Visualizing Gendered Attitudes toward Same-Sex Sexual Behavior in China over a Decade

Abstract

Scholars have documented increasing cooptation of the institution of heteronormative family by the Chinese state in recent years to maintain its authoritarian control. China’s marriage law and population policies, entrenching heteronormativity and rendering LGBTQ people invisible, define marriages as between women and men and promote “high-quality” childbearing only within such unions. Much public attention on LGBTQ issues in China has focused on closeted gay men marrying unsuspecting women, uncritically pitting LGBTQ rights against women’s rights in the narratives constructed. Against this backdrop, this project visualizes the gender dimension in Chinese public attitudes toward same-sex sexual behavior. Using all six waves of the China General Social Survey conducted in the 2010s, the visualization demonstrates an enduring intolerance toward same-sex sexual behavior among both Chinese men and women on one hand and illustrates the liberalizing effect of egalitarian gender role ideology on the other.