Introduction

This course will explore the globalization of Western models of sexual identity, especially homoerotic (gay, lesbian, and bisexual) identities.  After examining traditional ways in which same-sex desire is institutionalized (most frequently through frequently age- or gender-stratified models), we will discuss three “waves” of globalization: 1) between 1870 and 1970, a medico-legal model of normative  heterosexuality/abnormal homosexuality suppressed, displaced, or re-interpreted traditional articulations of same-sex desire in societies around the world; 2) between 1950 and 1990, a new normative, essentialist model of the “gay male” and the “lesbian” spread through activism, tourism, and the activities of an increasingly cosmopolitan gay middle class; and 3) since 1990, a non-essentialist “queer” model of transgressive sexuality.  This theoretical framework is, of course, extremely tentative and open to debate. Our approach will be decidedly interdisciplinary; although based in cultural studies, we will examine a variety of social objects, including professional anthropology and sociology, novels, movies, and some of the primary documents of queer theory and gay/lesbian activism.     

Textbooks

• Reinaldo Arenas, The Color of Summer (NYU, 2000).

• Evelyn Blackwood & Saskia Wieringa, Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures. Columbia UP, 1998.

• Peter Drucker, ed., Different Rainbows. Prowler/GMP, 2001.

• Peter Jackson, ed., Genders and Sexualities in Modern Thailand.  U. of Washington Press.

• Don Kulick, Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. U. of Chicago, 1998.

• Ruth Vanita, Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society. Routledge, 2001. 

• Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask (New Directions, 1972).

Course Requirements

3 research reports, 60% of final grade.  The reports should discuss same-sex or cross-sex desire, behavior, or identity within a specific geographic region. Reports must be at least three pages long, typed, doubled spaced, with pages stapled and numbered.  Complete sentences, an academic writing style, and a minimum of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors are required.  You may work with a partner on any report.  Link to Writing Guide

Choose any three geographic regions from following list:

A 15-20 page research paper (40% of the course grade), due on the last day of class. Several ungraded progress reports will be required during the semester.

Course Outline

Week #1:  Sexual Paradigms

The number of potential desires is practically infinite.  We can desire not only specific genders, but specific bodies, body parts, social objects, roles, situations, ideas, and environments, in endless combination.  We will begin the course by examining how these desires can be expressed as cognitions, behaviors, sites, and identities.

Read: Blackwood & Wieringa, “Sapphic Shadows” (Blackwood #2); Patel, “On Fire: Sexuality and its Incitements” (Vanita #15)

Week #2: Finding Sexuality: The Case of Melanesia

Early ethnographers, including Malinowski, Mead, and Geertz, all noted and commented upon same-sex behavior, but they often failed to make the logical leap to theorize same-sex desire.  We will explore attempts to dismiss same-sex desire as trivial, minimal, Westernized, or “ritualized,” especially in Melanesia and Oceania.

Read: Selection from Herdt, Gilbert, Guardians of the Flute (New York: Macmillan, 1981); Selection from Mead, Margaret, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928; reprint New York: Morrow, 1975); Morris, Robert, “Same Sex Friendship in Hawaiian Lore: Constructing the Canon." Pp. 71-103 in S. Murray, Oceanic Homosexualities (New York: Garland, 1992).

Suggested Background: Geertz, Clifford, Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author (Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1990); Hannerz, Ulf, Cultural Complexity (New York: Columbia U. Press, 1993); Van Maanen, John, Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1988); Kath Weston, Long Slow Burn: Sexuality and Social Science (New York: Routledge, 1998).

Week #3: East Asia

Traditional urban cultures in China, Japan, and Korea recognized, institutionalized, and even romanticized same-sex desire. However, in the wake of colonialism, China’s traditional models of same-sex desire have been almost entirely supplanted by the early 20^th century Western model of shameful abnormality.  We will attempt to explain why this model has been so popular in China, and why gay/lesbian activism has been less successful. A remarkable contrast to China, Japan has also lost its early models of same-sex desire, but today Western-style gay men are ubiquitous in comic books and children’s literature, in the movies, and on television.

Read: Hinch, Bret, “Peaches, Pillows, and Politics.” Pp. 15-33 in Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China. (Berkeley, CA: U. of California P, 1992); Leupp, Gary, “Social Tolerance,” Pp. 145-170 in Male Colors: the Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan. (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1995); Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask.

Suggested Background: Fairbank, John, China: A New History (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1998); Martinez, D. P., The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998); Reischauer, Edwin, Japan Today: Change and Continuity (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995).

Week #4: Southeast Asia 

Traditional third genders, sacred prostitutes, bayot, and others, co-exist in the states of Southeast Asia and their diaspora communities abroad with severe anti-gay agendas. Even Thailand,  is often praised as a mecca for Western gay tourists and Western gay identities, continues to marginalize same-sex desire through hegemonic Buddhist and medical discourses.

Read: Johnson, Mark.  "Transgender Men and Homosexuality in the Southern Philippines." South East Asia Research  3.1 (1995): 46-66; Evelyn Blackwood, “Tombois in Western Sumatra,” pp. 181-205 in Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices across Cultures (New York: Columbia UP, 1998); Whitam, Frederick L. "Baijot and the Callboy: Homosexual-Heterosexual Relations in the Philippines." Pp. 231-248 in S. Murray, ed., Oceanic Homosexualities.  (New York: Garland, 1992); Lyttleton, Chris.  “Framing Thai Sexuality in the Age of AIDS.” Australian Journal of Anthropology 6.3 (1995): 135-140; Thongthiraj, Took Took. “Toward a Struggle Against Invisibility: Love between Women in Thailand.” Amerasia Journal 20.1 (1994): 45-59.

Suggested Background: Bishop, Ryan, Night Market: Sexual Cultures and the Thai Economic Miracle (New York: Routledge, 1998); Wyatt, David, Thailand: A Short History (New Haven: Yale UP, 1986)

Week #5: India

Read: Selection from Kidwai, Saleem, Same-Sex Love in India (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000); Thadani, Gita, Selection from Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India. (New York: Cassell, 1996); Balasubrahmanyan, Vimal. "Gay Rights in India." Economic and Political Weekly 31.5 (1996): 257-258; Ratti, Rakesh. “Sexuality, Identity, and the Uses of History.”  Pp. 481-490 in R. Ratti, ed.,  A Lotus of Another Colour (Boston: Alyson, 1993); Selection from Kidwai, Saleem, Same-Sex Love in India (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000).

Suggested Background: Keay, John, India: A History (New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2000); Mehta, Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East (New York: Fawcett, 1991); Pury, Women, Desire, and the Body in Postcolonial India (New York: Routledge, 1999).

Week #6: The Middle East

Read: Abu Khalil, As'ad. "Gender Boundaries and Sexual Categories in the Arab World." Feminist Issues 15.1-2 (1997): 91-104; Murray, Stephen. "The Will Not to Know: Islamic Accommodations of Male Homosexuality."  Pp. 14-54 in S. Murray & W. Roscoe, eds., Islamic Homosexualities.  (New York: NYU Press, 1997); Daniel, Marc. "Arab Civilisation and Male Love." Pp. 59-65 in J. Goldberg, ed., Reclaiming Sodom (London: Routledge, 1994); Selection from Hayes, Jarrod, Queer Nations: Marginal Sexualities in theMaghreb (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2000); MacDonald, Gary B. 1992. “Among Syrian Men.”  Pp. 43-54 in A. Schmitt & J. Sofer, eds., Sexuality and Eroticism among Males in Muslim Societies.  New York: Haworth Press, 1992).

Suggested Background: Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (New York: Anchor, 1996); William Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East (Denver: Westview Press, 2000); Haddad, Yvonne, Islam, Gender, and Social Change (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997); Joseph, Suad, Intimate Selving in Arab Families (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1999)

Week #7: Subsaharan Africa

Prior to 1980 (and often through the 1990’s), ethnographers consistently re-interpreted African traditions according to Western homophobia, deleting the sex from same-sex marriages and depicting passion without “perversion.”The vehemently homophobic discourse in contemporary subsaharan Africa may be blamed on a combination of fundamentalist Christian and Muslim movements, postcolonialism, and the politics of poverty. South Africa is a sizeable exception, with constitutionally guaranteed gay rights.

Read: Teunis, Niels. "Homosexuality in Dakar: Is the Bed the Heart of the Sexual Subculture?" Journal of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Identity 1 (1996): 153-170; “Male Lesbians and Other Queer Notions in Hausa,” pp. 115-128, and “West African Homoeroticism,” pp. 129-148 in Murray, Stephen O., & Will Roscoe, eds., Boy-Wives and Female Husbands (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998); Desai, Gaurav. “Out in Africa.” Genders #25 (1997): 120-144; Rinaldi, Alfred. "Gay? We Don't Have That Here.” New Statesman 127 (1998):17; “When a Woman Loves a Woman in Lesotho: Love, Sex, and the (Western) Construction of Homophobia,” pp. 223-242 in 148 in Murray, Stephen O., & Will Roscoe, eds., Boy-Wives and Female Husbands (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998); Palmberg, Mai, “Emerging Visibility of Gays and Lesbians in South Africa” (Adam, pp. 266-292).

Suggested Background: Barber, Karen, Readings in African Popular Culture (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1997); Gibbs, James, Peoples of Africa (Waveland Press, 1988); Grosz-Ngate, Gendered Encounters (New York: Routledge, 1996); Moore, Sally, Anthropology and Africa (Charlottesville: U. Press of Virginia, 1994).

Week #8: Native North America

Over 100 Native American tribes had traditions of third and fourth sexes, “changing ones” or “two souled ones.”  How do these traditions affect the lives of gay and lesbian Native Americans today?   We will also discuss, briefly, other North American communities.   

Read: Callender, Charles, "The North American Berdache." Pp. 367-397 in P. Caplan, ed., The Cultural Construction of Sexuality (London: Routledge, 1987); Roscoe, Will, "Two Spirit People: Gay American Indians Today." Pp. 99-116 in Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America (New York: St. Martins Press, 1998); Allen, Paula Gunn. "Lesbians in American Indian Cultures."  Conditions 7 (1981): 67-87.

Suggested Background: Wilson, James, The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996).

Week #9: Mexico

Although geographically and culturally close to the United States, Mexico has been surprisingly resistant to the American gay/lesbian model.  

Read: Carrier, Joseph. "Sex Roles, Family Life, and Homosexuality: the Sociocultural Background." Pp. 3-22 in De Los Otros: Intimacy and Homosexuality Among Mexican Men. (New York: Columbia U. Press, 1995); Selection from Prieur, Annick, Mema’s House Mexico City: On Transvestites, Queens, and Machos (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1998); Evelyn Blackwood, “Sexual Preference, the Ugly Duckling of Feminist Demands: The Lesbian Movement in Mexico,” pp. 308-336 in Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices across Cultures (New York: Columbia UP, 1998).

Suggested Background: Chavez-Silverman, Susanna, Reading and Writing in the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American, and Spanish Culture (Madison: U. Press of Wisconsin, 2000);

Week #10: Cuba

With Cuban gay novelists such as Reinaldo Arenas so popular in the United States, it is not surprising that a vast literature exists on Cuban gay cultures, both before and after the Revolution. 

Read: Arguelles, Lourdes. 1989.  "Homosexuality, Homophobia and Revolution." Pp. 441-455 in M. Duberman et al., eds. Hidden From History. (New York: NAL, 1989); Coro, Barbara. "A Cuban Lesbian's Story." Chicago Gay Life (March 13, 1981): 17-19; Arenas, Reinaldo, The Color of Summer.

Suggested Background: Fernandez, Damien, Cuba and the  Politics of Passion (U. of Texas Press, 2000); Leonard, Thomas, Castro and the Cuban Revolution (Greenwood, 1999).

Week #11: South America

Catholicism and the rise of a Pentecostal minority have prohibited the formation of strong gay/lesbian communities in Spanish-speaking South America. In contrast, Brazil has developed a strong, multivariate community that has depended to a great extent on Western gay/lesbian activism.

Read: Lancaster, Roger. “Sexual Positions: Caveats and Second Thoughts on Categories.”  America 54.1 (1997): 1-16; Brown, Stephen, “Democracy and Sexual Difference: The Lesbian and Gay Movement in Argentina” (Adam, pp. 100-132); Green, James. “More Love and More Desire: The Building of a Brazilian Movement” (Adam, pp. 91-109); MacRae, Edward. “Homosexual Identities in Transitional Brazilian Politics.”  Pp. 185-203 in A. Escobar & S. Alvarez, eds., The Making of Social Movements in Latin America. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992); Mott, Luis. "The Gay Movement and Human Rights in Brazil." Pp. 221-230 in S. Murray, ed., Latin American Male Homosexualities. (Albuquerque: U. of New Mexico Press, 1995). 

Suggested Background: Dore, Elizabeth, Gender Politics in Latin America (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997); Page, Joseph, The Brazilians (Perseus Press, 1996); Paternostro, Sylvana, In the Land of God and Man: Confronting Our Sexual Culture (New York: Dutton, 1998); Skidmore, Thomas, Brazil: Five Centuries of Change (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999).

Week #12: Western Europe

How gay is Western Europe?  Although they are all presumably gay and Western, a comparison of British, Dutch, and Scandinavian homosexualities reveals vast differences in presumptions, organization, and lived experience.

Read: Plummer, Ken, “The Lesbian and Gay Movement in Britain” (Adam, pp. 133-157); Schuyf, Judith, & Andre Krouwel, “The Dutch Lesbian and Gay Movement” (Adam, pp. 158-183); Lofstrom, Jan, “Sketching a Framework for a History and Sociology of Homosexualities in Nordic Countries,” pp. 1-14 in Scandinavian Homosexualities (New York: Haworth, 1998).

Suggested Background: Fout, John C., Forbidden History: The State, Society, and the Regulation of Sexuality in Modern Europe (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1992); Murray, Jacqueline, Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in Premodern Europe (Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 1996).

Week #13: Eastern Europe and Russia

The nations of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union demonstrate an interesting juxtaposition of silence and activism, marginalization and assimilation.

Read: Long, Scott, “Gay and Lesbian Movements in Eastern Europe” (Adam, pp. 242-266) Selection from Tuller, David, Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1997).

Suggested Background: Barker, Adele, Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society Since Gorbachev (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1999);; Riordan, James, The Sexual Revolution in Russia (New York: Free Press, 1995).

Week #14: Theorizing a Global Gay Culture

Read: Read: Adam, Barry, et al., “Gay and Lesbian Movements Beyond Borders” (Adam, pp. 344-372).