Abstract

Policing Sexuality explores the regulation of sexual behaviour and identity by nation states, and questions how and why states have sought to influence and control the sexuality of its citizens. Julian C. H. Lee presents both theoretical and ethnographic literature, distilling common themes and causes and presenting factors that contribute towards a state's desire to control both the sexual behaviour and sexual identity of its citizens, such as the influence of colonialism, class, religion and national identity. Featuring five crucial case studies from India, Britain, the USA, Malaysia and Turkey, this fascinating comparative account challenges the coercive control state authority worldwide exert over the sexuality of its citizens.
Julian C. H. Lee is a Lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University. He previously held an Economic and Social Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Kent. As well as numerous articles in journals and other publications, he is the author of Islamization and Activism in Malaysia (2010) and the editor of The Malaysian Way of Life (2010). He is also involved in organizations that advocate for sexuality rights and women's rights in Malaysia.
'Policing the body politic always entails sequestering the body sexual; the questions are only how and why, exactly where and when. This trans-regional examination of the different, and always self-contradictory, modalities of sexual state control and self-control is a treasure chest. Authors from Michel Foucault to Judith Butler would pawn one of their books to read this one: a combination of socio-cultural anatomies with humanist thinking. The anthropological wealth and comparative sociological imagination of this painstaking, yet amazingly easy-to-read book are scholarship at its best: accessible but never simplifying, liberating but never patronizing.' - Gerd Baumann, University of Amsterdam, author of Contesting Culture (1996), The Multicultural Riddle (1999) and Grammars of Identity / Alterity: A Structural Approach (2005) 'In a moment when state policies seeking to regulate sexual expression have emerged under many cultural and religious banners, affecting a wide range of sexual subjects, Julian Lee gives us an invaluable map to understand this moral policing more clearly and comprehensively. Policing Sexuality is exceptional among recent works on sexuality, gender and public policy in providing a rich comparative analysis across five major country contexts encompassing both South and North. Lee's eye for complexity along with his gift for lucid, straightforward prose illuminates “the evolutionary nature of sexuality rights and empowerment” and shows why we must never view culture as static or given nor human rights as sufficient without political struggle.' - Rosalind P. Petchesky, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York; author, Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights (2003); Sexuality, Health and Human Rights (with Sonia Corrêa and Richard Parker, 2008)