Description
Book SynopsisPresents an ethnography of Filipino gay men in New York that explores their sexual and national identities. This book challenges beliefs about the progressive development of a gay world and the eventual assimilation of all queer folks into gay modernity.
Trade Review“A lively ethnography that brilliantly reveals how Filipino gay immigrants manipulate symbols and meanings in order to survive and even flourish within the racial, ethnic, class, and gendered spaces of America and a globalizing world.
Global Divas is a must-read for all those interested in the intersections of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status.”—Yen Le Espiritu, author of
Home Bound: Filipino American Lives across Cultures, Communities, and Countries“Global Divas points toward a truly cross-cultural anthropology of queerness in rendering the lives of Filipino gay men in New York. Martin F. Manalansan IV breaks through mainstream ignorance and stereotyping to achieve a rich portrait of the rituals, attitudes, language, and travails of his immigrant subjects and by extension, of queer immigrant experience in general.”—Esther Newton, author of
Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public IdeasTable of ContentsPreface vii
Introduction: Points of Departure 1
1 The Borders Between Bakla and Gay 21
2 Speaking in Transit: Queer Language and Translated Lives 45
3 "Out There": The Topography of Race and Desire in the Global City 62
4 The Biyuti and Drama of everyday Life 89
5 "To Play with the World": The Pageantry of Identities 126
6 Tita Aida: Intimate Geographies of Suffering 152
Conclusion: Locating the Diasporic Deviant/Diva 184
Notes 193
An Elusive Glossary 199
Works Cited 205
Index 219
