The Gender Politics of Male Favouritism: Bieroticism of Ancient Chinese Emperors.

Abstract

Previous research has boxed ancient sexuality into homoeroticism versus heteroeroticism. When viewing the scope of research on male favouritism in Ancient China, although there has been discussion of the politics surrounding bierotic desire within the upper courts, the role of gender politics has not been well discussed. Power was directly tied to the gender of the partner in this instance, causing members of the upper court unease. Male favouritism as tradition kept by the emperors followed in all but one of dynasties from the Zhou period onwards. What were the gender dynamics at the time between men of lower and higher status? What were the implications of male favouritism when compared to the role of the female courtesans or concubines? How did the male favourite tradition impact dynasties socially and politically? From this papers view, male favouristism was one of the most impactful traditions upon the power dynamics of the upper court – and yet is vastly overlooked. Analysing primary and secondary sources such as Hinsch (1992), Sang (2003), Kang (2009), and Vitiello (2011), this paper suggests that while we can indeed claim bieroticism with Ancient China to be pertinent to politics due to its same-gender relationships and therefore representation, what truly made the dynastic tradition of bieroticism a unique circumstance was the political power that male favourites wittingly, or unwittingly, exercised over the ruler of the kingdom. This paper seeks to address the gap in research in gender politics related directly to bieroticism and political power in the dynastic period.