“Hetero-Hegemony” Against Social Justice: Rigid Minds, Liquid Conservatism, and Transnational Sex-Religious Networks

• In Event: 2248 - LGBTQ People in Conservative and Religious Settings

Abstract

This paper presents the theoretical chapter and the conceptual formation of “hetero-hegemony” in my book project on global moral conservatism opposing social/sexual justice, titled as Liquid Conservatism and “Hetero-Hegemony”: Transnational Religious Networks of Taiwanese “Pro-Family Movements” and Their Inter-Asian/American Allies. Anti-gay conservatism has engaged in American right-wing politics for three decades; however, tying up sexual morality with political power and economic interests is a recently emerging but urgent issue to Taiwan and East Asia. While Taiwan has implemented national LGBT/tongzhi education since 2004 and is set to be the first Asian nation to legislate marriage equality in 2019, this young democracy has experienced challenges from the glocalized conservative politics and anti-tongzhi activism since 2011. Built on the literature of global culture war, right-wing populism, heteronormativity, and sexual citizenship of LGBTQ people, my research re-situates Taiwanese anti-tongzhi conservatism at the nexus of Taiwan’s relations with the American and Chinese hegemonies. Through the newly-formed lens of hetero-hegemony, I conceptualize anti-tongzhi conservatism as a complex with globalizing material infrastructure composed of the systems of hetero-normativity (Warner 1993; Seidman 1993), metamorphism of heterotopia (Foucault 1971), and the manufacturing of the populist consent to the hegemony of compulsory heterosexuality (Gramcsi 1989[1971]; Rich 1994[1980]). Exports of American conservatism and strategic homo-nationalist diplomacy have simultaneously influenced this hetero-hegemony, that sequentially re-energizes the pro-China constituency in Taiwan and partially assisted the victory of the Nationalist Party and anti-tongzhi referenda. Echoing Wong (2013), this research argues that, through emphasizing Chinese traditional values, Confucian ethics, and filial piety, anti-tongzhi conservatism in Taiwan (and Hong Kong) semi-consciously assists legitimizing China’s hegemonic ownership over the two societies. By re-conceptualizing conservatism in the geopolitics of Taiwan, the U.S., and China, sociologists can better understand how international politics, transnational economy, and globalizing culture wars collaboratively shape the development of sexual citizenship in East Asia.

Author

• Ying-Chao Kao, Virginia Commonwealth University