Aberrant sexualities: Others under the gaze of transnational documentary

Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346072093133
Author(s):  
Shehram Mokhtar
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Gender Variance ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Normative Ideals

This article examines the discourse of non-normative sexuality and gender variance in Pakistan produced through commissioned transnational documentaries. While the documentary apparatus is mobilized to make visible gender and sexual minorities in Pakistan, they deploy self-othering schema within which the other is defined in comparison to the Euro-American center and its politics of normative citizenship. Sexual practices and gender embodiments that do not match up to the normative ideals are deemed aberrant and rendered abject, while simultaneously Muslim cultures are metonymically linked with homophobia and oppression. I demonstrate through a close reading of three documentaries that the optics and modalities that they employ do not make intelligible the other and their relationalities but rather circumscribe them. I argue that the discourse is not constituted to empower but instead functions to subordinate, impoverish, and incapacitate the other.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Colm Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
The Third ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Sexual Part ◽  
The One ◽  
And Behavior

The introduction first sets out some preliminary definitions of sex, sexuality, and gender. It then turns from the sexual part of Sexual Identities to the identity part. A great deal of confusion results from failing to distinguish between identity in the sense of a category with which one identifies (categorial identity) and identity in the sense of a set of patterns that characterize one’s cognition, emotion, and behavior (practical identity). The second section gives a brief summary of this difference. The third and fourth sections sketch the relation of the book to social constructionism and queer theory, on the one hand, and evolutionary-cognitive approaches to sex, sexuality, and gender, on the other. The fifth section outlines the value of literature in not only illustrating, but advancing a research program in sex, sexuality, and gender identity. Finally, the introduction provides an overview of the chapters in this volume.

Queer Intersectionalities in Politics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marla Brettschneider
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender

Both the terms queer and intersectionality emerged in the United States during late 1980s. The queer world has particularly contributed to political thinking and activism in regard to sex, sexuality, and gender. Work on intersectionality has helped scholars and activists utilize paradigms of multiplicity and multiple sensitivities to marginalized people and experiences. Each term pushes the other to question hierarchies and elitist assumptions.

Sexuality and Gender

2009 ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Laura McClure
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
The Status ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Gender

In discussing sexual identity, this article focuses on specific issues in understanding how individuals could be constructed as sexual beings. The ancient Greeks themselves had no specific or overarching terms for either gender or sexuality, yet distinctions based on biological sex were deeply embedded in the linguistic, cognitive, political, and social structures of their society at all periods. Just as biological sex precedes sexuality in many accounts, so men were thought to come into being before women in Greek mythology. Meanwhile, the sexual practices of the ancient Greeks attracted the attention of scholars much earlier than questions about the status and position of Greek women.

scholarly journals Eating the Asian Other? Pedagogies of Food Multiculturalism in Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Flowers ◽  
Elaine Swan
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
White People ◽  
Home Building ◽  
Ethnic Food ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
And Gender ◽  
At Home

Public pedagogies in tourism and education in Australia suggest that food is a medium through which we learn more about each other’s cultures: in other words food is a pedagogy of multiculturalism. Drawing on a white Anglo Australian man’s memories of food in different intercultural encounters, this paper prises open the concept of eating the Other. There has been trenchant critique of food multiculturalism and the consuming cosmopolitan in Australia (Hage 1997; Probyn 2004; Duruz 2010). Thus, several writers critique the prevailing idea that eating ethnic food is a sign of cosmopolitanism, and even anti-racism, in individuals and cities in Australia (Hage 1997; Sheridan 2002; Duruz 2010). Hence, the notion of eating the Other has been taken up to discuss how ethnicity becomes an object of enrichment for white people through the eating of ethnic food in restaurants (Hage 1997) and cooking ethnic food at home (Heldke 2003). In this paper we present an ‘entangled’ story of Frank which includes white expatriate masculinity, multiculturalism with ethnics and what Heldke calls ‘colonial food adventuring’. Drawing on a close reading of Frank’s story, we argue that an evaluation of food multiculturalism needs to historicise, gender and racialise inter-cultural food encounters. Thus, we argue that there are ethnic food socialities other than those of home-building or restaurant multiculturalisms. We suggest that culturalist and political economy pedagogies of food multiculturalism could be augmented by one that attends to the production of whiteness and gender.

scholarly journals East and West in Zakia Khairhoum's the End of My Dangerous Secret

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Youssef EL KAIDI
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Cultural Reality ◽  
History Of Literature

Literature is an arena for cross-cultural representation par excellence. It is in the literature that images produce an awareness of the Self and Other, and of the Here and the Elsewhere, however small that awareness maybe. The accounts of many canonical literary figures in the history of literature featured portrayals and descriptions of radically different people and customs, exotic lands, and far-off places where everything is outlandish and anomalous. Literary representation, therefore, plays a pivotal role in shaping perception, creating historical and textual monoliths, stereotypes, and essentialization about ethnic minorities, race, sexuality, and gender. This article investigates the politics of representation of the Self and the Other in Zakia Khairhoum’s novel The End of My Dangerous Secret (Nihayat Sirri L’khatir, 2008) from a postcolonial feminist’s point of view. I argue that Khairhoum does not only shatter the foundations of patriarchy in the Arab world but also undermines and subverts Western colonial discourse and its claim of supremacy. The novel foregrounds a different pattern of representation that has not yet been sufficiently investigated, which is the denigration of both the Self and the Other and the quest for a third cultural reality that is defined in terms of gender equality, justice, human rights and democracy.

scholarly journals Pro Domo Sua: Narratives of Sexual Abstinence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Indìo Massimo Poppi
Keyword(s):  
Unwanted Pregnancy ◽  
Work Productivity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Sexual Abstinence ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Women's Narratives ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
Aids Risk ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Sexual abstinence is generally interpreted as a health-promotion practice, in particular to avoid HIV/AIDS risk and unwanted pregnancy and parenthood. This paper offers insight into narratives and interactional fantasizing that challenge common conceptions of sexual abstinence. The data come from several interviews and group discussions conducted in a netnographic context, altogether involving 21 European, middle‐ and upper‐middle‐class women who have never engaged in sexual intercourse or who are sexually experienced but have discontinued sexual practices for some reason. The women’s narratives and interactional fantasizing about sexual abstinence can reveal positive societal effects such as opposing sexualisation of culture and pressure for sex, but also more individual perspectives such as promoting self-esteem, psycho-physical well-being, work productivity and career prospects. Narratives and interactional fantasizing seem to play an important role in examining how sexual abstinence can impact society, especially people’s perception of sexuality and gender roles.

Prison same-sex sexualities in the context of politicized homophobia in Malawi

Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Ashley Currier
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Gender Variance ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Sexual Diversity ◽  
African Nation ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Newspaper Articles

Prison same-sex sexualities have largely gone unnoticed in Malawi, an African nation associated with politicized homophobia. The term ‘politicized homophobia’ refers to political elites’ public hostility toward same-sex sexualities, gender variance, and gender and sexual diversity activism. In a context typified by scrutiny of same-sex sexualities, it is surprising that certain same-sex sexual practices, specifically prison same-sex sexualities, escaped rebuke and attention in news media, which play an important role in circulating discourses of politicized homophobia in contemporary African nations. Using the case of prison sex in Malawi, this article asserts that politicized homophobia has verifiable limits because not all negative discourses about same-sex sexualities agglomerate into politicized homophobia. The essay draws on an analysis of 109 Malawian newspaper articles published between 1995 and 2016 that mention prison sex.

scholarly journals Sex and Marriage in Machiavelli’s Mandragola: A Close(t) Reading

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Konrad Eisenbichler
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Sexual Desire ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Désir Sexuel ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Sexual Interests

This article carries out a close reading of Niccolò Machiavelli’s play Mandragola (The mandrake root) from the perspective of sex and gender studies. In so doing, it takes into consideration what the play says or suggests about sexual desire, sexual practices, and conjugal life. This somewhat less conventional examination reveals that, under cover of entertainment and humour, Machiavelli was raising important questions about contemporary marriage conventions and sexual practices that ranged from the difference in age between the spouses to the difference in their sexual interests, from a couple’s desire for progeny to the partners’ (un)willingness to pay the marriage debt, from the matter of a man’s “honour” to the question of a woman’s “worth.” Cet article propose une lecture approfondie de la pièce de théâtre Mandragola (La Mandragore) de Nicolas Machiavel du point de vue du sexe et des études de genre. On y considère ce que cette pièce exprime ou suggère à propos du désir sexuel, des pratiques sexuelles et de la vie conjugale. Cette approche quelque peu non conventionnelle fait apparaître que Machiavel, sous les apparences du divertissement et de l’humour, y soulève d’importantes questions quant aux conventions de mariage et aux pratiques sexuelles de son époque, depuis la différence d’âge entre les conjoints jusqu’à leurs différences d’intérêt sexuel, en passant par le désir de procréer et le consentement à payer la dette de mariage, ainsi que par le sujet de « l’honneur » de l’homme et les interrogations sur la « valeur » de la femme.

scholarly journals “Now I feel ‘truly’ like me!”: a discourse analysis of the ways ‘the gaze’ functions in two children's picture books featuring transgender and gender variant characters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Farley
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Gender Variance ◽  
Gender Transition ◽  
Gender Variant ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Children's Picture Books ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
And Gender

Drawing on transgender, queer and feminist theoretical perspectives, I critically analyze two children’s picture books featuring transgender and gender variant characters. With these critical theoretical perspectives in mind, this discourse analysis examines the ways the books, both visually and textually, depict gender embodiment and the experiences of the characters. Using questions derived from these theoretical lenses, I analyze concepts of power, normalcy, difference, the gender binary, gender fluidity, intelligibility and unintelligibility. These concepts contribute to the dominant discourse of ‘the gaze’, seen in varying ways in the books. Children’s story books largely underrepresent the experiences of transgender characters, particularly books outlining, and explaining, a social gender transition. The majority of picture books with LGBTQ+ themes focus on same sex families and feature boys in dresses, thus centralize around disrupting the constraints of masculinity. I conclude this paper with recommendations for selecting, reading, and discussing books with transgender and gender variant protagonists. The central themes outlined in the academic literature illustrate that ‘the gaze’ and regulation of knowledge have a significant impact on what is visible in children’s books. This may ultimately affect children’s understanding, and appreciation, of gender variance and, hence, social gender transitions in early childhood.

scholarly journals “Now I feel ‘truly’ like me!”: a discourse analysis of the ways ‘the gaze’ functions in two children's picture books featuring transgender and gender variant characters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Farley
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Gender Variance ◽  
Gender Transition ◽  
Gender Variant ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Children's Picture Books ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
And Gender

Drawing on transgender, queer and feminist theoretical perspectives, I critically analyze two children’s picture books featuring transgender and gender variant characters. With these critical theoretical perspectives in mind, this discourse analysis examines the ways the books, both visually and textually, depict gender embodiment and the experiences of the characters. Using questions derived from these theoretical lenses, I analyze concepts of power, normalcy, difference, the gender binary, gender fluidity, intelligibility and unintelligibility. These concepts contribute to the dominant discourse of ‘the gaze’, seen in varying ways in the books. Children’s story books largely underrepresent the experiences of transgender characters, particularly books outlining, and explaining, a social gender transition. The majority of picture books with LGBTQ+ themes focus on same sex families and feature boys in dresses, thus centralize around disrupting the constraints of masculinity. I conclude this paper with recommendations for selecting, reading, and discussing books with transgender and gender variant protagonists. The central themes outlined in the academic literature illustrate that ‘the gaze’ and regulation of knowledge have a significant impact on what is visible in children’s books. This may ultimately affect children’s understanding, and appreciation, of gender variance and, hence, social gender transitions in early childhood.

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