The allure of a eunuch - fantastical?

Shuki Bolkiah - modern-day eunuch.

From boy of the slums to Oxford Graduate. This is the story of Shuki Bolkiah, modern day eunuch.

"Not a Man' is set in an unnamed country of Arabia. Shuki is aged ten, and a 'bed-boy.' His master wants his beautiful boy to stay beautiful, so arranges for him to have 'a small operation.' This traumatic event changed forever the life of a clever, determined boy.

Shuki learns to manipulate his master. He learns to read and write, he gets his master into the habit of giving him large sums of money, and he makes friends with the master's sons.

Shuki becomes more beautiful with every passing year. His master becomes more possessive, more jealous, and Shuki is guarded. When his master takes him to England, he escapes and starts a new life with the money he's saved. He is fifteen.

'Not a Man' has gained very positive reviews since its release in late 2011. But quite a few of those reviews do contain the criticism that the idea of a eunuch being so irresistably alluring is unlikely or even 'fantastical.'

This book won a position on the 'Editors' Desk' on Authonomy, and therefore was given a review by a Harper Collins Editor.

And while it says,  'as a hero, he is fantastic, evoking not only sympathy, but aspiration and reverence,' it also suggests that I look at the issue of Shuki’s magnetism.

'I am aware of traditional representation of eunuchs as being almost uncannily tempting, and I think you do a good job in creating a hero who is eerily irresistible to the reader. However, I felt that you slightly hyperbolised his allure. I am not convinced that he is so attractive that no man can resist him, nor that men would be pushed against all past instincts to consider or commit acts of violent sexual abuse.'

Other reviews have mentioned the same thing, sometimes critically, and sometimes simply 'by the way.'

'While Shuki sounds most tempting,  it is not quite believable that every single man would find him attractive.'

and  another one - 'it simply isn't believable that Shuki was universally desired by every single man who set eyes on him, regardless of their normal desire for women.'

And 'highly fantastical.'

I can't speak to any realism about the portrayal of either Arab or Oxford cultures, but I will say that I was very content to read this as a novel of epic fantasy. This novel has some highly fantastical elements - which I've become aware of more in hindsight than while I was reading - including how nearly every male who encounters Shuki immediately wants to rape him, and that so many of his "friends" would be willing to betray him without regard to either his humanity or their own.
But this is Shuki's truth, whether merely perceived or real, and I did not question it as I followed the story to its end.

(Note that I'd take issue with the above in that many males who encounter Shuki might want him in bed, but most do not think of rape.)


But highly fantastical?



Set in the faraway and distant Atlas Mountains of North Africa
are the stories of a eunuch - Shuki Bolkiah.

I can point to traditonal depictions of eunuchs as very desirable, and I can point out that it is not true that every man wants him. In regard to the Oxford incident, I can show how  it began as a game or a friendly competition, the idea of taking turns in trying to seduce him. I can show how it worked to make them want him more, even those who hadn't previously thought of  being attracted to him.  And it ended in tragedy.

And I can speak of the theory of Ben, (Shuki's best friend)  that because Shuki did not smell like a man (pheromones)  that maybe men did not get that subconcscious cue that this was a man and not a suitable target for mating. 

But when it comes down to it - yes. The idea that a person can be so universally alluring is fantasy.

To me, it is not important. For most of my readers, it is not important. While over 75% of my reviews are 5-star, I am not going to worry about the less likely aspects of the allure of Shuki, eunuch.

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It may be long but it doesn't seem that way at all and I flew through each page and I feel more in love with the sweet, remarkable Shuki to more I read. I was hooked, intrigued and drawn in from the first page of this story.

I am sure you have created a seminal work that will inform and enlighten, not only scholars and sociologists concerned in combating sexual and gender slavery but the discerning general reader.

I guarantee you will never forget Shuki. He will be with you long after you click past the last page.   

But actually, if it had been about a woman - the fictional Angelique, for instance, probably it would have  been accepted without a murmur of objection. This is because we're accustomed to having beautiful women spoken of as irresistable. Helen of Troy?  Cleopatra?

Here is another review for 'Not a Man'  

'Any woman reading this will respond on a purely emotional level. Because Shuki is in the same position as many woman have been, he's viewed as a sexual object. Not a person, an object.

Until this particular review, I hadn't considered this aspect - that most women go through a stage when they start to feel themselves as mere prey, the target of any man's lust. Some might relish it, but others feel themselves hunted. I thought I was writing about a fictional character, a male. But maybe there are indeed aspects of the experiences of a young woman, a too-beautiful young woman.

Buy from Smashwords, 

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Samray

or other online book retailers such as Amazon:

  

http://www.amazon.com/M.-A.-McRae/e/B008BYWRQ2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1340847276&sr=1-1

Characteristics of the true eunuch – research

Characteristics of the true eunuch –

the results of my research and my conclusions

Some years ago, I had my pet dog desexed. He sulked for a few days and then forgave me. What choice did he have? I started wondering how a boy would react in the same situation. And so was born Shuki, a half-starved child from the slums of a city in Arabia, who was taken by a rich man who changed his life. Shuki Bolkiah, clever, cunning and courageous, became the hero of two published books, and with a third and fourth on the way.

    ‘Not a Man’  and ‘The King’s Favourite’ 

are published and can be bought on several online sites.

It was not easy to find information on eunuchs – mostly because true eunuchs - that is, normal boys castrated before puberty - are very rare. This is as it should be. It would be a terrible thing to do to a young boy – a mutilation even worse than many African and Arabic cultures do to their unfortunate girls.

In any country with a decent health system, if a boy is castrated because of accident, disease, or abnormalities with his testicles, he would be treated with hormones in order to give him as normal a life as possible. They are therefore not true eunuchs. If there are any true eunuchs out there, they are not talking.

A side note: castration is removal of the testes. It is not necessary to touch the penis to make a eunuch, and those men who have had their penis removed for whatever reason, are not eunuchs unless there was also a castration.

But millions of animals are castrated every year, and humans are a part of the animal kingdom.

Owners of dogs are urged to castrate their male puppies in order to reduce possible aggression, eliminate embarrassing sexual behaviour, reduce the desire to stray and to reduce the numbers of unwanted puppies.

Male cats are routinely castrated. The normal behaviour of a tom cat includes marking his territory with an odour offensive to human noses, wandering in search of females, and mating and fighting behaviour tends to be not only noisy, but outside bedroom windows in the early hours of the morning.

Male pigs, cattle and sheep are routinely castrated unless wanted for breeding. It reduces aggression and it means that they grow fatter and more tender to eat. The meat of a bull, a ram or a boar is supposed to have a strong and unpleasant flavour, unsuitable for eating. 

Male horses are routinely castrated. It makes them more amenable to training, it reduces aggression, and it makes them less likely to be distracted by the scent of a mare. It is quite rare now that a stallion is used as a riding horse. For dressage however, such as the famous Spanish Riding School of Vienna, stallions are preferred for their greater muscularity.

If humans are like other animals, then castration before puberty would virtually eliminate sexual behaviour, it would reduce aggression, and the normal muscular development of a boy at puberty would not occur.

It would not make him more intelligent, though at times, he could certainly appear more intelligent, for instance at school when he takes notice of the work instead of the girlfriend.

It would not make him more attractive, except that the appearance of boyhood is preserved for longer.

What we do know about eunuchs.

The voice:

The pre-adolescent voice is preserved. This is not the voice of a woman or a girl, but something different. A boy sounds different from a girl, just not as different as a man sounds different from a woman. It is well known that in olden times, boys were often castrated in the hope that they would become famous singers or at least able to earn a living as a singer. The most well known are the Castrati of Italy, though it has occurred in other cultures and at other periods of history as well. It is rumoured that some present-day male singers make use of chemicals to try and preserve their soprano or tenor voices, and some choir boys are heart-broken when their voice breaks and they are no longer wanted in the choir.

Hair:

Eunuchs do not develop hair as mature men and women do. They are not hairless – children have a thin covering of body hair, just that the growth of hair on pubis and in armpits would not occur, and certainly not the facial and chest hair that men grow. In later life, they do not show male pattern baldness. 

Height: 

There is an opinion that a eunuch grows far taller than a normal man. Evidence for this is that there are old descriptions of Castrati being very tall. It is supposed to be because the places where growth occurs, especially in legs and arms, (the epiphyseal plates) do not seal over until later in life, so that the individual grows taller than normal.

But we can look at castrated dogs and cats and cattle. If they grow taller than usual, it is only by a small amount. I did find a note that a gelding was likely to be an inch or two taller than a stallion of the same blood, but I have not seen anything else. A picture of a Chinese eunuch shows him as a small man, neither tall nor fat.  

Build:

When a boy goes through puberty, his shoulders broaden, his genitals become bigger,  and he gets bigger as well as taller. His muscles develop and he becomes a lot heavier than a female.  There is a growth spurt – that is, a period when he grows very fast.

A eunuch? Maybe something between a boy and a girl. These are my conclusions – that he would remain looking like a child in some ways – hairless, without bulky muscles, there would be little growth of genitals and there would be a gradual increase in height and weight rather than the growth spurt that most boys experience.  

Pheromones:

In the reproductive years, both men and women smell different than they do in childhood and in old age. This is because of the pheromones that are produced by the body. Pheromones are all to do with sex. It is very likely that a eunuch would not produce pheromones as an entire male does, and so would have much less body odour.

Sex

Does a eunuch want sex? A male animal that is castrated late sometimes continues to show sexual behaviour – a gelding might mount a mare, for instance – it is sometimes referred to as being ‘studdy.’  A mature man who’s been castrated for medical reasons might still be able to make love with his wife, but more usually, he cannot and feels no desire to do so.

Animals that are castrated early do not appear to feel any sexual desire at all, but a human male knows about sex, could easily wish that he could indulge, and could look for it. Of the few eunuch books that I’ve read, at least half speak of eunuchs having very active sex lives – with men and with women, even taking an active role. Some say that eunuchs were greatly desired because they could last longer than a normal man and satisfy many women.

I feel this is extremely unlikely, and has more to do with fantasy than reality. If a true eunuch could achieve an erection, it would be likely to be neither very firm nor very long-lasting. And why would a eunuch bother trying if he does not have the need?

In my opinion, the books and short stories that have a eunuch as some sort of an untiring sex-machine are the product of fantasy, not reality.

Later life: Eunuchs are said to grow small breasts – gynecomastia, and are often obese. Testosterone is the male hormone. In the absence of that, there would naturally be a tendency to a more female shape, including the tendency to lay down fat. 

Attraction to men.

There are historical records of eunuchs being particularly desirable to both men and women – ‘a strange allure’ one source said. If a pretty boy is castrated for the purpose of sex as in some cultures, he might well be more alluring than a normal boy as he grows. There is also the fact that he would stay looking like a boy for longer, and some men are attracted to boys. But there is no evidence at all that a normal boy castrated before puberty would develop the kind of allure that I have described in my hero. This is pure fiction.

My stories: what I have used and what I have ignored.

 

For the most part, my hero, Shuki, shows the characteristics as described. He does not mature as a normal boy matures, his voice is not the voice of a man, and when in his twenties, he does show the characteristic of small breasts.

There is no growth spurt, but he grows taller gradually. He stays slim. A factor in that could be because he was half-starved as a small child, but also that he is very conscious that he could be prone to becoming fat, and so takes care to eat lightly and exercise daily.

I have shown Shuki as very attractive to men – even to men not normally homosexual, and not normally attracted to boys. In his home country, there is a tradition that has never quite died – that of having a boy for sex, a wife or wives for children. It is natural that men in this culture, seeing this beautiful boy, knowing of his role as bed-boy to the Master, would think of him as a sexual object and want him in that way.

Then he goes to England. There are still some men who find him attractive, but most do not. Most don’t even think of it.

He goes to Oxford, and lives with the score of men in ‘Laurence Hall.’ (fictional.) A couple of them try and seduce him. The idea spreads, and it becomes a sort of a competition, a game. More become interested. Shuki is attractive, certainly, but the rape that spells the end of his stay in Oxford and results in the death of his best friend, is because the men spent too much time thinking about him. It was not that he so irresistibly attractive – rather that they talked themselves into finding him irresistibly attractive.

Thus my books, ‘Not a Man,’ and ‘The King’s Favourite,’  plus the two yet to be published.

There will be four in the series.