The Political Economy of Same-Sex Marriage: A Feminist Critique

by Bronwyn Winter

Overview

Same-sex marriage is now legal in twenty-nine countries and the subject of continued debate around the world. The Political Economy of Same-Sex Marriage: A Feminist Critique considers this debate from a political economy perspective. Rather than engaging directly in the now well-rehearsed social-movement and academic for-and-against debates, this book focuses on processes of institutionalization of same-sex marriage and so-called "rainbow families" within (neo)liberal capitalist democracies. It examines how states and markets appropriate same-sex marriage and family to enhance their own political and symbolic capital, consolidating power and profit within existing systems of gendered and raced socioeconomic stratification.

Taking a radical feminist, heterodox, qualitative and intersectional approach, this book investigates the political economy of same-sex marriage across three axes: same-sex marriage as institution; same-sex marriage and the market; and the political economy of the "rainbow family". The examination of case studies from different countries and regions enables a comparative analysis that foregrounds cultural, political and economic path dependencies while at the same time highlighting a number of striking commonalities. In all the countries discussed in this book and in most respects, same-sex marriage has been integrated almost seamlessly into a mainstream/malestream political economy of marriage and family and its translation into added market and productive value.

The Political Economy of Same-Sex Marriage: A Feminist Critique will be of use to researchers and students alike, and indeed to all those who are curious about the mainstreaming of homosexuality within twenty-first-century capitalist democracies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138502680
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/30/2020
Series:	Routledge IAFFE Advances in Feminist Economics
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bronwyn Winter is Professor of Transnational Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, where she teaches in the European Studies and International and Global Studies programs. Her research lies at the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, religion, migration, conflict and the state, often in relation to international discourses and practices concerning gendered political economy, human rights and violence in a globalised world.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

Part I (Same-sex) marriage as institution 13

1 Marriage and family as value in liberal capitalist societies 15

2 From subversive challenge to liberal rights 34

3 State rationales: Three case studies 52

Part II Selling same-sex marriage 73

4 Rainbowing the workplace 75

5 Same-sex wedding tourism 91

6 Same-sex marriage intersectionally: Gender, class and race dynamics 113

Part III The political economy of "rainbow families" 135

7 "Working families": Parenting, productivity and policy 137

8 "Caring families" and the (still) gendered privatisation of risk 155

9 Gay dads: The "queered" political economy of surrogacy 175

Conclusion 196

References 200

Index 242