ABSTRACT Facing land grabs and eviction in the name of development, women worldwide increasingly join land rights struggles despite often deeply engrained images of female domesticity and conventional gender norms. Yet, the literature on female agency in the context of land struggles has remained largely underexplored. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, my findings suggest that land rights activism in Cambodia has undergone a gendered re-framing process. Reasoning that women use non-violent means of contestation and are less prone to violence from security personnel, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) push women affected by land grabs and eviction to the frontline of protests. Moreover, female activists are encouraged to publicly display emotions, such as the experienced pain behavior that sharply contrasts with Cambodian norms of feminine modesty. I critically question this women-to-the-front strategy and, drawing on Sara Ahmed’s politics of emotions approach, show the adverse risks for female activists. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the instrumentalization of female bodies and emotions in land rights protests perpetuate gender disparities instead of strengthening female agency in the Cambodian society and opening up political space for women.

中文翻译：

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土地斗争的阴暗面：柬埔寨女性激进主义和情绪抵抗的工具化

摘要 面对以发展为名的土地掠夺和驱逐，世界各地的妇女越来越多地加入土地权利斗争，尽管女性家庭生活和传统性别规范的形象往往根深蒂固。然而，关于土地斗争背景下女性能动性的文献在很大程度上仍未得到充分探索。基于广泛的民族志实地调查，我的发现表明柬埔寨的土地权利激进主义经历了性别化的重新框架过程。考虑到女性使用非暴力的方式进行抗争，并且不太容易受到安全人员的暴力，非政府组织 (NGO) 将受土地掠夺和驱逐影响的女性推到抗议的前线。此外，鼓励女性活动家公开表达情感，例如，经历的痛苦行为与柬埔寨女性谦虚的规范形成鲜明对比。我批判性地质疑这种女性到前线的策略，并借鉴 Sara Ahmed 的情绪政治方法，展示了女性活动家的不利风险。此外，我证明在土地权利抗议中对女性身体和情感的工具化使性别差异永久化，而不是加强柬埔寨社会中的女性能动性并为女性打开政治空间。