darkmatter Journal » Editorial: Racism in the Closet – Interrogating Postcolonial Sexuality | darkmatter Journal

Editorial: Racism in the Closet – Interrogating Postcolonial Sexuality

Henriette Gunkel — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:00:08 +0000

In September 2007, the liberal German daily newspaper Süddeutsche published an article entitled ‘Migrant kids against Gays’.^[1] The article referred to the results of a study initiated by the German Lesbian and Gay Federation (LSVD), investigating attitudes among German students…

Loyal Repetitions of the Nation: Gay Assimilation and the ‘War on Terror’

Jin Haritaworn — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:59:24 +0000

Judith Butler is in town. The foyer of the London School of Economics is packed with a young giddy crowd. We arrive half an hour before the talk, too late to secure a seat, and are herded into a televised…

Muslim Women in France: Impossible Subjects?

Catherine Raissiguier — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:58:53 +0000

Introduction
Current discussions of immigration in France are saturated with sensational narratives about gender and sexuality. The wearing of Islamic scarves, polygamy, forced marriages, female genital cutting, and the sexual victimization of young Muslim women, for instance, receive intense and…

What’s So Civil About Marriage? The Racial Pedagogy of Same-Sex Marriage in Canada

Suzanne Lenon — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:57:19 +0000

In June 2005, the Canadian Parliament passed federal legislation that legally changed the definition of civil marriage to include same-sex couples. The successful passage of Bill C-38 followed various legal victories at provincial levels,^[1] and was the culmination of a…

Reading Interrelationality: The Racial Politics of Academic Research

Damien Riggs — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:56:51 +0000

In June 2007, and in the name of Indigenous children, then Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced that he would be moving military troops into the Northern Territory to combat the allegedly high rates of child abuse in remote Indigenous…

Queerness as Europeanness: Immigration, Orientialist Visions and Racialized Encounters in Israel/Palestine

Adi Kuntsman — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:55:18 +0000

Over the last 15 years more than a million people have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union, welcomed by the Israeli ‘Law of Return’ that grants immediate citizenship and financial support to all Jews and their family members.…

Miniskirts and Kangas: the Use of Culture in Constituting Postcolonial Sexuality

Nolwazi Mkhwanazi — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:54:54 +0000

On the 6th March 2006, South African Deputy President, Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty to raping a 31 year old family friend, Khwezi, at his home on the 2nd of November 2005. During the highly publicised trial that followed, Zuma…

Is’khathi – A Photo-biographical Project

Zanele Muholi — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:53:13 +0000

Zanele Muholi is a photographer and activist whose work explores issues of black women’s sexuality in post-apartheid South Africa. Muholi’s images raise issues such as hate crime, HIV/Aids, gender dissidence, performativity and passing. Muholi documents some of the key issues…

Q&A with Jasbir Puar [Interview]

Jasbir Puar — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:52:23 +0000

What is it about this particular historical moment that makes discourses of gay rights such an important resource for US/Western imperial projects? How do you account for the rapidity with which gay rights have been retrospectively mobilized as emblematic of Western freedoms?

The Empire of Love: Review of Elizabeth Povinelli

Silvia Posocco — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:51:46 +0000

A review of Povinelli, Elizabeth (2006) The Empire of Love: Toward a Theory of Intimacy, Genealogy and Carnality, Durham and London: Duke University Press.