Global Divas

by Manalansan, Martin F., IV; Halberstam, Judith; Lowe, Lisa

• ISBN13: 9780822332176
• ISBN10: 0822332175
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

A vivid ethnography of the global and transnational dimensions of gay identity as lived by Filipino immigrants in New York City,Global Divaschallenges beliefs about the progressive development of a gay world and the eventual assimilation of all queer folks into gay modernity. Insisting that gay identity is not teleological but fraught with fissures, Martin Manalansan IV describes how Filipino gay immigrants, like many queers of color, are creating alternative paths to queer modernity and citizenship. He makes a compelling argument for the significance of diaspora and immigration as sites for investigating the complexities of gender, race, and sexuality.Manalansan locates diasporic, transnational, and global dimensions of gay and other queer identities within a framework of quotidian struggles ranging from everyday domesticity to public engagements with racialized and gendered images to life-threatening situations involving AIDS. He reveals the gritty, mundane, and often contradictory deeds and utterances of Filipino gay men as key elements of queer globalization and transnationalism. Through careful and sensitive analysis of these menrs"s lives and rituals, he demonstrates that transnational gay identity is not merely a consumable product or lifestyle, but rather a pivotal element in the multiple, shifting relationships that queer immigrants of color mobilize as they confront the tribulations of a changing world.

Author Biography

Martin F. Manalansan IV is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Preface,	vii
Introduction: Points of Departure,	1	(20)
1 The Borders between Bakla and Gay,	21	(24)
2 Speaking in Transit: Queer Language and Translated Lives,	45	(17)
3 "Out There": The Topography of Race and Desire in the Global City,	62	(27)
4 The Biyuti and Drama of Everyday Life,	89	(37)
5 "To Play with the World": The Pageantry of Identities,	126	(26)
6 Tita Aida: Intimate Geographies of Suffering,	152	(32)
Conclusion: Locating the Diasporic Deviant/Diva,	184	(9)
Notes,	193	(6)
An Elusive Glossary,	199	(6)
Works Cited,	205	(14)
Index,	219