Orientalist Sociology and the Creation of Colonial Sexualities

In what Arjun Appadurai has dubbed the 'colonial imaginary' issues of femininity, and who possessed it, were of prime importance. An orientalizing sociology sought to distinguish, and indeed to fix, differences between metropolitan and indigenous women as a rhetoric of hierarchy which secu...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Feminist Review. - Palgrave Macmillan. - (2000), 65, Seite 5-21
1. Verfasser: Levine, Philippa (VerfasserIn)
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2000
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Feminist Review
Schlagworte:Race Sexuality Classification Taxonomy Political arithmetic Business Social sciences Political science Behavioral sciences Philosophy
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:In what Arjun Appadurai has dubbed the 'colonial imaginary' issues of femininity, and who possessed it, were of prime importance. An orientalizing sociology sought to distinguish, and indeed to fix, differences between metropolitan and indigenous women as a rhetoric of hierarchy which secured proper and western femininity to white women. One critical route which colonial commentators and authorities took to produce that knowledge was to measure women's proximity to the practice of prostitution, a means which permitted discussion and judgement of racialized sexualities as well as of proper models of feminine behaviour. This article will explore the ways in which the new sociology of the Victorian period, wielded in a colonial context, served to separate women through race-based ideas of sexual behaviour and sexual order. It will deal with British India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
ISSN:14664380