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Reports the study of ritual verbal insults among Black men and among gay men. Gives examples of these insults and explains the situations in which such insulting takes place. (PMJ)

In this article, the author gives his comment on the review of David F. Greenberg's "The Construction of Homosexuality" by Philip Kayal. Although the author agrees with Philip Kayal in rejecting a deviance model of homosexuality and disagree with a number of interpretations in David Greenberg's "The Construction of Homosexuality," he believes that Kayal is represents the book to engage in straight-bashing. The author can find nothing in this very long book to show Greenberg assuming that "insatiable anally passive sexual appetites define and characterize" gay men. It also seems to the author that the end of Kayal's review equates male homosexuality and effeminacy more than does Greenberg's book. Although there is discussion of the construction of a separate ontological category of homosexuality by those engaged in homosexuality, he does not think that either the phenomenon or the historical description is sinister. It is all too common for social science reviewers to castigate authors for failing to explore the topics the reviewer finds more interesting and important than those in the book.