Conceptualizing Gender-Sexuality-State-Nation: An Introduction

There has been an insufficient body of literature focusing on the intersection of gender & the state or nation. This article introduces a special edition of Gender and Society that is focused on how the state, nation, gender, & sexuality are mutually constituted. The contributors to the edition utilize transnational feminist theory to examine Mapuche indigenous women in Chile; lesbis & tombois in Indonesia; Tamil & Sinhala women in Sri Lanka; European sex workers in colonial India; working-class, gay-identified men in the Philippines; & Indian women in South Africa. The authors outline what they term transnational feminist sociology, which seeks to bridge the cultural & the material, emphasis the importance of the state, explore linkages across cultural contexts, & prioritize empirical research. This introduction also explores four broad themes that serve to connect the six articles of this special edition, including universalizing discourses, the politics of visibility & invisibility, imaginings of state & nations, & contestations of citizenships. 106 References. D. Sabet