| Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920 Contributor(s): Findlay, Eileen J. Suárez (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0822323753 ISBN-13: 9780822323754 Publisher: Duke University Press OUR PRICE: $102.55 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 2000 Annotation: "The dynamics of racism, class prejudice, and sexism work differently and only reveal how they gear in with each other at specific historical moments. Findlay has addressed these issues with confidence and eclat; the result is both careful and passionate."--Sidney W. Mintz, author of "Caribbean Transformations" and "Sweetness and Power" "Placing working people--their values, interests, and struggles--at the center of |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - History | Latin America - General - Political Science |
| Dewey: 306.097 |
| LCCN: 99025911 |
| Lexile Measure: 1520 |
| Series: American Encounters/Global Interactions |
| Physical Information: 1.19" H x 6.02" W x 9.72" (1.60 lbs) 328 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Feminists, socialists, Afro-Puerto Rican activists, and elite politicians join laundresses, prostitutes, and dissatisfied wives in populating the pages of Imposing Decency. Through her analyses of Puerto Rican anti-prostitution campaigns, attempts at reforming marriage, and working-class ideas about free love, Eileen J. Su rez Findlay exposes the race-related double standards of sexual norms and practices in Puerto Rico between 1870 and 1920, the period that witnessed Puerto Rico's shift from Spanish to U.S. colonialism. In showing how political projects and alliances in Puerto Rico were affected by racially contingent definitions of "decency" and "disreputability," Findlay argues that attempts at moral reform and the state's repression of "sexually dangerous" women were weapons used in batttles between elite and popular, American and Puerto Rican, and black and white. Based on a thorough analysis of popular and elite discourses found in both literature and official archives, Findlay contends that racialized sexual norms and practices were consistently a central component in the construction of social and political orders. The campaigns she analyzes include an attempt at moral reform by elite male liberals and a movement designed to enhance the family and cleanse urban space that ultimately translated into repression against symbollically darkened prostitutes. Findlay also explores how U.S. officials strove to construct a new colonial order by legalizing divorce and how feminist, labor, and Afro-Puerto Rican political demands escalated after World War I, often focusing on the rehabilitation and defense of prostitutes. Imposing Decency forces us to rethink previous interpretations of political chronologies as well as reigning conceptualizations of both liberalism and the early working-class in Puerto Rico. Her work will appeal to scholars with an interest in Puerto Rican or Latin American studies, sexuality and national identity, women in Latin America, and general women's studies. |