Charting the emergence of the sodomite as a social type, Cameron McFarlane argues that the sodomite symbolized a variety of economic and political conflicts and transgressions; at the same time, the cumulative effect of these representations was to enable homoerotic desire to be articulated as it was being condemned.
McFarlane begins with an examination of several texts -- Faustina, The Tragedy of Nero, and others -- that portray the sodomite as a destructive force: foreigner, papist, tyrant, and despoiler of British masculinity. He follows with close readings of two satires; Sodom: or the Quintessence of Debauchery, and Love Letters Between a Certain Late Nobleman and the Famous Mr. Wilson. In the first, sodomy is equated with political abuse of power, while the second depicts sodomy as a "false economy of desire". McFarlane also explores the sodomite as a sexual provocateur in the works of Tobias Smollet and John Cleland.
