Gender and Empire, edited by Phillipa Levine introduces the historical work of feminist scholars who re-examine colonial history through the lenses of gender and sexuality. This new perspective when applied to a deep history works concurrently to show how pre-existing gender ideologies impacted the building of global empires and how gender ideologies were formed in colonized spaces, such as India and Africa. In other words, Levine argues that not only do gender topics find a place in the history of the british empire, as it does in all social histories, but that a gendered perspective to explore this history is crucial to our understanding of the construction and core ideas surrounding this time period. Thus every history can be explored
…show more content…
The gender binaries that were imposed by british colonizers was deeply ingrained and supported by ideas of male masculinity and female femininity. As a result, this strict system, built on difference (‘rule of colonial difference’) produces a power structure that was easily fed into by imperialized spaces during expansion (50). For example, in her chapter, Catherine Hall articulates the intersection of race and gender as sociopolitical factors used to design a specific hierarchy. Hall notes that “gender-specific sexual sanctions and prohibitions were ways of marking power and prescribing the boundaries of race...In making despised or desired others, the colonizers made themselves; in demarcating black masculinity they enunciated white masculinity, in demarcating brown femininity, they elevated white femininity” (52). This complex power paradigm has had lasting effects that Urvashi Butalia sums up well in a later chapter of Levine’s compilation. Masculinity and femininity has been prescribed to different regions and demographics in different ways and upheld by “colonial policy” which “stressed control in a variety of forms” (155). In chapter 6, Levine uses examples of colonial policies covering sexuality and sex work to help emphasize the impact that colonial control over sexuality had on gaining power over colonized
The gender binaries that were imposed by british colonizers was deeply ingrained and supported by ideas of male masculinity and female femininity. As a result, this strict system, built on difference (‘rule of colonial difference’) produces a power structure that was easily fed into by imperialized spaces during expansion (50). For example, in her chapter, Catherine Hall articulates the intersection of race and gender as sociopolitical factors used to design a specific hierarchy. Hall notes that “gender-specific sexual sanctions and prohibitions were ways of marking power and prescribing the boundaries of race...In making despised or desired others, the colonizers made themselves; in demarcating black masculinity they enunciated white masculinity, in demarcating brown femininity, they elevated white femininity” (52). This complex power paradigm has had lasting effects that Urvashi Butalia sums up well in a later chapter of Levine’s compilation. Masculinity and femininity has been prescribed to different regions and demographics in different ways and upheld by “colonial policy” which “stressed control in a variety of forms” (155). In chapter 6, Levine uses examples of colonial policies covering sexuality and sex work to help emphasize the impact that colonial control over sexuality had on gaining power over colonized