scholarly journals The Male Dan at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

Prism ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
Jie Guo
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
First Century ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
Twenty First Century

Abstract Reading the Taiwanese author Wu Jiwen's 1996 novel Fin-de-siècle Boylove Reader (Shijimo shaonian’ai duben), this essay considers the age-old figure of the male dan and the critical role it played in the emerging gay scene in the Sinophone world at the turn of the twenty-first century. Based on the Qing author Chen Sen's novel Precious Mirror for the Appreciation of Flowers (Pinhua baojian), Wu's version resorts to the figure of the male dan, often referred to as xianggong, to explore male same-sex intimacies, which were gaining increasing visibility in the 1990s Sinophone world. While scholars generally agree that the male dan in Wu's novel bears considerable resemblance to the figure of the contemporary gay man, some read the ending of Wu's novel, where the two protagonists, Mei Ziyu and Du Qinyan, part ways, as representing a compromise. I contend that this “unhappy ending” points to Wu's most radical departure from Chen's novel. The original novel's ending, where Ziyu lives happily ever after with both his wife and Qinyan, reaffirms the centrality of the “polygamous” patron-patronized relationship in the late imperial imagination of male-male relations. In contrast, the failed relationship between Ziyu and Qinyan in Wu's version points to the obsoleteness of the xiangong system, as well as the polygamous mode in the 1990s, which required new modes, categories, and symbols for the imagination of male same-sex relationships. Arguing that in this novel forces past and present, local and global converge, the author uses it to explore the larger question of how to approach the queer Sinophone.

The Response of the Late Victorian Feminist Press to Same-Sex Desire Controversies

2019 ◽  
pp. 542-554
Author(s):  
Molly Youngkin
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Editorial Bias ◽  
Heterosexual Women ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
Race And Sexuality ◽  
Amy Levy

Molly Youngkin’s essay investigates the heterosexism of a fin de siècle feminist newspaper, the Women’s Penny Paper (1894–99, later retitled the Women’s Herald and the Woman’s Signal), highlighting its treatment of three controversies: the Oscar Wilde trials, the death of poet Amy Levy, and the emergence of Sappho as a model of lesbian new womanhood. When the paper did address these controversies it ‘reshaped narratives about this [same-sex] desire to fit its own heterosexist agenda,’ responded in a disapproving way, or avoided a discussion of sexuality entirely (p. 543). The overall effect of this editorial bias was to pursue an ‘overarching agenda of advocating for heterosexual women’ and to reinforce social purity debates about ‘the effects of men’s sexual practices on heterosexual women and their families’ (p. 544). These feminist papers thus constructed the ‘other’ in ways that upheld restrictive conventions of race and sexuality while claiming to be vehicles of progressive thought.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Sandra Patton-Imani
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Des Moines ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Queer Citizenship

I begin this book with the story of my spouse and I essentially being kicked out of the Des Moines YMCA for being lesbians. I use this narrative to introduce the ways relationships between social and legal definitions of “legitimate” family are used to regulate access to social rights and resources. The most pervasive stories in public dialogues about families headed by lesbians and gay men at the turn of the twenty-first century suggest that legalizing same-sex marriage should be either the panacea for all the constitutional vulnerabilities of queer citizenship, or the downfall of civilization due to the crumbling of the institution of marriage. I argue that the construction of lesbian-headed families should be explored in the context of other arenas of social policy, including adoption, immigration, and welfare. I discuss my family’s location in this research.

Conflicts Within the Anglican Communion

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
First Century ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
The West ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Church

The churches of the Anglican Communion discussed issues of sex and gender throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Arguments about gender focused on the ordination of women to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopate. Debates about sexuality covered polygamy, divorce and remarriage, and homosexuality. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, these debates became intensely focused on homosexuality and were particularly fierce as liberals and conservatives responded to openly gay bishops and the blessing and marriage of same-sex couples. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the sex and gender debates had become less acrimonious, the Anglican Communion had not split on these issues as some feared, but the ‘disconnect’ between society and the Church, at least in the West, on issues such as the Church of England’s prevarication on female bishops and opposition to gay marriage, had decreased the Church’s credibility for many.

The Historical Foundations of Judicial Review in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-230
Author(s):  
Conor McCormick
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
First Century ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Administrative Actions

This chapter analyses judicially developed standards for reviewing administrative actions in the United Kingdom between 1890 and 1910. By exploring the context, reach, types, and frequency of judicial review during that timeframe—fin de siècle—this historical analysis reveals both significant changes and significant continuities by comparison with twenty-first century standards. The chapter concentrates in particular on reported cases which undermine the Diceyan claim that administrative law did not exist in the United Kingdom during this timeframe; and reflects on the inconsistencies that pervaded that body of law. It concludes that some judges tended to deploy concepts which had the effect of restraining administrative actions, whereas other judicial constructs tended to facilitate the administrative arrangements contested in court. As such, it recommends that the role of judicial review at this time should be characterized with this duality of purpose firmly in mind.

Compulsory Portion and Minimum Inheritance in Norway

2020 ◽  
pp. 563-600
Author(s):  
Jens M Scherpe ◽  
Thomas Eeg
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Family Members ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Law Of Succession

The chapter describes the current law of succession in Norway with regard to mandatory protection of family members, explains its historical background, and situates it in the debates surrounding the changed realities of family life in the twenty-first century. Family law and family life have undergone many changes, not least the increasing prevalence of second or third families/remarriages and cohabitation, as well as the acceptance of same-sex families. The chapter argues that, despite recent reform proposals, the limited changes implemented by reforms in 2019 fall short of what is required of a modern law of succession for all families in Norway.

Unspeakable Desires

2015 ◽  
pp. 192-210
Author(s):  
Kate Flint
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Male Homosexual ◽  
Verbal Form ◽  
Sex Attraction ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Changing Attitudes

This chapter explores how certain forms of desire are silenced by culture and convention, and how these desires, whilst they may be expressed through glance or action, can be difficult to express in verbal form. Chief among these desires are ones predicated on same-sex attraction, and both male homosexual and lesbian desires—and attitudes and legislation relating to them—are placed in the context of changing attitudes towards sexuality in Victorian society. The chapter also examines forms of desire that are manifested through such activities as flogging or the consumption of pornography. But the main emphasis falls on queer sexualities and relationships and on their expression in fiction and poetry. The idea that style itself may be understood as a form of queer expression is investigated, and the warning issued that we must be careful not to project our own twenty-first-century desires and forms of identification onto Victorian practices.

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