masculine bonding have been at the center of the Western tradition, and how homophobia has developed in relation to this tradition.
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