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Mirror rubbing: a critical genealogy of pre-modern Chinese female same-sex eroticism.

Author
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Abstract
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This article offers a critical genealogy of pre-modern Chinese female same-sex relationships. Through the analysis of the primary source materials in history, fiction, and drama, the author shows that female homosexuality is silenced and suppressed. To Confucianism, female same-sex relationships threaten to exclude men from accessing female sex and keep women away from participating in extending the family line. Even the Daoist theory of sex can be used to discriminate against female homosexuality by denying women the ability to initiate and maintain the cycle of yin-yang interaction in sexual intercourse. There are 2 recurring themes in the male writers' imaginings of female same-sex eroticism. First, heterosexuality is the preferred sexual order, and female same-sex desire arises due to the lack of sexual access to men. Second, heterosexual relationships and intercourse are the norm that female homosexuality aspires to imitate.

Year of Publication
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0
Journal
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Journal of homosexuality
Volume
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60
Issue
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5
Number of Pages
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750-72
Date Published
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2013
ISSN Number
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0091-8369
DOI
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10.1080/00918369.2013.773824
Short Title
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J Homosex
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