Boys‘love (BL) is originated from the Japanese comics. The phrase ―”boy‘s love” first appeared as a proper noun in the comics at an approximate time of 1966 in Japan. Most BL comics depicted hopeless love of boys. Then, the 1990s saw the emergence of new type of BL comics, namely 耽美 (Tanbi). Tanbi is a Japanese word, it can be attributed the same meaning as aestheticism. Tanbi comics showed a perfect scene to audiences within beautiful boys’ love, pleasure stories also end up with a comedy. The boys‘ love or nature love between boys is different from the circle of gay. BL is a kind of emotion always can only be seen in literary output due to its strict conditions. BL ought to be explained like this, a beautiful boy is falling love with somebody else, by coincidence, it is a beautiful boy. BL is more like a Platonic love, BL always give a picture of spiritual experiences of boys‘love but fewer sex. In other word, BL is just a kind of comic form. The researchers in Japanese comics always concentrated on its social influences, characteristics, conditions, etc. There is scarce any research touching on the comic forms. BL comics are a special component of the comics, and this form demonstrates a series of phenomenon in sociology. With an informal research, BL comics is now turning into a common fashionable comic form among the Asia regions. However, with great exchanges with other areas, there also exists a large number of BL comic fans in Mainland China, and most of them are young ladies. Given this background, BL is treated as an exclusive form to the young ladies, and it largely reflects values and tastes of these ladies. The findings of this thesis might provide insights into a desire understanding males and an expectation of a fathfully lover. Undeniably, Japanese people attain amazing achievements in many fields, the success of circulating BL products is one of them. To some extent, researching the circulation and consumption patterns of BL comics may reveal the great achievement of Japan in culture transmission. / published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Master / Master of Philosophy

Research suggests that non-judgmental, unbiased counseling (that includes an advocacy component) is effective in addressing the psycho-social needs of sexual minority youths--a population of students considered at-risk (Reynolds & Koski, 1994; Savin-Williams, 1994). The ability to provide such services is impeded if the clinician has not first come to terms with his or her own feelings and attitudes about homosexuality (Pederson, 1988). This study examined the attitudes and anticipated professional behaviors relevant to sexual minority youths of 309 pupil services professionals in the fields of school psychology, school social work, school nursing, and school counseling. Participants from two regions of the US (Florida and New Jersey) responded to a survey comprising a homophobia measure and a measure of anticipated professional behavior toward sexual minority youths, and questionnaires collecting demographic information. Results of multiple regression analysis, with the significance level set at .05, indicated that levels of homophobic bias were positively correlated with political conservatism (r = .52), high religiosity (r = .51), and lower education levels (r = .30) among the participants. Furthermore, a backward elimination model predicting biased professional behaviors toward sexual minority youths was significant (p = .001). Results indicated that those less likely to employ gay affirming professional behaviors were more politically conservative (p = .001) than those more likely to do so. Implications of this study suggest that even among these counseling professionals, personal ideologies and dogmatic belief systems could potentially impede many of their ability or willingness to advocate in behalf of sexual minority students. Training efforts, therefore, should assist these professionals in distinguishing between their personal ideologies with regard to sexual orientation diversity and their professional responsibility to serve the needs of all students.

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published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Japanese Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

The current Islamic Republic of Iran distinguishes between homosexuals and same-sex sexual activity: the former is not recognized as an identity, while state apparatuses openly condemn the latter. Beginning in Iran's medieval period, through its current Islamic regime, this dissertation argues that the allowances made for behaviors and attitudes for queer same-sex sexual intimacies in the historiography of Iranian sexuality are very distinct from the modern and Western notion of `gay'. Same-sex sexual relations in Iran threaten the conventional order that is built on an accepted series of gender differences reinforced by the Islamic regime. Marginalization of Iran's queer population permeates into local Iranian communities, creating ruptures with society and family. In the face of a generally repressive and heteronormative Iranian state, as well as the prospect of resettlement abroad, Iranian queers are fleeing to Turkey. This dissertation examines the processes by which queer Iranians face unprecedented forms of stigmatization and violence in Iran and later in Turkey. Going beyond a simple report of homophobic abuse in the Middle East, I engage ethnography as a vehicle by which to appreciate the effects of the constant silencing of queer voices and issues on social, familial, governmental and religious relations in Iran. During the summer of 2012, I conducted 24 qualitative interviews with queer Iranian asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey to assess the impact of societal and state consequences for queers in Iran, and later as refugees. Migration into Turkey reworks social relations based on race, sexual orientation and nationality; Iranians are both victims of and agents within the processes of asylum. An analysis of Iranians vis-à-vis one another, as well as their relations with local Turks, will explain the way race and sexual orientation impact migrant life. My research examines how the failure of figuring non-heteronormative sexuality into modern social, national, religious and academic discourses of Iranian culture is destructive on a human rights level, as it fails to generate new possibilities for developing truthful identities in Iranian and Turkish society and human rights law concerning queers.

Leaving Silence: Queer Asian and Pacific Islander Oral History Exhibit (October 1996) is both a community project and an educational campaign, that was conceived and executed in Seattle, Washington. The 12-panel exhibit is composed of 13 narratives and 34 black-and-white photographs, and its theme is "coming out." The narrators and those who appear in the photographs identify as queer and as Asian and Pacific Islander. The project involved the collaboration of four community-based organizations: the Asian Lesbian and Bisexual Alliance, the Asian Pacific AIDS Council, the Asian Pacific Islander Homosexuality/Homophobia Education Project, and Queer & Asian. In this thesis I analyze this exhibit and demonstrate its relevance to critical pedagogy and to all those movements interested in the establishment of social justice.

Homoseksualizmas yra traktuojamas kaip lytinis potraukis tos pačios lyties asmeniui. Lietuvos ir Norvegijos visuomenėje vyrauja heteroseksualizmas, todėl netradicinės lytinės orientacijos asmenys yra mažuma. Tačiau pačių valstybių požiūriai į homoseksualius asmenys skiriasi. Norvegija yra tolerantiškesnė šalis. Šioje šalyje yra priimtas įstatymas, kurio dėka homoseksualios orientacijos asmuo gali įsivaikinti vaikus, bei turi teisę į santuoką su tos pačios lyties asmeniu. Lietuva yra homofobiška šalis. Didžioji dalis šios šalies piliečių bijo, nemėgsta, netoleruoja netradicinės lytinės orientacijos asmenų. Yra suteikiama mažai informacijos apie homoseksualių asmenų prigimtį. Lietuvos mokymo programose homoseksualizmas yra traktuojamas kaip tradicinės katalikiškos moralės ir vertybių priešprieša. Mokslininkas Herbert Spencer yra sakęs, jog yra vienas principas, užkertantis kelią žinojimui, atmetantis visus argumentus ir paverčiantis žmogų amžinu neišmanėliu, - pirma paniekinti, o paskui aiškinti (Mondimore, 2000). Taigi, svarbu sugebėti atskirti tinkamą informaciją, bei nesivadovauti pasenusiais stereotipais, kurie kartais būna neteisingi ir dėl jų mes nebesugebame atskleisti kas yra tikroji tiesa. Darbe yra pateikiama teorinė ir tiriamoji dalis. Teorinėje dalyje yra pristatoma lytiškumo samprata, lyties vaidmenys ir jų kaita, požiūrio į lytinę orientaciją kontraversija. Taip pat yra apžvelgiama lytiškumo ir lytinio ugdymo sampratos Lietuvoje bei Norvegijoje. Tyrimo tikslas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Homosexuality is perceived as sexual attraction to a person of the same sex. Heterosexuality is the prevailing sexual attraction in both the Lithuanian and Norwegian societies; therefore people with non-traditional sexual orientation comprise a minority. However, the attitudes of the countries towards homosexual people are different. Norway shows more tolerance. This country enacted a law allowing homosexual people to adopt children and have the right to enter into marriage with a person of the same sex. Lithuania is homophobic country. Most of the Lithuanian citizens are afraid of, dislike and do not tolerate people with non-traditional sexual orientation. Little information is given about the nature of homosexuals. The Lithuanian education programs treat homosexuality as the opposite to the traditional catholic morals and values. The scientist Herbert Spencer once said: “there is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation” (Mondimore, 2000). Therefore, it is important to be able to differentiate the appropriate information and not to follow outdated stereotypes which may sometimes be wrong and cause us to be incapable of revealing the real truth.The paper consists of a theoretical part and a research. The theoretical part presents the concept of sexuality, roles of gender and their changes, and the controversy of the... [to full text]

The intention of this masters thesis is to examine how homosexuality is represented in Thomas Mann's 1913 novella Death in Venice, and to demonstrate how Mann was able to incorporate such a taboo issue in a story that Wilhelmine Germany would come to embrace. / The study consists of four chapters which examine four contexts in which the story, for the purposes of this thesis, should be interpreted. The first is historical, in which the previous reception of the novella, as well as the author's own struggle with his identity, is investigated. In the second, Mann's philosophical paradigms to represent homoeroticism, drawn largely from classical Greece and Nietzsche, are examined. Freud's views of homosexuality and sublimation furnish the basis for the third chapter, in which sublimated imagery of sexual desire in the text is considered. Finally, the narrative strategies employed by Mann that render the story palatable to his heterosexual, bourgeois reading audience are illustrated in the fourth chapter.