LHMP #534 Leupp 2007 Capitalism and Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century Japan

I went into this article expecting there to be functionally no content on female homosexuality. I was only slightly wrong. The general context of the article is an assertion that the increasing visibility of (male) homosexuality in Japan as well as in Europe, China, and elsewhere have a common factor in the evolution of capitalism and the resulting “commodification of sexuality.” I’m not exactly convinced, but on the other hand, after reading the first couple paragraphs I started to skim to see whether there was any mention of women at all. In the last couple pages, we find “We know little about premodern and early modern female-female sexuality in Japan, although many scholars have asserted that lesbianism flourished in the Imperial and shogunal harems.” (The statement cites two sources, one another article by the same author and the other a publication in Japanese.) The author goes on to assert that, like male homosexuality, female-female relations in this era were “commodified” and consisted of female prostitutes who catered to women. Two fictional examples are provided involving prostitution or the sexual use of a maidservant by her female employer. There was a minor fashion for artwork depicting lesbian sex, usually involving a double-ended dildo. Although such art was intended for male consumption, there is evidence that such sex toys were not a mere fantasy. All in all I found this article rather unsatisfying and dismissive, though I will follow up on the other referenced publication.