Hird, D. 2019. Sentiments like Water: Unsettling Pathologies of Homosexual and Sadomasochistic Desire. in: Lo, V., Berry, C. and Guo, L. (ed.) Film and the Chinese Medical Humanities Routledge.
| Chapter title | Sentiments like Water: Unsettling Pathologies of Homosexual and Sadomasochistic Desire |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hird, D. |
| Editors | Lo, V. |
| Berry, C. | |
| Guo, L. | |
| Abstract | Made in the mid-1990s this film imagines China capable of a more open discussion of homosexuality, here taking place within a political framework that is certainly not democratic, but in which the flow of power is not unidirectional: the ideas and practices of the powerful might transform through the love of those upon whom they exercise power. Two major themes interact: homosexuality (both morally despicable and a mental disorder) and sadomasochism (potentially transformative of subjectivities and social relations). Taking up a key medical humanities theme, the film challenges the moral condemnation and pathologising of ‘other’ sexual/gender practices. In its focus on the negotiation and contestation of the flows of power between a policeman and the gay man he arrests, on the latter’s transvestism and femininity, the film speaks to a Foucauldian political struggle, in which power is not concentrated in, or deployed coercively by, one party alone. Running water, ever-present as an aural and visual trope, represents [sexual] power as diffuse, fluid and constitutive of subjects and subjectivities, enabling subversion and transformation of power relations. It reminds us of the ancient Daoist observation that flowing water wears down stone. |
| Keywords | homosexuality, masculinity, sadomasochism, power, China, medical humanities, film |
| Book title | Film and the Chinese Medical Humanities |
| Year | 2019 |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 20 Nov 2019 |
| ISBN | 9781138580299 |
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