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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: June 7, 2020 at 6:46:06 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Socialisms]: Filipovic on Brady and Seymour, 'From > Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: International Perspectives since 1789' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Sean Brady, Mark Seymour, eds. From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex > Marriage: International Perspectives since 1789. London Bloomsbury > Academic, 2019. 264 pp. $114.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-350-02392-5. > > Reviewed by Andrija Filipovic (Singidunum University, Belgrade) > Published on H-Socialisms (June, 2020) > Commissioned by Gary Roth > > Legislating Sexuality > > The book _From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: International > Perspectives since 1789_, edited by Sean Brady and Mark Seymour, is > the result of a conference held at Birkbeck College, University of > London. It contains sixteen texts with a foreword by Michael Kirby > and introduction by the editors. Essays focus primarily on countries > from the global North and West. The individual studies are > interesting, well argued, and of use to historians of sexuality. They > cover a wide range of topics, including decriminalization of same-sex > relations after the 1791 French Revolution, the future of marriage, > and alternative forms of equality between heterosexuals and gender- > and sexually-variant people. Essays also cover the late nineteenth > and early twentieth centuries in the United States, Great Britain, > and Australia, as well as the late twentieth-century issues connected > with same-sex relations in Great Britain, Australia, the Republic of > Ireland, the US, Spain, West Germany, and Italy. Nonetheless, there > are several large gaps in this volume, and instead of discussing > individual papers I will use this space to discuss them. > > The first issue is the focus on global North and West. There are no > texts about countries from the global South or East, other than > Australia, New Zealand, and Peru. Also lacking is a discussion of > central and east European countries, with their rich histories. The > experience of socialism and communism led in some of them to the > recognition of same-sex civil unions and marriages. Missing also is a > discussion of pre-World War II sexologists and how their work shaped > and still shapes the legal frameworks that are of interest to the > book's authors. There is only one essay on South America (dealing > with same-sex relations in Peru), even though other Central and South > American countries also legally recognize same-sex marriage today. > Perhaps all this can be explained by the fact that these essays > emanated from a conference, but nonetheless a few more essays would > help round out the global picture the volume aimed to paint. > > A second issue is the contradiction between the framework laid out in > the foreword and the framework of editors' introduction. More > precisely, there is a noticeable contradiction between Michael > Kirby's critique of what he terms "cultural relativism" (p. xii), and > the more nuanced argumentation in the introduction by Sean Brady and > Mark Seymour. Kirby writes from within the global LGBT (what he terms > SOGIE--sexual orientation and gender identity and expression) human > rights movement framework, which insists on transhistorical and > transcultural understandings of gender and sexual identities. He also > assumes a sort of teleological linear development from the erasure > and repression of sexual- and gender-variant people across times and > cultures to modern-day cultural and legal recognition. For Kirby, > full equality is discussed as access to marriage rights and the right > to adopt children. > > Sean Brady and Mark Seymour offer a more nuanced approach in their > introduction, "From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: Historical > Transformation," although one can question their assertion that "the > idea that sexual acts between members of the same sex were > 'unnatural' goes back to Antiquity" (p. 1). Nevertheless, Brady and > Seymour set the volume's essays within a broader discussion of > same-sex relations "poised between 'nature', religion, and state > regulation" (p. 1), and the ways in which these same-sex relations > are positioned within countries that changed their legal frameworks > from sodomy to recognizing some form of same-sex partnership. Brady > and Seymour are careful to note that this development is historically > contingent and that there are often conflicts between the legal and > the lived realities of same-sex relations, especially when it comes > to the forms of homonormativity in countries with a long history of > same-sex marriage. > > In conclusion, this volume offers interesting individual historical > studies, but what it lacks is a critically grounded theoretical > framework. The lack of guiding critical theory leads to tacit > acceptance of Western neoliberal norms under the guise of human > rights (the fight for marriage equality) in which other important > issues are left invisible. From the point of critical queer theory, > the human rights discourse of same-sex marriage is one element among > many in the overlapping systems of injustice that dehumanize queer, > undocumented, poor, nonbinary, trans, and people of color, the > proverbial one step forward that takes us two steps back. > > Citation: Andrija Filipovic. Review of Brady, Sean; Seymour, Mark, > eds., _From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: International > Perspectives since 1789_. H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews. June, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54686 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
