Acts of homonationalism: Mapping Africa in the Swedish media

Katarina Jungar, Salla Peltonen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Gay-friendliness and gender equality have been taken as signs of modern Western superiority over other cultural spheres and geographical spaces, particularly those of the Muslim world. In a similar manner, the promotion and defense of gay rights has become the crucible of othering discourses in relation to Africa. Across different cultural and national spaces, the meanings of citizenship, nationalism, modernity, colonialism and sovereignty are being negotiated in debates about anti-homosexuality on the continent. The focus of this article is the politics of mapping anti-homosexuality legislation in Africa in Swedish daily newspapers. Drawing on the work of Jasbir Puar and other feminist and queer scholars theorizing race and sexuality in relation to processes of nation-building, the authors analyze the mapping of the regulation of homosexuality in Africa as an instance of imaginative geographies. They investigate how journalistic rhetoric about homophobia on the African continent in Swedish daily newspapers relies on a politics of homonationalism and sexual exceptionalism in gay liberation' discourses.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)715–737
Number of pages23
JournalSexualities
Volume20
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • homonationalism
  • LGBT asylum seekers
  • mapping
  • racism

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