The (Charmed) Circle Game: Reflections on Sexual Hierarchy Through Multiple Sexual Relationships

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to capture the lived experience of eight men and women with multiple partners in Hong Kong. By investigating their ways of coping with social and moral pressures, the study aims to explore the tension between proper masculinity/femininity and personal desires which often result in the trespassing of what is socially defined as ‘good’, ‘normal’ and ‘natural’. Their selective appropriation of cultural norms and gender ideals offers a vantage point not only to recuperate a lived version of ‘Chinese’ sexuality, but also to re-visit Gayle Rubin’s concept of sexual hierarchy.