Flycatcher

In the Aguda Empire, a flycatcher was a person employed in a household ostensibly to catch flies and other pests. However, later on in history, their role became that of prestige symbol or sexual object, or even sex worker, to an extent that this supplanted their role as pest control. Flycatchers were generally young men, seen as having the fast reactions, dexterity and physical endurance to do the job.

Flycatchers were a symbol of a household's wealth, sophistication and taste, and much of their role was simply to be seen (or even just known about), by visitors, passers-by and other members of the household. They were appreciated for their looks both by their employers and guests, and might in some sense be regarded as living sculptures. By their character and appearance, flycatchers advertised their employers' aesthetic refinement or sexual preferences, even if they did not actually provide sexual services. They were also expected variously to actually catch flies and deal with other pests (such as mosquitoes, fleas, rodents), to help with errands around the household, to be entertaining for guests and household members (such as by conversation or physical feats), and to provide sexual services for members of the household and guests. Generally, even if expected to provide sex, flycatchers had considerable control over when, where and how. The roles of flycatchers varied considerably from household to household and from time to time, dependent on the particular negotiated relationship between them and their employers, especially as the coy fiction was maintained that they were primarily pest control employees. Flycatchers did not substitute for other relationships such as marriage, though some flycatchers ascended past that station.

Only the wealthy could afford flycatchers on a full-time basis, though the relationship between flycatchers and their employers was not necessarily commercial; the relationship would often take on elements of patronage, especially with regard to interpersonal and sexual relations, even as the flycatcher might be receiving a more regular pay as a household employee. Flycatchers who were in demand (for their appearance or wit) often leveraged such for material gain, and it was a part of the cultural conception of the flycatcher that they were flighty and shallow, moving between patrons quickly or working for multiple households at a time (though most were more or less attached to a single household, and a single head of a household generally only had one flycatcher). Some flycatchers attained celebrity status, but it was never considered a respectable occupation for the upper classes. Flycatchers were also considered their employers' friends, however, or at least to an extent more than other domestic staff.

In the late Aguda Empire and its aftermath, the phenomenon died out, as it was banned owing to Euclean colonial influence, which saw the practice variously as adulterous, immodest, unhygienic, disturbed or homosexual (the practice becoming particularly associated with male homosexuality, even though probably more patrons were female). Moreover, the gentry was the most numerous class with the means to employ flycatchers, but it was also the class that converted to Sotirianity most readily, further reducing the practice's prevalence. Flycatching faded from public consciousness from the 19th to the 20th century. A revival of academic interest has taken place in the 21st century.

History

Origin

Domestic staff or professionals have been employed to deal with pests for millennia in Dezevau, utilising a variety of methods not limited to manual catching, but including poisoning, traps, fumes, and screens or coverings for doors or windows. The distinctive phenomenon of flycatchers is believed to have originated in early Dabadonga (founded 1472), though some assert its descent from earlier practices from Gobobudi.

Flycatchers were a kind of conspicuous consumption for the well-to-do households establishing themselves in the new imperial capital, especially under circumstances where personal reputations were not as well-established as in older cities, and where the architecture of the city was in flux. The commercial prosperity of the early Aguda Empire influenced a hedonistic, indulgent ethos among its benefactors. Even before flycatchers became associated with sexuality, employing one was a sign that one appreciated one's personal comfort (in terms of not being bothered by pests even temporarily), that one was willing to pay for it, and that one had style and taste in doing so.

The density and magnitude of population and activity in the city may also have concentrated to a greater population of pests which needed to be dealt with, or climatic shifts may have resulted in the same. Moreover, some ornamental or temperature-regulating architectural features common in Dabadonga may have contributed to the presence of flying insects indoors, though this is largely speculative. It is clear, at any rate, that flycatchers only mainly dealt with the few pests that slipped through to be nuisances to those in the household, and were not responsible for public sanitation, sealing building entryways, food safety and such.

Popularisation and sexualisation

Over only a few decades, flycatchers came to be associated with sexuality, albeit more as a symbolic archetype at first. Contemporary commentators wrote that it was inevitable that such virile, flighty, visible young men should attract attention, and that they should respond positively. In the context of a cultural milieu that accepted or even celebrated casual sex, flycatchers found themselves in a prime position, given their relative idleness and especially given their free access around the household. Savvy and attractive flycatchers could also play into their desirability to earn more, even without necessarily any change in their duties.

To some extent, flycatchers assumed and exemplified the preexisting trend of liaisons between members of households and those they hired; flycatchers' rise could be tied to a possible decline in sexual relations between staff and household members, resulting from a trend of increased commercial and legal formality in the Aguda Empire. Even as they were formally employees, flycatchers came to occupy a medial social status between the household's staff and its members; this is reflected in some accounts where flycatchers regard the household's staff as their own to order around.

There are records of incidents and misunderstandings arising from confusion about the exact role of flycatchers. Sexual service was rarely if ever explicitly part of the terms of employment, but some patrons felt cheated or insulted where their advances were rejected by someone who had otherwise accepted employment under normal terms. Those who were employed purely to actually deal with pests took issue at times, but mostly the terminology changed, with the common term for them becoming "pest workers". It was especially relevant that children were employed as flycatchers originally because of their reactions, agility and idleness, but as the role was eroticised, it became unfashionable or even taboo to employ those who were too young. Children and others became pest workers, working more substantially to deal with pests in general, compared to the way in which flycatchers only dealt with the pests most immediately relevant to their patron's person. Pest control businesses and public works programmes came into being, further pushing flycatchers out of their traditional flycatching work. Pest control work was not limited to wealthy patrons, but was a business sector which was engaged by other businesses, poorer households, government, etc. By the 17th century, the connection between flycatchers and sexuality was paramount in the popular imagination, and pest work was altogether separate.

Under the Great Agudan Peace (beginning around 1563) flycatchers became fashionable throughout the empire, albeit mainly only in the provincial capitals where wealthy and urbane households congregated. Urban culture in provincial capitals took its lead from the capital, and it was the erotically charged notion of the flycatcher that was popularised therefrom. In some cities, in some periods, perhaps half of the households of the governing (bureaucratic) class had one or more flycatchers. The trend was more pronounced in core regions of the empire; in some less culturally integrated areas, the practice may have been seen with some distaste by locals. This kind of open and casual sexuality was impermissible according to Irfan, and Sotirian missionaries also noted the practice with considerable distaste (for reasons pertaining to purity, homosexuality, propriety, etc.), influencing the early Euclean discourse on Badi and the Aguda Empire.

Commercialisation

A variety of factors caused flycatching to converge with mainstream sex work in the middle to late Aguda Empire, though they remained distinctive and prominent in the cultural eye. One was the retreat of the upper classes from public life, with many opting for increased privacy and wealth over public ostentation and prestige. This reduced the role of flycatchers as advertising status or taste. Another was agricultural overpopulation, wealth inequality and urbanisation which produced a large number of unemployed or underemployed poor in the cities. The cheapening of both domestic and sex work made the traditionally flighty rapport between the flycatcher and the patron difficult to maintain, because of the increased power imbalance and the many people vying to replace a flycatcher. On the other hand, a burgeoning and ambitious mercantile middle class sought to obtain the traditional indicators of prestige; their demand promoted the commercialisation, regulation and marketisation of flycatching.

Flycatching evolved into more of a style or fashion of regular sex work. Where the flycatcher lived with the household or worked for them full-time (which was more expensive), the expectation was that they were more-or-less available for service on demand, though most of their time was still spent idly. Some flycatchers were now part-time, however, making house calls at particular times, working for different employers on different set days, or being contracted for a period of time (sometimes only for a period when their employer needed to keep up appearances). The language and cultural understanding of flycatchers as mobile and transient were utilised to shore up the legitimacy of this new commercial reality. Furthermore, some brothels adopted the aesthetics of flycatchers, or promoted themselves as being staffed by real flycatchers, but these institutions were seen as less tasteful, especially as they also did not integrate into the established traditions of brothels, such as its unique gender conventions. It should be noted that throughout this period, notwithstanding the lessened exceptionality of flycatchers, and outside of Irfanic or Sotirian regions, sex work continued to be generally normal, and essentially respectable if frivolous. It was a significant sector of economic activity in the cities, and it continued to retain religious significance in some contexts (though not for flycatchers).

Decline

Flycatching went into decline in the late Aguda Empire even before it was banned in xxxx. Conversion to Sotirianity, shifts in gender roles, new sexually transmitted diseases and perhaps simply changes in taste are the main factors usually identified as relevant, in combination with each other.

Eucleans assumed responsibility for many imperial functions, negotiating or coercing concessions from the ailing empire. They coopted the upper classes of the empire, with Sotirianity being both an important method and end of doing so. Part of the trend of conversion to Sotirianity among the gentry was reaction against the liberal sexual mores of the Aguda Empire, also incorporating attitudes which Irfan similarly held (with which many were familiar already, owing to the proximity of the empire to the Irfanic world). Euclean cultural influence backed up the actual legal power Eucleans sometimes achieved under the auspices of the Aguda Empire, to condemn sex work and promiscuity.

The Aguda Empire also saw a shift towards a patriarchal society and system of government, which saw male sex work as demeaning or strange, such that sex work became more dominated by women and non-binary gender minorities, who also became more economically disadvantaged in this period. This shift was subtle, and its nature, causes and extent are contested in the scholarship; some contend that its influence on sex work was much less significant than the regulatory provisions put in place by Saint Bermude's Company and other Euclean companies, which saw female sex work as a necessary evil and lucrative business opportunity, but male sex work as too far. Euclean Sotirian attitudes had a key hand in developments. In any case, it is clear that a historical situation where sex was commonly purchased by people of various genders from people of various genders shifted by the 19th century to one where overwhelmingly women and feminine non-binary minorities were providers, and most purchasers were men (including Euclean foreigners). As flycatching was broadly masculine, it was negatively affected by this shift.

Part of the reaction against Aguda sexual norms, furthermore, was driven by a surge in sexually transmitted disease, or disease which was perceived to be sexually transmitted. It is difficult to be sure what the actual epidemiological situation was historically, but possible factors for an actual surge include: a general surge in disease owing to population density, food shortages, people movement; the introduction of new diseases or strains of diseases from around the world, mainly by Eucleans (such as syphilis); and changes in sexual practices which facilitated infection, such as an increase in the popularity of penetrative as opposed to non-penetrative sex. Even if a surge in disease was only perceived, however, it drove changes in sexual culture, resulting in a decrease in the popularity of flycatchers, with more socially closed models of sex work (e.g. those similar to concubinage) gaining popularity instead. This is in spite of the fact that flycatchers already had much fewer partners than those at commercial brothels, and the fact that male homosexual sex was still more often non-penetrative.

Despite its decline from in its heyday, flycatching was still substantially practiced at the time that it was banned at the instigation of Gaullican power in xxxx (along with many other practices, under the aegis of criminalising homosexuality and restricting sex work). The laws often went unenforced or were circumvented (as it could be difficult to prove what exactly someone was hired for or what they had done in private), but enforcement, stigma and changing circumstances meant the decline continued to the point that the practice was extinct by the 20th century. The decline was so precipitous that by the late 19th century, the term "flycatcher" had made a limited comeback for the description of pest control workers.

Role

Hiring

The most common way for flycatchers to be hired (perhaps in common with domestic staff generally) was for them to present themselves at the entrance to the house, and to ask if there was work. The responsible person of the household would invite them in to see, or hire them on the spot if so pleased; it was also not uncommon to ask them to kill a fly on the street then and there to demonstrate their skills. This was an effective process because there were only so many households in a city able and willing to hire flycatchers, with such households being large and well-known. A base rate of pay was usually promised at hiring; though it was often not high, it came with the implied or express promise of bonuses or gifts for the relationship or status was to be cultivated thereafter.

Physique

While catching insects is not especially physically strenuous, and does not require muscle bulk, it does require some degree of fitness and agility. The physique that came to be associated with flycatchers was a lean, even wiry, mildly muscled medium build. Though most flycatchers were male, this was the case for female and non-binary flycatchers as well. A variety of heights were seen, though shorter was more common (for men; female flycatchers were generally average height).

Flycatchers were expected to maintain their physique to some extent from the time of hiring, which was mostly not a problem; their youth and job meant that they generally had fast metabolisms and periodic exercise. However, it was apparently a trend common enough to be written about that flycatchers would become flabbier, softer and lighter-skinned after securing a position at a good household, because of the time they spent idle and indoors, and because of their richer diets. This was objected to by some employers, especially where the change was extreme, but mostly it does not seem to have caused an issue; a softer physique was apparently even more attractive to many, and lighter skin was broadly considered more attractive and prestigious in the Aguda Empire.

A significant minority of flycatchers did not have the typical physique, however. This was often because of the personal predilections of their employers.

Appearance

The archetypal flycatcher had loose medium (shoulder) length hair, no facial hair, and light or no cosmetics.

Longer, loose hair was associated with freedom and health, though it would become troublesome if left too long. Perhaps the most popular style was the "lion's mane", whereby hair sat on the shoulders and framed the face. Short hair was also common because of its ease of maintenance and comfort in hot, humid weather.

Facial hair was not the fashion throughout most of the Aguda Empire, though most of the people of the empire were not phenotypically predisposed to grow significant facial hair in any case.

Makeup was used by some flycatchers, depending on personal preference. Eyeliner and skin-lightening creams or powders were the most commonly used, but lipstick and perfume were also known. Styles did not vary that much across gender.

Clothing was

See also

• Favourite
• Kagema

Bibliography

• Wu Cuncun. “The Plebification of Male-Love in Late-Jiao Fiction: The Forgotten Tales of Longyang.” In Changing Shangean Masculinities: From Imperial Pillars of State to Global Real Men, edited by Kam Louie, 72–89. Kintao: Kintao University Press, 2016. https://www.academia.edu/27721172/The_Plebification_of_Male_Love_in_Late_Ming_Fiction_The_Forgotten_Tales_of_Longyang.