The Strange Career of Gross Indecency: Race, Sex, and Law in Colonial Singapore

In 1938, the British enacted Section 377A of the Straits Settlements Penal Code, criminalizing male same-sex acts in Singapore. Although the law was neither the first nor only attempt to regulate same-sex activity, it represented a stark intensification in sexual policing. Yet, the reasons for the introduction of Section 377A remain elusive. New sources, including recently declassified documents, reveal that Section 377A intersected with the colonial state's wider project of social control. In the early 1930s, intensified policing of female prostitution inadvertently magnified the visibility of male prostitution in Singapore, just as homosexuality was emerging as a distinct conceptual category. Meanwhile, scandals about sexual liaisons between European officials and Asians men threatened British legitimacy. This “discovery” of homosexuality led the British to introduce Section 377A. As British troops arrived in Singapore in the late 1930s in response to Japanese expansionism in the Far East, concerns about blackmail, military discipline, and the colonial color line governed the enforcement of Section 377A. Between 1938 and 1941, the British disproportionately used Section 377A to punish Asian male prostitutes whom they thought had seduced European men. Secondarily, the British used the provision to deter European soldiers, sailors, and non-officials from exposing themselves to extortion. Seen in this light, Section 377A served as a response to changing configurations of race, class, and sexuality in colonial Singapore.

Feminist International Political Theory

Through what lenses is International Political Theory (IPT) generated, read, and understood? Feminists in IPT have focused on asking that question and, along with it, substantive questions about the shape and omission of IPT—where are the women in IPT? Where is the gender? How can IPT be seen as gender-neutral when it is almost entirely constituted of the musings of white, Western men? This chapter suggests that there is a long and rich history of feminist IPT which broadens not only the representation of women, gender, and sexuality in IPT but also the scope of IPT itself. Using the example of male prostitutes in the United States military to explore both conceptual range and applicability, this chapter looks to provide both an overview of the contributions of feminist IPT and suggestions for looking forward.

Who’s Renting These Boys? Wiktor Grodecki’s Czech Hustler Documentaries

As controls on sex, sexuality, and capitalism relaxed in the former Warsaw Pact countries after 1989, pornography and prostitution flourished. The main center of both industries in the 90s in Centra land Eastern Europe was Prague, which also became the favored destination of Westerners eager to explore the "new Paris."Gay porn and male prostitutes were among Prague's attractions. As the Westernmost outpost of the Slavic world, Prague had always had a special place in the Orientalist construct of Eastern Europe. West of Berlin and Vienna, Prague was nevertheless perceived as the East by its German-speaking neighbors. As I have shown elsewhere, conservatives in Eastern Europe regularly conflated sexual dissidence with political dissidence. Valentin Rasputin, for example, said of homosexuality, "That kind of contact between men is a foreign import. If they feel their rights are infringed they can always go and live in another country." A similar reaction to gay pornography and prostitution in Prague can be found in the films of Wiktor Grodecki. Wiktor Grodecki is a Pole who studied film in the US, then returned to Poland in 1992. His three films about Czech rent boys, Not Angels,but Angels (Andělé nejsou andělé 1994), Bodywithout Soul (Tělo bez duše1996), and Mandragora (1997) purport to be objective, honest documentaries in which (in the language of the video box) the boys'' "frankness and need to talk become the engine that drivesthe film." In reality, Grodecki's films are both highly manipulated and highly manipulative in ways that serve to enforce "normal" sexuality while demonizing various "abnormal" sexual practices. At the same time they portray these practices as an import from the colonizing capitalist West.