num_pages: 336
description: Gloria Wekker analyzes the phenomenon of mati work, an old practice among Afro-Surinamese working-class women in which marriage is rejected in favor of male and female sexual partners. Wekker vividly describes the lives of these women, who prefer to create alternative families of kin, lovers, and children, and gives a fascinating account of women's sexuality that is not limited to either heterosexuality or same-sex sexuality. She offers new perspectives on the lives of Caribbean women, transnational gay and lesbian movements, and an Afro-Surinamese tradition that challenges conventional Western notions of marriage, gender, identity, and desire. Bringing these women's voices to the forefront, she offers an extensive and groundbreaking analysis of the unique historical, religious, psychological, economic, linguistic, cultural, and political forces that have shaped their lives.
language: English
title: The Politics of Passion: Women's Sexual Culture in the Afro-Surinamese Diaspora
titlecomplete: The Politics of Passion: Women's Sexual Culture in the Afro-Surinamese Diaspora
genres: LGBT, Feminism, Gender Studies, Race, Gender, Feminist Theory, Ethnography, Sexuality, Nonfiction, Queer
ratings_count: 103
series: Between Men-Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies
publisher: Columbia University Press