Globalization, Sexuality, Gender Identity: An Analysis

This essay delves into the intricate relationship between globalization, sexuality, and gender identity. It examines how the rapid movement of people, ideologies, capital, and information reshapes these concepts, considering factors like prostitution, queer mobility, and heteronormativity. The e...Read More

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4. How does globalization complicate our understanding of sexuality/sexualities and
gender identity?
Introduction
Studies in the field of gender and critical sexualities did between 2000 and 2006, has
shown an increasing preoccupation to globalization. Contemporary globalization definition
addresses the rapid increase in the movement of people, ideologies, capital, and information all
around the world. Gender and sexuality cannot be effectively analyzed without taking into
consideration these mentioned flows in the globalized world. These phenomena are deeply
rooted in the overview of the social, economic, cultural, political, regulation of sexuality and
HIV/AIDS. Other factors that have complicated the understanding of gender and sex are
prostitution and sex trafficking, queer mobility and heteronormativity, gender inequality and
sexual right discourses. Gender and sexuality are considered to be distinct yet closely relatable
fields. The concepts may appear as separate in explaining gender inequalities, and nothing much
on sexual forms and power, or hegemonic in men, women subordination, and the marginalization
of LGBTQ people. The introduction of globalization, gender, and sexuality explore the historical
development of these features and how common trends are constantly redefining them. The
reflection on gender and sexuality discusses the disjuncture and conceptualization of both of
these phenomena in the globalized world.
Gender has been strongly linked in the Anglophone academic and political writing after it
replaced the term sex roles. The term has been used in sexology, to discuss the assigned
biological (sex) roles and gender identity and by a feminist who emphasizes the political and
cultural nature of women oppression based on sexual differences. Feminist theories and

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ideologies as a result of globalization have constructed terms such as masculinity and femininity,
relating to the ontological existence of sexed bodies. Feminist theorist such as Judith Butler, in
her theory of gender performativity, have challenged the assumption relating to sex, like a
categorized form of body embodiment (Jenkins and Finneman, 2018, p.168). Such approaches
display the social construction dimension of gender by highlighting the historical and cultural
contingency of gendered practices. Sexuality is an unstable term in the social theory, and like
gender, it relates to the body purposely in the area of reproduction (Anthias, 2014, p.175).
Globalization has formed sexual identities based on economic, cultural, medical, legal,
governmental strategies and family systems. Sexuality has been categorized as a non-essentialist
factor that is regulated by the knowledge of power-pleasure (Jowett, 2016., p.5). Variety of
actions, emotions, and pleasures can be sexualized. The western countries have codified
sexuality in a hegemonic notion of heterosexual and homosexual orientations, and lately the new
contested and unstable bisexual category.
Globalization of gender and sexual identities seeks to understand the extent to which
identities are either becoming the same or different through social, economic, and cultural flows
due to globalization. Homogenization indicates that all cultures around the world are
increasingly becoming similar, modern and global through neo-colonialism or westernization.
However, there exists a conflict between the local and global forces, and this has resulted in the
hybridization approach. Several works of literature reviewed have rejected the homogenization
theory of sexual identities as a result of globalization (Gross, 2013, p.52). Globalization has been
found not to necessarily shape the local difference of similarity concerning sexual identities.
Therefore, members of a certain group exhibit similarity across national and continental
boundaries as opposed to the geographically established societies. For example, in Thailand

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sexual identities, the Westernized discourse of sexual identity is present, but this has been
adapted into the pre-existing, and local understanding of gender and sexuality. The homosexual
men in Indonesia additionally, state that they could connect with other non-Indonesian LGBT
community, but their identity cannot simply be seen as that of a globalized version. For instance,
the country has a local gay ‘language’ that is purely a construct of the Indonesian. Hybridization
approach to gender and sexual identity has formed an assumption that the westernized sexual
identities constitute of modern, and liberated homosexuals, while the non-western states are
viewed as being tradition, indigenous and backward (Omenugha, Uzuegbunam and Ndolo, 2016,
p.211). However, several scholars have tried to overcome these archaic binaries by introducing
the concept of ‘transculturation,’ which informs the various ways identities and cultures can be
integrated as a result of the clash between the local and global forces. Transculturation is mostly
used on the studying of immigrants and expatriates, trough neoculturation, acculturation, and
deculturation. Neoculturation entails the creation of a new culture as a result of the meeting of
two different cultures, and the result is quite different from both cultures (Mills, 2017, p.320).
Acculturation, on the other hand, is the acquisition of the culture that is most dominant, while
deculturation is the loss of culture. It is quite difficult to establish theoretical or analytical
theories that explain sexual identities and globalization without getting into conflict (Legg and
Roy, 2013, p.470). However, the diversity of the different cultures and the homogeneity of
sexual identities cannot be separated from the process of globalization.
Heterosexual identities or heteronormativity and traditional gender relations are being
transformed as a result of globalization, mostly in women. There is emanating tension and
contradictions as a result of the mixture of local beliefs, practices and sexual values, and those of
global flow (Farrugia, Smyth and Harrison, 2014, p.1042). For example, in Vietnam, the male

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can practice polygamy while the women are expected to avoid immoral conduct and maintain
their virginity till marriage. The introduction of ‘doi moi’ policy aimed at preserving the socialist
values, while at the same time opening Vietnam to the global world (Hiramoto and Kang, 2017,
p.455). The resulted in conflict and tensions in the expression of sexuality, which is regarded as
‘social evil.’ These social evils include abortion, prostitution, premarital sex, and pornography,
which according to the Vietnamese, must be controlled to maintain the Vietnam culture. These
social evils were seen to be prevalent in urban areas as compared to the rural areas. However,
there is sexual tension among women due to their curiosity on sexual relationships and the fear
of demoralization and exclusion from society. This example highlights some of the conflicts that
arise when the global flows mix with the local.
The complication witnessed in gender and globalization is as a result of increased
mobility and migration of people across borders. The perspective of females regarding this
reveals that in the past, gender roles limited women in the pursuit of better jobs in different parts
of the world. However, recent trends have witnessed the shift in women migrating themselves, in
pursuit of better jobs (Chappell, 2015, p.55). Consequently, international migration has
increasingly become feminized. According to a report by ILO, Asian women are the fastest-
growing category of women migrating for international labor. These migrations are better
explained under the push and pull factors. The push side relates the migration to underlying
issues such as poverty and the search for financial liberalization (Tredway, 2014, p.170). The
pull side, on the other hand, is anticipatory, with the woman hoping for a better life, and is also
as a result of high demand for cheap labor in the service sector, especially in the sector of
domestic workers or in the entertainment industry as prostitutes. As opposed to the male
migration, female migrations have purposely been seen as a result of the urge to help the family

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rather than as a self-enhancement project. However, these women are subjected to vulnerability
and abuse, especially in a situation whereby they are illegal immigrants. There is a link between
female-cross border migration and global sex trade and tourism, whereby sex tourism has
consequently given the rise of the global sex industry. The trafficking of women for this purpose
has become a lucrative endeavor, second to the transnational trade of drugs and arms. Global sex
trade constitutes a major share in the irregular female migration and labor migration. A report on
the migration from the Dominican Republic by IOM has ranked the country as the fourth-largest
supplier of women for prostitution in the global sex trade, after Thailand, Brazil, and the
Philippines (Spanger, 2013, p.42). Sex-tourism has also exploited children especially in countries
such as Brazil and the Dominican Republic (Yeoh and Ramdas, 2014, p.1200). There is a link
between globalization and commercial sexual exploitation of women, and factors such as
advancement in technology, globalized crimes and global tourism giving the industry new ways
of marketing, delivering, and exploiting women and children as commodities for the sex trade.
About 4 million women and young girls are being trafficked each year and enslaved into the sex
industry.
Conclusion
Gender and sexuality are relevant categories in the study and analysis of globalization.
The continuance change in the global world has reshaped various roles established in gender and
sexuality. Globalization and transnational sexualities give the notion of homogenous sexual
identities as a creation of the Western countries and exported to the developing and NON-
western countries, implying the notion that a global sexual identity is liberating, while non-
western sexual identities are backward and repressive. This gives the notion that local identities
assimilate to the global forces, making them oppositional and independent from each other. The

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penetration of these two distinct categorize at times result in conflict and contradictions
established in the case of Vietnam. It is clear, however, that the local identities of sexuality at
times endure despite the massive global flows. On the issue of gender, it has been established
that there is an increase in female migration purposely for international labor. In instances of
illegal migration, the women are wrongly exploited for the global tourism sex trade. There is a
high prevalence of women trafficking to meet the high demand for global tourism sex.

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