Reading for gender

This essay serves to introduce the collection of articles in the present issue on the subject of the ‘History of Early Modern Masculinities’. It addresses the place of masculinity in early-modern historiography, highlights neglected areas of research, outlines methodological challenges and suggests new directions in the study of gender.     

Queering code/space: the co-production of socio-sexual codes and digital technologies

The mutual production of space by sexuality and technology has been differently addressed in the often-disparate disciplinary pursuits of queer geographies and critical studies of technology in geography. Building on Dodge and Kitchin’s ‘code/space,’ we highlight how studies of technology in geography are already concerned with questions of sexuality through the examination of biopolitics and the regulation of bodies, together with the (re-)establishment of new and old lines between the public and the private. The immanence of sexuality in code/space foregrounds the importance of spatial processes characterised by their difference and normativity in the geographies of technology. Queer geographies critically examine such different experiences and processes of differentiation through space in their nuanced conceptualisations of spatial regulation and transgression. We illustrate how these two bodies of geographical scholarship might be synthesised by outlining three approaches for studies of ‘queer code/space.’ To show how there are a variety of relationships between sexuality, code, and space, we play on the double entendre of ‘code’ as a set of social rules and norms, and ‘code’ as the set of algorithmic instructions underlying software systems. In both senses, codes constrain forms of intimate life, but can also transgress, disrupt, and distribute the norm. To queer code/space is to emphasise the complexities of difference and normativity in living with technologies, where technologies might both proliferate and regulate socio-spatial experience.     

A queer theory of software studies: software theories,queer studies

This introduction to the themed section ‘Queering Code/Space’ poses the question: what is the spatial relationship between technology and sexuality? We outline two overarching issues concerning technology and sexuality that lie outside of yet intersect with discussions in geographical scholarship. We then detail the characteristics of two largely distinct schools of thought – software studies and queer theory – to examine the tensions of and correspondence between these separate intellectual systems. We assess what might be productively found at the intersections of software studies and queer theory in terms of their respective epistemological approaches toward the topics of technology and sexuality. We briefly outline the effects the combination of software studies and queer theory have had on geography and what more they might have to offer. We conclude by providing an overview of the articles in the themed section.     

Sexualised productions of space

This themed section consists of articles that explore the intricate and complicated relationship between sexuality and space. The underlying premise is that space is never a homogenous, unified, neutral and a-priori entity that precedes subjects but emerges as the outcome of an ongoing production process which involves actors and material components. Heteropatriarchal understandings of space based on masculinist premises have largely ignored women and queer subjects who may subvert or alter normative spatial practices. The latter challenge established spatial typologies and their gendered associations, such as the house with women and the war zone with men. Furthermore, the practices of marginalized subjects point to alternative understandings of space based on fluid and porous boundaries between such dualities as materiality/representation, inside/outside and private/public. The contributors to this themed section analyze non-normative spatial practices by drawing from feminist and queer theories, postcolonial studies, architectural theory and geography. They focus on specific cases from a broad geographical span ranging from South Asia to Europe. Despite their different contextual foci, the following authors speak to each other by engaging in scholarship that resists disembodiment and by addressing the materiality of space as an arena of continuous production in relation to sexed bodies and sexualized identities. They all focus on strategies that counter hegemonic spatial practices and engage with the crucial question of how to think space differently.     

‘Protecting the national body’: regulating the practice and the place of prostitution in early republican Turkey

In the formative years of the Turkish Republic, the regulation of prostitution was geared toward biopolitical ends: safeguarding public health and eliminating syphilis. Viewing sexually transmitted diseases as a threat to the nation's population and economy, the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance played a crucial role in the identification and definition of prostitution as a public health risk. Out of this medicalized framing of the disease and of prostitution, the republic adopted legislative remedies for both. Prostitution was legislatively regulated to achieve comprehensive surveillance and policing – sometimes amid debate between state interests promoting regulation and those concerned with matters of morality. A modernist nation-state, otherwise characterized as progressive with regard to the status of women, instituted a regulatory regime to define appropriate sexual practices and places and mandate the licensing and medical examination of some of its most marginalized female citizens.     

Geographical practice in Mexico: the cultural geography project

Since Mexican geography was initiated, its practice has been closely related to the objectives and activities of the hegemonic regimes and ruling activities within the territory. A short passage through our history might clarify why we have not been able to avoid conservatism, illustrate how cultural geography has developed in recent years, and explain why Mexican geographers are so dependent on theory from abroad. Historically, just like in other territories, mapping and teaching were the main practices developed with different targets and different contexts, in the evolution of the country. Since colonization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, new discoveries and the display of new natural resources has demanded the knowledge and register of new places, especially on maps. This activity was primarily undertaken by foreigners: the Spaniards colonized and conquered new spaces and resources, seizing and exporting minerals like gold and silver, tropical products such as sugar cane, coffee and cacao, and animals such as the beaver (Wolf 1994).     

The ‘rights’ (and ‘wrongs’) of articulating race with sexuality: the conflicting nature of hegemonic legitimisation in South African queer politics

Much work has recently explored the remarkable legislative achievements that have benefited queer groups in South Africa. Less well understood has been an appreciation as to how the links between histories of racism and histories of sexuality deployed to legitimate such legal challenges may also have directly helped to entrench the ability of others to argue against queer rights. Drawing on the work of Stuart Hall, this article will explore how queer activist's association with an ideology of ‘equality’ (and the link between racism and sexuality-based discrimination) has not simply concluded discussion about the rights (or wrongs) of queer rights. Instead that association has helped align the issue of sexuality within a far broader debate as to what the ‘New South Africa’ should mean after a racist past. This may help us appreciate a so far little understood and yet key reason why homophobia remains such a pervasive problem in the country.     

Matters of Sex and Gender in F. J. Gall’s Organology: A Primary Approach

The originator of phrenology, F. J. Gall (1758–1828), saw himself as a natural scientist and physiologist. His approach consisted of brain anatomy but also of palpating skulls and inferring mental faculties. Unlike some of the philosophical principles underlying Gall’s work, his conception of sex/gender has not yet been examined in detail. In this article, I will focus on Gall’s treatment of men and women, his idea of sex differences, and how far an assumed existence of dichotomous sexes influenced his work. In examining his primary writings, I will argue that Gall held some contradictory views concerning the origin and manifestation of sex/gender characteristics, which were caused by the collision of his naturalistic ideas and internalized gender stereotypes. I will conclude that Gall did not aim at deducing or legitimizing sex/gender relations scientifically, but that he tried to express metaphysical reasons for a given social order in terms of functional brain mechanisms.     

The stories rocks can tell: Marie Stopes' evolutionary narratives of plant sex in New Brunswick's Fern Ledges

This article discusses British pioneer in birth control and palaeobotanist Marie Stopes' visit to Saint John New Brunswick's ‘Fern Ledges’ as an important historical episode for feminist geography. By considering the relationship between Stopes' inquiries into plant sex and human sex, this article explores feminist and queer studies' constructions of ‘natural’ bodies alongside environmental constructions of ‘natural’ environments. Stopes' work is useful in showing how early twentieth century plant-breeding and human sexual politics intersected through understanding sex as a perfectible technique for producing better bodies across plant, animal and human boundaries. This argument is developed along three significant sites that show how dynamic relationships between bodies and places are mutually constituted. The first site focuses on early twentieth century evolutionary thought which made it possible to conceive of linkages between plants and humans in their sexual lives. The second site is Stopes' experience of place in the ‘Fern Ledges’ through a palaeobotanical investigation of plants, which were read ‘backwards’ through human social categories of kinship, family, race and nation. The final site is an examination of Stopes' popular sex manuals as ecological texts that give specific attention to plant agency in shaping narratives of human sexual politics.     

To sexually perform or protect: masculine identity construction and perceptions of women's sexuality on a university campus in the Midwestern USA

Modern universities in the USA are places of recreation and leisure in addition to institutional spaces of education. Often characterized by alcohol-fueled socializing and sexualized interaction, university social life rivals the formal curriculum, and hooking up – or recreational sexual interaction outside of committed relationships – has become a defining feature. This article examines the spatiality of sexual and gender identities among heterosexual men at a 4-year residential university located in the Midwestern USA. Drawing on in-depth and focus group data, the article examines how men from contrasting peer cultures construct masculine identities in relation to casual sex and perceptions of women's sexuality. Particular attention is paid to how men negotiate senses of self in relation to the sexual practices, processes, and identities played out in the dominant party scene on campus.