1st Edition

Gender Ironies of Nationalism Sexing the Nation

Edited By Tamar Mayer Copyright 2000
    380 Pages
    by Routledge

    376 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book provides a unique social science reading on the construction of nation, gender and sexuality and on the interactions among them. It includes international case studies from Indonesia, Ireland, former Yugoslavia, Liberia, Sri Lanka, Australia, the USA, Turkey, China, India and the Caribbean.
    The contributors offer both the masculine and feminine perspective, exposing how nations are comprised of sexed bodies, and exploring the gender ironies of nationalism and how sexuality plays a key role in nation building and in sustaining national identity.
    The contributors conclude that control over access to the benefits of belonging to the nation is invariably gendered; nationalism becomes the language through which sexual control and repression is justified masculine prowess is expressed and exercised. Whilst it is men who claim the prerogatives of nation and nation building it is, for the most part, women who actually accept the obligation of nation and nation building.

    Chapter 1 Gender ironies of nationalism, Tamar Mayer; Chapter 2 Spectacular sexuality, Leslie K. Dwyer; Chapter 3 Death of a nation, Angela K. Martin; Chapter 4 Sexing the nation/desexing the body, Julie Mostov; Chapter 5 Uneasy images, Mary H. Moran; Chapter 6 “Am I a woman in these matters?”, Jeanne Marecek; Chapter 7 Native sex, Elizabeth A. Povinelli; Chapter 8 Kurdish nationalism in Turkey and the role of peasant Kurdish women, Cihan Ahmetbeyzade; Chapter 9 Calligraphy, gender and Chinese nationalism, Tamara Hamlish; Chapter 10 Men’s sexuality and women’s subordination in Indian nationalisms, Steve Derné; Chapter 11 Nationalism and Caribbean masculinity, Linden Lewis; Chapter 12 From zero to hero, Tamar Mayer; Chapter 13 Gender, sexuality and the military model of U.S. national community, Holly Allen; Chapter 14 Angry white men, Andrew Light, William Chaloupka;

    Biography

    Tamar Mayer is Professor of Geography at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont. USA.

    'Mayer, in her thought-provoking and well organized introduction, sets the tone for the volume as she argues that nation, gender and sexuality are all social constructions, and are profoundly embedded in each other.' - Cultural Geographies

    'This volume is a useful addition to understanding the intersection between nationalism, state, gender and sexuality in the context of specific national environments ... an important contribution and useful addition to the field of gender studies in nationalism.' - Zlatko Skrbis, University of Queensland