Both “Fire” and “The Great Mirror of Great Love” are erotic literature concerning same-sex love. “The Great Mirror of Great Love” is a compilation of forty short stories about love between boys, men, and women. The author Ihara Saikaku was the first eighteenth-century Japanese male writer in the history of Japan to depend entirely on his authorship. Therefore, his works were mostly erotic literature concerning boy streetwalkers and brothels following the age-old belief that sex sells. Alternatively, Deepa Mehta’s “Fire” is about two Indian women who are married in the traditional setting with their male partners but experience sexual attractions between themselves. Moreover, despite “Fire” and “The Great Mirror of Great Love” presenting the world where same-sex love is not taken seriously without secluding women in harems, they also give the vision of a world that the intergenerational love can be bought, sold, and even entered freely regardless of one’s belief.
The modern labels for sexual identity in America apply well to the characters in “Fire” and “The Great Mirror of Male Love.” The characters in question exhibit romantic attractions between one another some being to the opposite gender while others to the same sex. Same-sex love and attraction are abundantly evident in both stories. Men loved men both sexually and emotionally, and men also liked boys in the same fierce way leading to the conclusion that the samurais in the stories were indeed gay. Furthermore, whether the young boys were being exploited and paid or not, they had the right to decline such affection from other men. In the same way, the women in “Fire” also loved one another. Besides, both Sita and Radha do not refer to their relationship as “lesbian” and they perceive it as based on mutual attraction, but their actions show that they are lesbians. As noted by Medd (2012), Sita and Radha take up a sexual and romantic relationship with each other.
Despite same-sex love and relationships being present in the modern society, it is still heavily unaccepted by many. In Mehta’s “Fire,” the word “lesbian” does not exist at least that is according to Sita (Medd, 2012). It implies that the Indian culture does not condone lesbianism an act that Radha and Sita participated in. The story left an impact on the society’s ideas of sexual orientation as a major component of identity since it placed lesbianism in the household domain. Radha and Sita had sex in a place they were never supposed to, that being in their marital homes and their marital beds. Furthermore, the topics of lesbianism and feminism are controversial both in the contexts of religion and sexual. The two women, both named after goddesses are depicted as robust enough to go after what they believe in and leave behind their unsatisfactory marriages. In the end, the women end up victorious heroes in the story. “The Great Mirror of Male Love” displays an enormous amount of hate towards women. According to the author, women were only used for amusing retired old men, and they would never be worthy as the handsome young men (Ihara & Schalow, 1990).
In conclusion, love and sexuality are still a sensitive topic in the modern society. However, feminism still plays a significant role especially in “Fire” since it represents and questions heterosexuality as well as the gendered divisions of labor entailing the dull routines of Sita and Radha and the expectation that they bear with the unreasonable demands given to them. In “The Great Mirror of Male Love” women are also not valued since the author views them as not worthy of love. All in all, both stories present a society where same-sex love is acceptable, and the intergenerational love can be entered freely without secluding women in harems.
References
Ihara, S. & Schalow, P. (1990). The great mirror of male love. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Medd, J. (2012). The Cambridge Companion to Lesbian Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press.
