Women's Sexualities and Masculinities in a Globalizing Asia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Globalization, Sexuality, and Silences: Women’s Sexualities and Masculinities in an Asian Context

   1. Globalization, Sexuality, and Silences: Women’s Sexualities and Masculinities in an Asian Context

      • Evelyn Blackwood, Saskia E. Wieringa

      Pages 1-20

3. Historical Legacies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

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   2. Chapter Two Silence, Sin, and the System: Women’s Same-Sex Practices in Japan

      • Saskia E. Wieringa

      Pages 23-45

   3. Desire and Deviance in Classical Indian Philosophy: A Study of Female Masculinity and Male Femininity in the Tamil Folk Legend Alliyarasanimalai

      • Kanchana Natarajan

      Pages 47-66

4. Conditional Subjectivities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67

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   2. Chapter Four The Spring That Flowers between Women

      • Abha Bhaiya

      Pages 69-76

   3. Performing Gender along the Lesbian Continuum: The Politics of Sexual Identity in the Seitô Society

      • Peichen Wu

      Pages 77-99

   4. “But no one has explained to me who I am now …”: “Trans” Self-Perceptions in Sri Lanka

      • Shermal Wijewardene

      Pages 101-116

5. Female Masculinities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 117-117

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   2. Gender Subjectivity: Dees and Toms in Thailand

      • Megan Sinnott

      Pages 119-138

   3. Hunting Down Love: Female Masculinities in Bugis South Sulawesi

      • Sharyn Graham Davies

      Pages 139-157

   4. Lesbian Masculinities: Identity and Body Construction among Tomboys in Hong Kong

      • Franco Lai

      Pages 159-179

   5. Transnational Sexualities in One Place: Indonesian Readings

      • Evelyn Blackwood

      Pages 181-199

6. Silencing and Modes of Invisibility

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 201-201

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   2. Flames of Fire: Expressions and Denial of Female Sexuality

      • Abha Bhaiya

      Pages 203-215

   3. Dying to Tell: Sexuality and Suicide in Imperial Japan

      • Jennifer Robertson

      Pages 217-241

   4. “She Has Come from the World of the Spirits …”: Life Stories of Working-Class Lesbian Women in Northern India

      • Maya Sharma

      Pages 243-264

7. Back Matter

   Pages 265-279

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Through detailed studies, this collection of writings by academics and activists explores the emergence of contemporary lesbian and butch/femme relationships and communities throughout Asia and their location within the context of nationalist struggles, religious fundamentalism, state gender regimes and global queer movements.

• female sex
• gender
• globalization
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• women

"An exciting collection that addresses persistent problems in social theory and activism. Is feminist analysis more perceptive than queer analysis in understanding Asian women's same-sex experiences? How does attention class alter how we understand globalization and identity? These essays, by anthropologists, historians and local activist scholars, encourage us to ask new questions and should be read by anyone interested in gender, sexuality and culture today." - Don Kulick, Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, New York University, author of Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes

• Indonesia

  Saskia E. Wieringa

• University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

  Saskia E. Wieringa

• Purdue University, USA

  Evelyn Blackwood

SASKIA E. WIERINGA is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Director of the International Women's Center and Archives in Amsterdam. She is the editor of Subversive Women: Women's Movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

EVELYN BLACKWOOD is Associate Professor in Anthropology and Women's Studies at Purdue University, USA, the author of Webs of Power: Women, Kin and Community in a Sumatran Village, and the co-editor of Female Desires: Same-sex Relations and Transgender Practices across Cultures.

ABHA BHAIYA is one of the founding members of Jagori, a feminist resource center founded in 1984 and based in Delhi, India. She is the co-editor of Female Desires: Same-sex Relations and Transgender Practices across Cultures.

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