Evelyn Blackwood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834425
- eISBN:
- 9780824870461
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834425.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This book offers a compelling view of sexual and gender difference through the everyday lives of tombois and their girlfriends (“femmes”) in the city of Padang, West Sumatra. While likening ...
More
This book offers a compelling view of sexual and gender difference through the everyday lives of tombois and their girlfriends (“femmes”) in the city of Padang, West Sumatra. While likening themselves to heterosexual couples, tombois and femmes contest and blur dominant constructions of gender and heterosexuality. Tombois are masculine females who identify as men and desire women; their girlfriends view themselves as normal women who desire men. The book shows how these same-sex Indonesian couples negotiate transgressive identities and desires and how their experiences speak to the struggles and desires of sexual and gender minorities everywhere. It analyzes the complex and seemingly contradictory practices of tombois and their partners, demonstrating how they make sense of Islamic, transnational, and modern state discourses in ways that seem to align with normative gender and sexual categories while at the same time subverting them. The book reveals the complexity of tomboi masculinity, showing how tombois enact both masculine and feminine behaviors as they move between the anonymity and vulnerability of public spaces and the familiarity of family spaces. It demonstrates how nationally and globally circulating queer discourses are received and reinterpreted by tombois and femmes. Their identities are clearly both part of yet different than global gay models of sexuality. In contrast to the international LGBT model of “modern” sexualities, this work reveals a multiplicity of sexual and gender subjectivities in Indonesia, arguing for the importance of recognizing and validating this diversity in the global gay ecumene.Less
This book offers a compelling view of sexual and gender difference through the everyday lives of tombois and their girlfriends (“femmes”) in the city of Padang, West Sumatra. While likening themselves to heterosexual couples, tombois and femmes contest and blur dominant constructions of gender and heterosexuality. Tombois are masculine females who identify as men and desire women; their girlfriends view themselves as normal women who desire men. The book shows how these same-sex Indonesian couples negotiate transgressive identities and desires and how their experiences speak to the struggles and desires of sexual and gender minorities everywhere. It analyzes the complex and seemingly contradictory practices of tombois and their partners, demonstrating how they make sense of Islamic, transnational, and modern state discourses in ways that seem to align with normative gender and sexual categories while at the same time subverting them. The book reveals the complexity of tomboi masculinity, showing how tombois enact both masculine and feminine behaviors as they move between the anonymity and vulnerability of public spaces and the familiarity of family spaces. It demonstrates how nationally and globally circulating queer discourses are received and reinterpreted by tombois and femmes. Their identities are clearly both part of yet different than global gay models of sexuality. In contrast to the international LGBT model of “modern” sexualities, this work reveals a multiplicity of sexual and gender subjectivities in Indonesia, arguing for the importance of recognizing and validating this diversity in the global gay ecumene.
Evelyn Blackwood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834425
- eISBN:
- 9780824870461
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834425.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This book explores the discourses that circulate in the lives of Indonesian lesbians “tomboi” (derived from the English word “tomboy”), their practices, their social relations with kin and community, ...
More
This book explores the discourses that circulate in the lives of Indonesian lesbians “tomboi” (derived from the English word “tomboy”), their practices, their social relations with kin and community, and their linguistic strategies. Drawing on interviews with tombois who live primarily in the regional metropolis of Padang on the coast of West Sumatra, the book seeks to contextualize the rich and complex subjectivities they express. The respondents prefer to use gender-marked terms like “tomboi” for the masculine partners and “girlfriend” or “femme” for the feminine partners. This book examines the ways Indonesian lesbians claim, contest, rework, and blur the terms by which they define themselves. It also considers the processes and the moments through which tombois and their girlfriends take up particular subject positions in childhood and adulthood. Finally, it discusses the ways that nationally and globally circulating queer discourses are received and reinterpreted by both tombois and femmes.Less
This book explores the discourses that circulate in the lives of Indonesian lesbians “tomboi” (derived from the English word “tomboy”), their practices, their social relations with kin and community, and their linguistic strategies. Drawing on interviews with tombois who live primarily in the regional metropolis of Padang on the coast of West Sumatra, the book seeks to contextualize the rich and complex subjectivities they express. The respondents prefer to use gender-marked terms like “tomboi” for the masculine partners and “girlfriend” or “femme” for the feminine partners. This book examines the ways Indonesian lesbians claim, contest, rework, and blur the terms by which they define themselves. It also considers the processes and the moments through which tombois and their girlfriends take up particular subject positions in childhood and adulthood. Finally, it discusses the ways that nationally and globally circulating queer discourses are received and reinterpreted by both tombois and femmes.
Evelyn Blackwood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834425
- eISBN:
- 9780824870461
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834425.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines national and transnational queer discourses and especially their progressive narrative of the development of modern sexual identities. It considers how tombois and their ...
More
This chapter examines national and transnational queer discourses and especially their progressive narrative of the development of modern sexual identities. It considers how tombois and their girlfriends in Padang access global circuits of queer knowledge and view themselves as part of a global community, but differentiate themselves from the identities promoted and encouraged by lesbian activist organizations throughout Indonesia. It explores how lesbian activists in Jakarta and tombois and girlfriends in Padang intercept and selectively appropriate circuits of queer knowledge, focusing on the circulation and use of particular linguistic terms, phrases, and strategies. It also discusses the circulation and reception of queer knowledge by looking at the friction caused by the conflict in identitarian positions within and across communities. The chapter concludes by showing how asymmetries of reception give rise to queer subjectivities that are all part of the global queer ecumene.Less
This chapter examines national and transnational queer discourses and especially their progressive narrative of the development of modern sexual identities. It considers how tombois and their girlfriends in Padang access global circuits of queer knowledge and view themselves as part of a global community, but differentiate themselves from the identities promoted and encouraged by lesbian activist organizations throughout Indonesia. It explores how lesbian activists in Jakarta and tombois and girlfriends in Padang intercept and selectively appropriate circuits of queer knowledge, focusing on the circulation and use of particular linguistic terms, phrases, and strategies. It also discusses the circulation and reception of queer knowledge by looking at the friction caused by the conflict in identitarian positions within and across communities. The chapter concludes by showing how asymmetries of reception give rise to queer subjectivities that are all part of the global queer ecumene.
