Episode 5: Gods, Sex and the Patriarchy

Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series and the 5th season of the Nuances podcast about Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.

Ep. 5: Gods, Sex and the Patriarchy

Introduction & content warnings
Gender fluidity in myths
- Japan – Polytheism vs monotheism
- Filipino mythology
- Hindu mythology
  - Shikhandi
  - Chudala
Sex as an everyday thing
- Khajuraho sculptures
- Vietnamese folk religion – No Nuong
Deities to make sense of the world around us
- Tagalog mythology – Lakapati
- Mesopotamian mythology – Ishtar
- Japanese Shintoism – Amaterasu
Royals as descendents of deities
- Japan – Imperial family myth
- Korea – Pak Clan birth myth
Gods to explain queerness
- Korea – King Hyegong
Buddhism
- Japan
- China
- Tibet
- Thailand
God of same-sex love – Tu’er Shen
Sikhism
Islam
Conclusion
Discussion with Shreya
Outro

Did you enjoy this episode?

🧧If you would like to help me spread the word about the show, or support it financially, learn more at nuancespod.com/support

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you’d like to tell other people how much they will enjoy this show, please consider writing a review.

☎️☎️☎️ You can even leave me a voicemail!

💌 Subscribe to LAZOU’s substack, where I’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes + additional essays!

References:

Pryke, Louise M. Ishtar. London: Routledge, 2017.

Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. Yale University Press, 1992.

Lee, Kidong. “The Indigenous Religions of Silla: Their Diversity and Durability.” Korean Studies, vol. 28, 2004, pp. 49–74. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23720182. Accessed 22 July 2024.

Al Fian, Andi (2 December 2022). “BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM ON HOMOSEXUALITY: THE ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION BASED ON THE ARGUMENTS OF RELIGIOUS TEXTS”. Journal of Religious Studies. 3 (2). Sekolah Pascasarjana, Universitas Gadjah Mada: Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS): 73–82

Pattanaik, Devdutt (2001). The man who was a woman and other queer tales of Hindu lore. Routledge.

Vanita, Ruth; Kidwai, Saleem (2001). Same-sex love in India: readings from literature and history. Palgrave Macmillan.

Conner, Randy P.; Sparks, David Hatfield; Sparks, Mariya (1998). Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit. UK: Cassell.

Boxer, C.R. The Christian Century in Japan 1549–1650. University of Californian Press, Berkeley, 1951. p 69.

Spence, Jonathan, D. (1985). The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, Faber and Faber, London. p. 225

Paul Gordon Schalow, trans. 1996, Kitamura Kigin, “Wild Azaleas” (Iwatsutsuji) in Partings at Dawn, an Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature, San Francisco, Gay Sunshine Press p. 103

Cutler/Newland The Great Treatise On The Stages Of The Path To Enlightenment p.220

Jackson, Peter A. Male Homosexuality and Transgenderism in the Thai Buddhist Tradition. QUEER DHARMA: VOICES OF GAY BUDDHISTS. Edited by Winston Leyland.

Greenberg, Yudit Kornberg (2007). Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions. ABC-CLIO.

Collett, Alice. “Buddhism and Gender: Reframing and Refocusing the Debate.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 22, no. 2, 2006, pp. 55–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20487864. Accessed 22 July 2024.

Yoshida, Atsuhiko (1995). “Amaterasu and the Origin of the Emperor as the ‘Son of the Sun, the King of Rice’”. Japanese Goddess Beliefs (in Japanese). Tokyo: Seidosha. pp. 141–143.

Aston, William George (1896). “Book I” . Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. pp. 45, 52 – via Wikisource.

Aston, William George (1896). “Book II” . Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. p. 64 – via Wikisource.

Kitagawa, Joseph Mitsuo (1987-10-21). On Understanding Japanese Religion. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-10229-0.

Steven, Keith (2002). “The wrestling princes”. Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 42: 431–434.

Gold, Michael (25 January 2015). “Praying for a soul mate at Rabbit Temple”. The Star Online. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

Gold, Michael (2 February 2016). “Taiwan’s Wei-Ming ‘Rabbit’ Temple Draws Gay Community”. HuffPost. Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

Stevenson, Alexander (22 January 2015). “Thousands Of Gay Pilgrims Trek To Taiwan To Pray For Love At “Rabbit” Temple”. LOGO News. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

Gold, Michael (19 January 2015). “Taiwan’s gays pray for soul mates at ‘Rabbit’ temple”. Reuters. Archived from the original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

Hinsch, Bret (1990). Passions of the cut sleeve: the male homosexual tradition in China. University of California Press.

Szonyi, Michael (June 1998). “The Cult of Hu Tianbao and the Eighteenth-Century Discourse of Homosexuality”. Late Imperial China. 19 (1): 1–25.

Devdutt Pattanaik, Shikhandi and Other Queer Tales They Don’t Tell You (India: Penguin Books, 2014)

The Erotic Sculptures of Khajuraho, photographs by Massimo Pacifico, Barnum Review, year unknown.

Boswell, John (1994). Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe. New York: Villard Books.

Boswell, John (1980). Christianity, social tolerance and homosexuality: Gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Additional Resources:

Japanese Imperial family tree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_Japanese_monarchs

Guest scholar:

Sachi Schmidt-Hori, professor of Japanese literature & culture at Dartmouth College.
Wu CunCun, ⁠⁠professor of Chinese literature at the University of Hong Kong⁠⁠.

Guest co-host bio:

GUEST CO-HOST BIO

Shreya Sharma, pronouns she and her, is a podcast marketer by day who finds herself immersed in questions about intersectional identity by night. Thankfully for her, she is a writer too. She occasionally publishes her love affairs with sounds and audio on the Shreya’s Audio Affairs newsletter on Substack.

Instagram