DRS/SRI: Sex and the Nation Again: Homosexuality in Dutch Debates on Multiculturalism and Islam

Abstract

In the Netherlands, the conflicts over immigration, Islam, and multiculturalism, that have raged since the early 1990s, came with an unprecedented centrality to Dutch political culture of acceptance and equal treatment of homosexuality. Within the terms set by the debate this centrality seems self-evident.

Attitudes towards homosexuality then appear as the obvious and crucial marker of profound, or even irreconcilable, differences between Dutch and immigrant communities, differences that are seen to make multiculturalism both unfeasible and undesirable. Rather than taking the self-evident centrality of homosexuality to these debates for granted, this talk concentrates on the question why homosexuality has become such an obvious crucial category in setting the terms in which immigration, Islam, and multiculturalism are discussed.

Why is homosexuality so central to a presentation of Dutch and Muslim cultures as opposed and irreconcilable, and why is it equally important to the articulation of visions of a post-multicultural social and political order for the Netherlands? In answering these questions the talk will focus on the dynamics of a national political culture and its history. What appears as a worldwide ‘clash of civilizations’ is to a large extent an assemblage of conflicts of a highly local nature, shaped by the specific dynamics of a national political culture and its history, and waged with the means this culture affords.

About the speaker

Stefan Dudink teaches at the Institute for Gender Studies of Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His research is concerned with the meanings of gender and sexuality in modern political culture, with a focus on the Netherlands in a comparative context. He has published in particular on masculinity in modern Dutch political and military culture and on homosexuality in current debates on Islam and multiculturalism.

Recent publications include: ‘Homosexuality, Race, and the Rhetoric of Nationalism’ History of the Present 1 (2011) 2; (co-edited with Karen Hagemann and Anna Clark) Representing Masculinity. Male Citizenship in Modern Western Culture, (New York: Palgrave, 2012, second edition); (editor) Low Countries Histories of Masculinity, a special issue of BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 127 (2012) 1.

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Please contact Dr Wendy Harcourt: harcourt@remove-this.iss.nl and Dr Silke Heumann: heumann@remove-this.iss.nl

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