Abstract

The Caribbean region has a long history of violence and conflict due to colonization and contemporary neocolonial policies and structures. The region’s political, economic, and social climate is overshadowed by activism that centers legal repeal of homophobic laws left intact by colonial powers. These movements have created a polarization between the mainstream groups seeking legal changes, and those who are denied and erased from these discourses. This article is an examination of lesbian, bisexual, queer and gay women of mixed-race middle-class status in the city of Georgetown, Guyana as they negotiate racialized heteropatriarchal violence, a space that offers a unique place in which to understand how different queer subjects experience violence within Guyana. This article examines a set of interrelated questions: In what ways do women who love women perceive their gender performances? In what ways is femme-ness embodied to resist violence and yet is a site of violence? The analysis reveals the ways in which women embody a strategic femme-ness in a political, racial, class, and gender hierarchical society. As the country becomes increasingly incorporated into a global queer culture, divisions within the queer community are further sharpened, with racial, class, sexual, gender, and regional boundaries shifting and forging new lived realities for queer subjects.

抽象的

由于殖民化和当代新殖民主义政策与结构，加勒比地区具有悠久的暴力与冲突历史。该地区的政治，经济和社会气候被行动主义所笼罩，该运动以法律废除殖民大国留下的完整的同性恋法律为中心。这些运动在寻求法律变革的主流群体与被这些话语否认和抹杀的群体之间造成了两极分化。本文是对圭亚那乔治敦市混合种族中产阶级身份的女同性恋，双性恋，酷儿和男同性恋者的调查，因为他们正在谈判种族化的异族家长制暴力行为，在这个空间中，人们可以独特地了解不同寻常的酷儿癖者主体在圭亚那经历了暴力。本文研究了一系列相互关联的问题：爱女人的女人如何看待自己的性别表现？女性化体现在什么方面来抵抗暴力，但暴力场所又在哪里呢？该分析揭示了女性体现自我的方式。政治，种族，阶级和性别等级制社会中的战略女性。随着该国越来越多地融入全球酷儿文化，酷儿社区中的分歧进一步加剧，种族，阶级，性别，性别和地区边界发生变化，并为酷儿主题创造了新的现实生活。