Castration was outlawed, but the law was poorly enforced, and young boys were often castrated before or after puberty. Eunuchs (castrated boys and men) were traded as slaves, both imported to and exported from the empire. The scholar Kathryn Ringrose says they "represented a distinct gender category, one that was defined by dress, assumed sexual behavior, work, physical appearance, quality of voice, and for some eunuchs, personal affect."[15]