%0 Journal Article
%T On Not to be Gay: Aversion therapy and transformation of the self in Postsocialist China
%A H Bao
%J Health, Culture and Society
%D 2012
%I University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
%R 10.5195/hcs.2012.103
%X In this article, through a critical reading of the published diaries written by gay ¡®patients¡¯ who received aversion therapy in south China in the 1990s, I examine how the transformation of subjectivities from gay to straight was made possible by such ¡®self-technologizing¡¯ practices as writing and communication. I also consider the centrality of the body and affect in the process of subject (trans)formation, and ask how a new, coherent and authentic ¡®self¡¯ was fabricated through bodily and affective experiences. This discussion not only reveals the social construction of the self as central to China¡¯s postsocialist governmentality, but also the central role that gender and sexuality play in processes of self-formation.
%U http://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/hcs/article/view/103