Intimate Citizenships: Gender, Sexualities, Politics

This volume responds to the need to extend the theory of citizenship, in order to bridge the gap between the public and the private sphere. Through the application of intersectional methodology, the authors document how people’s most private decisions and practices are intertwined with public institutions and state policies. The stories of intimate citizenship included in this volume make the theoretical discussion more palpable. Situated perspectives, as well as application of theoretical concepts to lived experience, extend citizenship’s territory beyond the conventional public sphere and locate it at the intersection of many axes of social, political, and cultural stratification.

Elzbieta H. Oleksy is Professor of Humanities at University of Lódz and University of Warsaw in Poland. Her recent publications include: Gender and Citizenship in a Multicultural Context, ed. (Peter Lang, 2008), Men and Masculinities in Europe, co-author (Whiting & Birch Publishing, 2006).

Introduction: Citizenship Revisted Elzbieta H. Oleksy Part I: Gender Politics – Towards a New Vision of the Subject 1. Sexual Politics, Torture, and Secular Time Judith Butler 2. Post-Secular Feminist Ethics Rosi Braidotti 3. Return of Men’s Narratives and the Vicious Circle of Gender Play Marek Wojtaszek Part II: Negotiating Citizenship – Gender, Sexuality, Politics 4. (Trans)Forming Gender: Social Change and Transgender Citizenship Sally Hines 5. Blood, Water and the Politics of Biology: Examining the Primacy of Biological Kinship in Family Policy and (Step)Family Discourse Karin Lenke 6. Intimate Citizenship and the Right to Care: The Case of Breastfeeding Lisa Smyth 7. Gender, Sexuality and Nation – Here and Now: Reflections on the Gendered and Sexualized Aspects of Contemporary Polish Nationalism Agnieszka Graff 8. Defining Pornography, Defining Gender: Sexual Citizenship in the Discourse of Czech Sexology and Criminology Katerina Lišková 9. Lesbian Representation and Postcolonial Allegory Anikó Imre Part III: Men and Masculinities – New Identities, Emerging Subjectivities 10. Patriarchies, Transpatriarchies, and Intersectionalities Jeff Hearn 11. Changing Czech Masculinities? Beyond "Environment and Children Friendly" Men Iva Šmídová 12. Experiencing Masculinity: Between Crisis, Withdrawal, and Change Iwona Chmura-Rutkowska and Joanna Ostrouch 13. Bent Straights: Diversity and Flux among Heterosexual Men Michael Flood