Author: Billaud Julie Castro Julie
Publisher: Berghahn Journals
ISSN: 1558-5271
Source: French Politics, Culture & Society, Vol.31, Iss.2, 2013-06, pp. : 81-101
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
Abstract
This essay seeks to analyze the recent reconfigurations of French nationalism, taking as an entry point the legal treatment of veiled Muslim women and prostitutes over the past two decades. We argue that the bodies of prostitutes and veiled Muslim women, both of which have been targeted by successive legal interventions in order to exclude them from the public space, have become central political sites for the state to assert its sovereign power and trigger nationalist feelings. This comparative analysis of gendered “lawfare (which John Comaroff has defined as the judicialization of politics and the resort to legal instruments to commit acts of political coercion) provides insights into a new form of nationalism that strives to foster “sexual liberalism as a core value of citizenship in order to enforce a virile nationalism, prescribe new sexual normativities, and criminalize immigrants and those living at the social margins.
Related content
Whores and lesbians: political activism, party strategies, and gender quotas in Mexico
By Bruhn K.
Electoral Studies, Vol. 22, Iss. 1, 2003-03 ,pp. :
Globalization and economic nationalism in Asia
Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 21, Iss. 2, 2013-06 ,pp. :