Talk: Eunuch
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I made an unconventional edit, which I would like to explain here. It is not like me to ever remove info from any article, but in this case I thought it clouded the issue. I removed the text:
- "Some people would regard a man that has undergone sexual reassignment surgery to be a eunuch, whilst others would regard them as being a transgender woman."
I replaced it with a "See also:" which links SRS. The reason being that if the article defines a eunuch as a "castrated human male," then this does not apply to a post-op transsexual woman...because, simply, she is not a male. In most areas there is now a legal method for reassignment of legal sex listing, and there is abundant medical evidence for citing a trans woman as female rather than male, especially since the effects of HRT cause these women to have very similar health concerns to genetically XX women. Simply, when one is speaking of eunuchs, it is hard to conceive of a circumstance where one has in mind a post-op trans woman who has been on years of female hormones, adopts a female gender role, and looks entirely female without an in-depth medical examination. It does not seem to add clarity to the article, but rather removes it.
I think that there is enough info on the history of eunuchs and the modern sub-culture of eunuchs within the body mod scene that this article is not really the best place to define what a male is and to debate the sex of intersexuals and transsexuals. Since I know that some might say my POV is not entirely neutral here, I thought I would make the edit, explain my reasoning and if some one disagrees, they may re-edit it as they wish. - Paige 19:19, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Did the eunuchs in China and in the Arabian harems have their penises removed too? AxelBoldt 01:32, 15 Jan 2004 (UTC)
- In China, yes. IIRC.
Does anyone have more information on this topic? I think it misses some things.
- Like, if a boy was made into an Eunuch before puberty, did they still develop sexual desires? The article states that eunuchs castrated after puberty could perform intercourse. Well how about castration before puberty.
- Maybe something of the cultural status of Eunuchs in the Middle Eastern harems.
- And about their different status in China?
- Were there Eunuchs in Western societies? Everybody knows about the stereotypical eunuch protecting the Harem of the Sultan and most people also know about the Eunuchs serving the Son of Heaven, the glorious Emperor of China.
- The effects of castration? The traditional view of them being overweight and having round contours.
- And everything I missed.
I am sure someone has a good book on this, or maybe has learned something in a history class. Maybe a doctor in the community with medical knowledge on the subject? Oh well, I would just like to learn a bit more about this subject. - magraggae 17:47, 14 Jul 2004 (GMT+1)
- In Western Europe weren't boys castrated to keep their singing voice? But of course they were not eunuchs in any sense.
- Oops, already in the article!
Preparation techniques?
IIRC, in China the severed parts were placed in a special jar (a kind of "Canopic jar" but for an external organ) to be preserved and, upon the eunuch's death, buried along with the rest of the body. IIRC.
Chinese eunuchs
It's interesting to see how the list of "famous Chinese eunuchs" describes them as "despotic", "infamous", power-grubbing, etc. I think some modern historians believe the official historians of the court (and intelligentsia in general) often maligned the eunuch class, with whom they struggled for power. So we perhaps get an exaggerated POV today. 4.250.48.238 22:41, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- For sure. Eunuch had acess to the emperor not just in the outer palace where the court sessions were held -- but they also could contact the emperor in the inner palace where all other men were forbidden to enter. That's a definite advantage that make the intelligentsia envious. In addition, there were seem as an abnormality that is neither yin or yang. Definitely some unpleasant anatgonism. But they did exerted immense power, sometimes abusing that great control as well. And not all eunuchs were vilified. Zheng He, for example, left much good reputation. --Menchi 00:00, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Eunuchs = Homosexual?
I remember seeing a site that claimed that most references to 'Eunuchs', especially in western classical culture, actually refer to homosexuals who were viewed as 'pre-castrated' because of their sexual preference. Is this a widespread viewpoint, or just a fringe theory?
