Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Play and Gender Roles: The Aesthetic of Chinese Lesbian Domesticity
Xun Ril Li
ABSTRACT:
This paper explores the concept of play as an onto-epistemological framework through which fluid gender roles within Chinese lesbian relationships are negotiated and reimagined, with a focus on domesticity and creativity. Drawing from personal experiences of home renovation, I analyze how the playful process of transforming a physical space, serves as a form of aesthetic imagination, to challenge traditional gender binaries and cultural expectations within a postsocialist, postcolonial Chinese context. The home renovation is examined as a site where gender roles are fluidly distributed, with acts of creativity functioning as both practical and metaphorical tools for resisting normative power structures. By engaging with Winnicott’s Playing and Reality and theories of queer domesticity, this paper highlights how play mediates the relationship between interior psychological processes and external realities. Through the renovation process, queer futures are envisioned. This envisioning subverts rigid domestic roles and reshaping both space and identity. The paper contributes to discussions of queer subjectivity, domestic aesthetics, and the transformative power of play in defying heteronormative expectations in contemporary Chinese lesbian life.
keywords: queer domesticity, gender fluidity, onto-epistemology, queer futurity, aesthetic imagination