Harem of Jewish slave traders to supply eunuchs to harems depended on whether they could acquire castrated males. European artists and writers envisioned and presented the Oriental harem in a romanticized, albeit historically inaccurate manner. The dark eunuch was held as the embodiment of the sensual tyranny that held sway in the fantasized Ottoman palace, for he had been "clipped" or "completely sheared" to make of him the "ultimate slave" for the supreme ruler. In the Ottoman court, white eunuchs, who were mostly brought from castration centers in Christian Europe and Circassia, were responsible for much of the palace administration, while
Man Is a Woman Man Is a Woman Man Is a Woman (French title: L'homme est une femme comme les autres) is a 1998 French film directed by Jean-Jacques Zilbermann. Simon Eskanazy is a thirty-year-old gay musician. Born into a Jewish family, he took great pains to accept his homosexuality, and to get his family (including his mother and his uncle, Salomon) to do the same. The latter, Uncle Salomon is a wealthy banker who offered him a deal: he'll give him 10 million francs and will bequeath his mansion to Simon only if Simon agrees to marry a woman. First reluctant, he met