Analysis Of ' Farewell My Concubine ' And ' The King And The Clown '

Homosexual acts are not a unique thing for Chinese people. There are many documented stories of male homosexuality dated in early times of Imperial China. Some of them could be found in the third-century B.C. text named Chronicles of the Warring States. This text confirms the fact that major state and historical figures were involved in homosexual intercourse. For example, homosexual relationship between Longyang Jun, a fourth-century B.C. minister and the prince of Wei (this male love is also a basis of the expression for male love longyang) or an affair between Duke Ling of Wei and his minister, Ni Xia (Vivien, 1991,p.76-77). From The History of the Former Han the one can also know that the last empreror of the Former Han dynasty, Aidi (r.6-1 B.C.) had a numerous amount of male lovers (ibid). Much later examples of homosexuality can be find in the scholarly jottings of the seventeenth century, such as Wanli ye huo pian, a miscellany composed by Shen Defu (1578-1642). In this work he described that one of the ordinary place for male homosexual activity was the Fujian province. Whats more, homosexual

Before analyzing the status of girls and women in ancient China, we need to understand the fundamental principles of morality that dominated in the society in that time period.

The topic of sexual orientation is both sensitive and controversial. This is evident in events, such as the Pride Parade, and also in media, where authoritative figures preach against it and speak of its “sinful nature” (Emmanuele, Blanchard, Camperio-Ciani, & Bancroft, 2010). Sexual orientation exists in various forms, it differs in the way it is viewed by different cultures, and researchers propose different perspectives to explain the emergence of an individual 's sexual orientation. In the discourse of sexual orientation,

During the 1980’s indulging in homosexual activity was considered in crime, people were imprisoned when caught doing so. But in 2003 some parts of the United States, suspended the law, and made homosexuality legal, soon European countries such as Canada, Belgium, and Netherlands passed an act which approved of homosexual weddings (Bonvillain 2006). If one digs deeper into this issue, where these debatable, one can find that it roots back from religions. Most religion disapprove of homosexuality but in religions such as Hindu, for sexuality, scriptures of homosexual activity only stated that it was normal and natural, to be attracted to the same sex (Bonvillain 2006). But in today’s society the main issue is regarding the issue of males being attracted to each other, an example of this issue is ‘Homophobia of men’. Homosexuality is considered to be a cultural construct, which apart from the ‘lesbian identities’ gave rise to the ‘gay identities’ (Herek 1986). It is common for normal men, to avoid influencing with homosexual men, as they fear what the public might think of them being judged as not ‘masculine’, where as its more normal for woman to associate with lesbians or homosexual women, as they are not being judged by the rest of the females (Herek 1986). Studies showed, that the social construction of gay identities meant that there was something psychologically wrong with that person,

It is hard to challenge what is seemingly normalized in society. Especially when looking into the realm of gender and sexuality, the male and female gender accompanied by heterosexuality is often just accepted and deemed as a social norm. Social institutions such as marriage, health-care laws, and the economic system benefit those who act within the heteronormative behaviors and appropriate gender expression. The gender binary, though, is far from accurate when assuming personal identity. If someone follows the social script of the femininity, he or she is expected to be female and possess female anatomy. The same goes for men: if he or she expresses masculinity he or she is expected to be male with male anatomy. Anything outside of this expectation is deemed socially unacceptable and subject to backlash. With the strong ties Western society has to the gender binary and appropriate gender roles, it is impossible to picture anything else. The Fa’fafine in Samoa, however, present a great challenge to the norms instilled in society.

Sex and gender play a big part in american society today and are often misconstrued. These two topics have become progressive as people are starting to express their gender and sexuality in ways other than what is and has been considered the norm. Many people believe that sexuality and gender are synonymous with one another. Gender is socially constructed while sex is biologically determined. In society’s past, Americans often strayed away from discussing controversial topics, but with the rise of different ways of addressing people, it is deemed more important to understand. Along with the blurred lines of gender and sex comes sexuality, who someone is attracted to sexually. When people stray from society’s heteronormative mindset, they are often faced with many more challenges than the average hetero man or woman. People often have the preconceived notion that if something does not concern them, then they should not be involved in it. A person who could be your neighbor, co worker, or even child, may have to deal with the troubles of people confusing their gender identity with their sex. While also facing challenges that deal with the sex of the person they choose to love. Learning the difference between gender and sexuality will open the eyes of many people and see how the two are different but relate to one another very much.

This paper was based on three very interesting stories. All of the characters had unique situations, but could relate in some ways. Despite the negative feedback one receives from the public eye, some people choose to live as they please. No one chooses to be gay, it is more of a lifestyle choice. In “Paul’s Case”, Paul was a confused, unhappy boy. He was thought of as gay because of his interests. A similar situation with Wing, although he was actually gay. Their actions or likes/dislikes are what people used to define their persona. In David’s case, he was gay and he knew it. He tried hard to avoid it because he was ashamed of the situation. This paper consists of the ways sexuality affects oneself, from being bullied because of one’s sexuality, to the people we choose to befriend or the relationships we choose to be in, and also the ways religious people handle their objections to it. All of these people struggled with their sexuality in some way, causing these stories all to have unhappy endings. The authors’ sexuality was what influenced these short stories greatly. Some of their real-life experiences might have been portrayed in these stories to give a better understanding of the situation.

In traditional Chinese perspective, giving births to offspring for a man’s family was the main function of a woman’s sexuality. Also, woman’s sexuality was safer under the protection of staying with the family. Woman was vulnerable and did not have ability to resist if there’s any man tried to abuse her. In such manner, women were asked to stay inside of the household neither stepping out of the household nor met the guests in the living room, because women were considered as their husbands’ personal property. In addition, there were many single men who could not find a wife called bare sticks, and they were regarded as extremely dangerous people for women, because they would sexually abuse women if there were any chance.

For queer theorists, identity has been constructed through performativity, which is based on the opinion of Judith Butler. Butler (1990, p.25) believed that “ there is no gender identity behind the expression of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results.” In other words, there is not any factor to produce the identity, but identity creates itself through performativity. One should imitate and repeat the gender expression again and again according to norms, then the identity will be constituted, which also shows that identity is fluid and constructed. Moreover, Jenkins (2000,2004) stated that a dynamic social process generates identity, so identity is not static but fluid and dynamic.

The sexological discourse that spreads in West comes to Asia and enters into China’ pre-modern era - echo of sexuality. There were many homosexual relations in china in pre-modern era, and it was the same case in Japan. However, othering homosexual identities arose only after sexual discourses from Western cultures breathe life into them. Westerners say the homosexual behavior is barbaric, and they spread the idea that to be considered a civil nation you have to stop normalizing same-sex sexuality. Instead of labelling like European societies do, the organization in

Gender segregation is still common in the Middle East and both genders are expected to fulfill their designated roles within society. There is a lot of pressure for both genders to marry and to not do so is considered “social disaster”. Arranged marriages are not uncommon, especially among the more traditional families (Whitaker) and in this relationship, men are generally considered the “active” partners while their wives are the “passive” partners (Tolino 5). These ideas are prominent throughout society in the Middle East and create problems for individuals who do not conform to their assigned roles, specifically members of the LGBT community. LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, although all gender and “sexual minorities” are considered part of this community (Human Rights Watch 69). LGBT individuals face struggles all around the world, but their problems are more pronounced in the Middle East, where the concept of homosexuality is vastly different than in the West. People in the Middle East generally view homosexuality as a “Western invention” and there is no clear distinction between “sex” and “gender”. The classification of an individual as “gay” does not always relate to “a physical act with someone of the same gender”. A male could be considered “gay” simply for not conforming to gender roles or acting feminine (Simmons 1). In the Middle East, members of the LGBT community face extreme inequality, primarily in the form of homophobic laws with

Throughout many countries around the world, homosexuality has always been subjected as a controversial matter. The societal attitudes towards the behavior of homosexuality vary substantially across Asia. Surprisingly, there are two conflicting attitudes toward homosexuality. Some Asian countries strongly condemn against homosexuality, whereas some Asian countries visibly accept homosexuality. Judith Butler explained that gender is represented as a stylized repetition of acts or imitation. She described the categories of sexuality and gender as a form of performativity (Butler 1996, 368). This essay will focus on China and South Korea and explore the experience of gender identity via to the socio-cultural contexts. This essay will also look

This class is all really interesting for me, except the two features I talked above, all the other topics are just too attractive and applaud me. The gender problems totally right, and I believe this happens in every country. When I translated “Sex” and “Gender” in the dictionary, it gives us the same meaning: male and female. Thus I ‘m really surprised when I found they have different meanings in class! As referred to by Allen, "Sex is a biological classification while gender refers to cultural norms of femininity and masculinity". (Allen, 2011, p. 42) There are lots of boys whose femininity and lots of girls who wear like boys and they want to be boys. I know it cause my high school is a girls ' school, and many of my friends don’t love dressing and don’t love boys. They even hate their chest, and thinking of getting rid of it all day. However, we don’t have a physiology course talking about this. Talking about them, the next chapter sexuality is really connected. We don’t allow gay marriage in China, and although it does not touch the law, but it will cause a lot of problems in everyday life, it even leads you to death sadly. Five years ago, homosexual people in China were really active, they wants to get their right to happiness in China too, just like here in America and those countries support gay marriage. "They start all kinds of activities, they want something like homophile movement" (Allen, 2011, p123), which happened in the 1950s, middle-

The film Tanjong Rhu by Boo Junfeng is a recount of the notorious arrest of twelve gay men in an entrapment exercise in 1993. Being a conservative society, Singapore has meted out harsh punishments against the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender (LGBT) community. ‘Singaporeans are [also] disallowed from even speaking in public places about homosexual-related issues” (Oswin, 2008). This essay not only seeks to analyze this film, but also, use the Gramscian theory of hegemony to examine the challenges faced by the Singapore state government in promoting their ideas of a heteronormative family.

In the last decade, the issue of homosexuality has been widely discussed and known in Hong Kong. People have more opportunities to approach the word `homosexuality' in their daily life through literatures, movies and occasional news revealing celebrities' homosexual behaviors. Simultaneously there has also been significant growth in commercial venues such as restaurants and bars, catering to gays and lesbians. In short, the social context of Hong Kong and the attitudes gays and lesbians are likely to hold about their sexual orientation are very different from those of previous generations.