Reddit reviews Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan

Male Colors is really great if you are interested in the history and sociological impact of homosexuality and (male) gay culture in Japan.

There are two aspects of homosexuality which will determine whether or not a person is likely to engage in it. First, obviously, is genetics. Most people are simply going to be born attracted to the same sex. However, there is another aspect of it which is equally out of the control of the individual such that they are not able to make a choice over being gay. This would be the cultural aspect.

Male Colors by Gary Leupp actually gives great details on how culture can affect homosexuality. In pre-Meiji Japan, homosexuality was extremely common among both men and women. Samurai children were often sent to monasteries for their education early in the Tokugawa period where they were taught by the monks in an all male environment. Typically, when you have such environments, homosexual acts become more likely as sexual desire is present regardless of whether or not the opposite sex is. So, monks would often have sex and deep relationships with the samurai students, who then grew up and continued to have homosexual sex with others. Samurai, being the upper class of society, influenced the lower classes who wanted to mimic their "betters."

Additionally, when the shogun enacted sankin kotai (alternate residence) which required daimyo to spend a significant amount of time traveling between their domains and the capital, a huge road system developed, which in turn developed areas where the daimyo would stop with their entourage. This caused many areas to develop where the male to female ration was extremely off, as much as 170 males to 100 females (if I remember the numbers right from the book). So, given the upper class was likely to engage in homosexuality and there were many places where there were many more men than women, men started having homosexual sex.

Kabuki also contributed to the rise of homosexuality. Women were banned from practicing kabuki in 1629 in part because samurai became so aroused by the women performing that they would fight and kill each other over them. This led to young boys instead performing kabuki made up as women. Because men were already aroused by the shows and women, this simply transferred over to sexual desire for the boys performing. So, it then became required that boys performing have a sort of hair dress code in order to make them less appealing. So, these boys (many were also prostitutes) began wearing purple cloths to cover the bald tops of their heads, which made these purple cloths sexualized. Basically, what you get is a slippery slope effect where things kept becoming sexualized.

This wasn't a result of bad parenting by the Japanese, it was a result of cultural acceptance of homosexual sex. However, what should really be noted though is that most of the time, you would not find anyone who was truly homosexual. Instead, these people in Japan were bisexual. Men would have sex with men and their wives. Women would have sex with women and their husbands. Sometimes, threesomes and orgies happened. This was less a Japan focused on homosexuality than a Japan which had a sexual liberation.

Today, we are seeing the same thing really, but we are at the very beginning of it. The youth of today are growing up in a society which is becoming more accepting of sexuality which isn't heterosexuality. Interestingly though, it has also reacted negatively toward one particular group, bisexuals. Some think bisexuals are confused about their identity and seen as privileged by even some in the gay community because they can enter heterosexual relationships and hide-in-plain-sight. From that article:

> Bisexual women complain they are leered at by straight men and rejected by some lesbians as sexual "tourists" who will abandon them for men. Bisexual men, in turn, struggle to persuade men and women alike that they aren't just gay men with one foot in the closet. Both are stereotyped as oversexed swingers who cannot be trusted.

Honestly, it is extremely likely that under the right conditions, you would see an explosion of people who would identify as bisexual, with relatively few who identify as either strictly homosexual or strictly heterosexual. Humans like to have sex for fun, which means that reproduction becomes secondary as a reason to have sex. Those who would always identify as either homosexual or heterosexual probably would do so as a result of genetics, while most people could probably identify as bisexual if they grew up in a culture which accepted and celebrated sexuality as a whole. Because, in some respects (though certainly not all), it is easier to be homosexual or heterosexual than bisexual, you will probably see more people adopting one or the other over a bisexual choice.

In short, sexuality has nothing to do with choice really. This includes having nothing to do with the parents choices either. Parents spend very little time with their children compared to the rest of society after their children enter school. Many parents will work a significant amount of time even during times when their child is out of school, and during those times when they can, there is a fairly good chance these children spend some of that time with their friends, whether through real life or virtual. It is the culture of society which will most drastically affect them. As our culture becomes more accepting of homosexuality, children will find that their sexual attractions are in part determined by that. Bad parenting won't make these children gay or bisexual. Those who already have a genetic predisposition to be attracted to or open to attraction to the same sex will be more likely to feel that way in an openly accepting society.

Not that I have read them but here is a direction to look in.

These for China

Western Queers in China

The Libertine's Friend

Obsession

Passions of the Cut Sleeve

This one is for Japan

Male Colors

And check for Kindle versions, they cost tons less.