Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation

by Tamar Mayer (Editor)

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.

Genres: Gender

376 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Tamar Mayer is the Robert R. Churchill Professor of Geosciences at Middlebury College, Vermont, where she is the director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. She is the editor or co-editor of five books that focus on various dimensions of international and global crises.

Reviews

[Mel]

2/16/17: Read "Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey and the Role of Kurdish Peasant Women."

[Scott Neigh]

Read partly but substantially for school. Lots of interesting stuff, though not really anything specific to Canada. Particularly appreciated the editor's introduction for laying out some useful ways of thinking about the nation, gender, and sexuality.