(Un)Naturality and Chinese queer masculinities on Ailaibulai

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the discourses of desire featured on the online queer reality TV program Ailaibulai. The show aired on LeTV in 2016 and was co-produced by a Chinese corporation—Blue City—that targets queer groups. This paper illuminates the hierarchized masculinities and widespread effeminophobia that are represented on the show. My analysis suggests that the show’s participants use the discourse of (bu)ziran—“(un)naturality” in English—to distinguish and hierarchize masculinities through physicality, performance, and gender identification. Naturality is deemed a necessity for desirable masculinity, while perceived unnatural features marginalize participants’ masculinities. It also complicates the case by defining two types of unnaturality as the results of being damaged/polluted and being polished/elevated, respectively. Unnaturality as a result of polishing natural materials can nevertheless increase sexual capital, which can be achieved through men’s personal features such as a muscular physique. Additionally, this paper demonstrates how Chinese queer people contest certain types of white masculinity in the transnational context, because Ailaibulai participants only value a particular white masculinity.