Evelyn Blackwood

Female Desires : Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures  by Evelyn Blackwood (Editor), Saskia E. Wieringa (Editor)

Evelyn Blackwood and Saskia Wieringa have compiled thirteen essays from a group of historians, sociologists, and anthropologists who discuss same-sex desire among women outside the West, exploring female eroticism in such societies and cultures as India, Polynesia, Latin America, Native North America, and southern Africa.  Female Desires offers compelling evidence against the commonly accepted notion that non-Western women are generally passive victims of male domination and compulsory heterosexuality. It also dispels the idea that same-sex female desire is rooted in Western neo-imperialist culture: contributors show non-Western women to be active agents of their own sexual identities. Essays include Giti Thadani on lesbian desire in ancient and modern India, Saskia Wieringa on butch-femme social types in Indonesia and Peru, and Norma Mogrovejo on the lesbian movement in Mexico.  In a larger sense, the essays attempt to look past the ethnocentric categories in which sexuality, identity, and culture are often considered.

Biography

I came out in San Francisco in the early 70s. Received my MA in anthropology from San Francisco State University, and my PhD from Stanford University.  I am now Associate Professor in the Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology and Women's Studies at Purdue University.

Organizations & Institutions

Purdue University

Fields of Study

Published Works

"Culture and women’s sexualities." Journal of Social Issues 56(2): 223-238, 2000.

Female Desires: Same-sex relations and transgender practices across cultures. Evelyn Blackwood and Saskia Wieringa, eds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

"Tombois in West Sumatra: Constructing masculinity and erotic desire." Cultural Anthropology 13(4):491-521, Nov., 1998.

"Native American genders and sexualities: Beyond anthropological models and misrepresentations." In Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas and Sabine Lang, eds., pp. 284-294. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

"Cross-cultural lesbian studies: Problems and possibilities." In The New Lesbian Studies: Into the Twenty-First Century. Bonnie Zimmerman and Toni McNaron, eds., pp. 194-200. New York: Feminist Press, 1996.

"Falling in love with an-other lesbian: Reflections on identity in fieldwork." In Taboo: Sex, Identity and Erotic Subjectivity in Anthropological Fieldwork. D. Kulick and M. Willson, eds. London: Routledge Press, 1995.

"Breaking the mirror: The construction of lesbianism and the anthropological discourse on homosexuality."  In The Many Faces of Homosexuality: Anthropology and Homosexual Behavior. E. Blackwood, ed. NY:  Harrington Park Press, 1986.

"Sexuality and gender in certain Native American tribes: The case of cross-gender females." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 10(1), 1984. [Note: cross-gender females refers to those who are properly called "two-spirit people" and used to be inappropriately called "berdache".]

Current Projects

I am planning further research on genders and sexualities in Indonesia, focusing on tombois and femmes in West Sumatra.  Part of this project will look at the transnational lesbian and gay movements, with reference to Indonesia and Southeast Asia more generally.

My colleague Saskia Wieringa and I are always interested in and encourage new work on lesbians/ female same-sex relations outside the white cultures of Europe and the US.  Please contact me if you have such a project going or under consideration.

In press. "Reading sexuality across cultures: Anthropology and theories of sexuality." In Out in Theory: The Emergence of Lesbian and Gay Anthropology. Ellen Lewin and William Leap, eds. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Scholars Index:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Authors Index | Websites | Legacy of Names |