Hybrid Subjects, Fluid Bonds

This essay offers a study of male homoeroticism in an unconventional and yet seminal nineteenth-century woman-authored tanci work, Fengshuangfei 鳳雙飛 (Phoenixes Flying Together; preface dated 1899) by Cheng Huiying 程蕙英 (before 1859–after 1899). Perhaps the only tanci known today that focuses centrally on male same-sex relations, Phoenixes Flying Together offers a vital example of early modern queer literary tradition by illustrating fluid male-male bonds and hybrid ideals of homosexuality. Such textual representations shift Confucian cardinal relations, redefine the power of nanse, and demonstrate queer identifications beyond heteronormative relations. Reading women's tanci through the intersectional lenses of early modernity, queer theory, and narrativity, this study examines such narratives as an inspiration to initiate a more contextualized epistemological, historical, and methodical understanding of the dynamic textual spaces that harbor same-sex intimacies, erotic desires, and clandestine longings in vernacular traditions. Narratives of male intimacy, camaraderie, and homosexual love in Cheng's text facilitate the construction of queer subjectivities through character focalization and embedded frames of storytelling and thereby reconfigure patrilineal norms of personal, familial, societal, and political relations. Ultimately, when engaged in conversation with global queer discourses, early modern Chinese vernacular narratives foster a culturally situated understanding of queer historiography, as well as the shifting social structures of power that often condition and facilitate nonnormative expressions of gender and sexuality.

Kin bias and male pair-bond status shape male-male relationships in a multilevel primate society

Male-male social relationships in group-living mammals vary from fierce competition to the formation of opportunistic coalitions or the development of long-lasting bonds. We investigated male-male relationships in Guinea baboons (Papio papio), a species characterized by male-male tolerance and affiliation. Guinea baboons live in a multi-level society, with units of one reproductively active “primary” male, 1–6 females, and offspring at the core level. Together with “bachelor” males, several units form a party, and 2–3 parties constitute a gang. We aimed to clarify to which degree male relationship patterns varied with relatedness and pair-bond status, i.e., whether males had primary or bachelor status. Data were collected from 24 males in two parties of Guinea baboons near Simenti in the Niokolo-Koba National Park in Senegal. Males maintained differentiated and equitable affiliative relationships (“strong bonds”) with other males that were stable over a 4-year period, irrespective of their pair-bond status. Remarkably, most bachelor males maintained strong bonds with multiple primary males, indicating that bachelor males play an important role in the cohesion of the parties. A clear male dominance hierarchy could not be established due to the high degree of uncertainty in individual rank scores, yet bachelor males were more likely to be found at the low end of the dominance hierarchy. Average relatedness was significantly higher between strongly bonded males, suggesting that kin biases contribute to the social preferences of males. Long-term data will be needed to test how male bonds affect male tenure and ultimately reproductive success. Significance statement Males living in social groups may employ different strategies to increase their reproductive success, from fierce fighting to opportunistic alliance formation or the development of long-term bonds. To shed light on the factors that shape male strategies, we investigated male-male social relationships in the multilevel society of Guinea baboons (Papio papio) where “primary” males are associated with a small number of females and their offspring in “units” while other males are “bachelors.” Strong bonds occurred among and between primary and bachelor males and strongly bonded males were, on average, more closely related. Bachelor males typically had multiple bond partners and thus play an important role in the fabric of Guinea baboon societies. Across primate species, neither dispersal patterns nor social organization clearly map onto the presence of strong bonds in males, suggesting multiple routes to the evolution of male bonds.

A Few Bad Friends: Dynamics of Male Dominance and Failure of Masculine Bonding in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross

David Mamet is often considered as the quintessential dramatist of American urban life whose stage is peopled exclusively, and at times questionably, with men. Glengarry Glen Ross is the outstanding epitome of Mamet’s avid engagement with the world of men and their primordial, instinctive thirst for dominance, authority, and the celebration of their masculine prowess. Exploring the turbulent dynamics of male interactions determined and affected by contemporary capitalism, the present study investigates the disturbed depiction of masculinity and male bonding. Mainstream masculinity has been fundamentally linked to power and organized for domination. Historically changing and politically fraught, masculinity is the product of social learning or socialization. Rather than a celebration of the camaraderie of men, as most criticisms of Mamet focus upon, it is argued that the play highlights the failure of such fellowship and the tragic consequences. In Mamet, capitalism and the market economy do to men what in a patriarchal system men do to women: marginalize, dominate, displace. Men, therefore, are losing their cultural centrality, and with that, their capacity for constructive male bonds. Glengarry Glen Ross faithfully captures the sad ethos of American capitalism. The dynamics of dominance and success, the exercise of power, and the hierarchies of control lead to a dysfunctional network of male connections and interactions. Men are expected to develop more instrumentally functioning abilities and roles while maintaining the more expressively dominant roles they used to possess. Caught in between, they are only subject to alienation. This is the paradox of contemporary American men.

Male cooperation for breeding opportunities contributes to the evolution of multilevel societies

A small number of primate species including snub-nosed monkeys (colobines), geladas (papionins) and humans live in multilevel societies (MLSs), in which multiple one-male polygamous units (OMUs) coexist to form a band, and non-breeding males associate in bachelor groups. Phylogenetic reconstructions indicate that the papionin MLS appears to have evolved through internal fissioning of large mixed-sex groups, whereas the colobine MLS evolved through the aggregation of small, isolated OMUs. However, how agonistic males maintain tolerance under intensive competition over limited breeding opportunities remains unclear. Using a combination of behavioural analysis, satellite telemetry and genetic data, we quantified the social network of males in a bachelor group of golden snub-nosed monkeys. The results show a strong effect of kinship on social bonds among bachelors. Their interactions ranged from cooperation to agonism, and were regulated by access to mating partners. We suggest that an ‘arms race’ between breeding males' collective defence against usurpation attempts by bachelor males and bachelor males' aggregative offence to obtain reproductive opportunities has selected for larger group size on both sides. The results provide insight into the role that kin selection plays in shaping inter-male cohesion which facilities the evolution of multilevel societies. These findings have implications for understanding human social evolution, as male–male bonds are a hallmark of small- and large-scale human societies.

Friendship through Fourteenth-Century Fissures: Dai Liang, Wu Sidao and Ding Henian

This essay analyzes one set of male bonds—the relationships between three men in the Yuan-Ming transition—to understand the range of meanings assigned to the practice of friendship in the fourteenth century. Through the exchange of writings, the three men constructed a friendship based on shared cultural ideas that was more valuable to them than the ethnic, regional, and political differences between them. At a time when the violence and disruptions associated with the Yuan-Ming transition and the lack of access to examinations and the civil service created a crisis in masculinity, these friendships allowed them to create a space where masculine values could be shared and expressed.