In gay bars and nightclubs across America, and in gay-oriented magazines and media, the buff, macho, white gay man is exalted as the ideal-the most attractive, the most wanted, and the most emulated type of man. For gay Asian American men, often viewed by their peers as submissive or too 'pretty,' being sidelined in the gay community is only the latest in a long line of racially-motivated offenses they face in the United States.Repeatedly marginalized by both the white-centric queer community that values a hyper-masculine sexuality and a homophobic Asian American community that often privileges masculine heterosexuality, gay Asian American men largely have been silenced and alienated in present-day culture and society. InGeisha of a Different Kind, C. Winter Han travels from West Coast Asian drag shows to the internationally sought-after Thaikathoey, or "ladyboy," to construct a theory of queerness that is inclusive of the race and gender particularities of the gay Asian male experience in the United States.Through ethnographic observation of queer Asian American communities and Asian American drag shows, interviews with gay Asian American men, and a reading of current media and popular culture depictions of Asian Americans, Han argues that gay Asian American men, used to gender privilege within their own communities, must grapple with the idea that, as Asians, they have historically been feminized as a result of Western domination and colonization, and as a result, they are minorities within the gay community, which is itself marginalized within the overall American society. Han also shows that many Asian American gay men can turn their unusual position in the gay and Asian American communities into a positive identity. In their own conception of self, their Asian heritage and sexuality makes these men unique, special, and, in the case of Asian American drag queens, much more able to convey a convincing erotic femininity. Challenging stereotypes about beauty, nativity, and desirability,Geisha of a Different Kind makes a major intervention in the study of race and sexuality in America.
Industry Reviews
"Governed through Choice is a sophisticated but accessible analysis of the governance of women as reproductive subjects.Providing fresh readings of classic and contemporary political theory while engaging the contemporary politics of reproductive rights, Denbow argues that the political ideal of autonomy defies and justifies the regulation of womens bodies in a variety of sites.This text is a timely reflection on the continued political centrality of women's bodies." -- Claire Rasmussen,author of The Autonomous Animal: Self-Governance and Modern Subjectivity
"This book brilliantly theorizes two faces of autonomy in contemporary liberal democraciesautonomy as a technique of self-management and governance, and autonomy as a frame for critique and transformation of subordinating practices. Without ever denying the selfs constructed and relational dimensions, Jennifer Denbow argues compellingly for an individual womens essential control over her own reproductive existence.One of the best books on reproductive politics in a decade!" -- Wendy Brown,author of Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Empire and Identity
"Denbow provides a legal and philosophical analysis of reproductive politics in the US. She develops the concept of womens reproductive autonomy, drawing from classic definitions of autonomy by Rousseau and Kant." * Choice *
"[Denbow's] poignant critique of governments & coercive paternalism with respect to womens reproductive choices introduces a transformative potential of radical thought at the crux of her thought." * New Political Science *
"The book is able to make a bold intervention into current U.S. discourses of reproductive politics and at the same time provoke feminists to ask what is left of the concept of autonomy in the era of neoliberalism and postfeminism" * Perspectives on Politics *
"Governed through Choice brings new perspective to the changing political landscape of womens reproductive rights." * PsycCRITIQUES *
