Homosexuality, society, and the state: An ethnography of sublime resistance in Martinique

Abstract

In Martinique, men who fail to display appropriately aggressive heterosexual behavior risk public denigration as homosexuals, the antithesis of normative Martiniquais masculinity, and, analogically, of normative Martiniquais Cultural1 identity. This form of sexuality is reinforced through productions sponsored by Martiniquais state Cultural commissions. This paper explores how Martinique has developed a gendered, sexualized, and racialized regional identity that reflects its history of multiple cultural origins embedded in an exploitative political and economic relationship. It also analyses how homosexual Martiniquais men define themselves in an indifferent political and hostile public environment. These men's narratives reveal common strategies of resistance that reject negative connotations of a public homosexual stereotype, the macoumé, yet incorporate aspects of popular masculine identity and French claims of individualism as an essential part of being French.