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Accepted Paper:
Beyond the Binary Knot: Social Reproduction, Capitalist Relations, and Queer Alliances in Small-Town Matrimony
Jayaprakash Mishra
(Thapar University)
Gay men in small-town of India strategically marry women, appropriating labor and navigating heteronormative expectations while forming same-sex relationships.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the intricate dynamics of marriages between gay men and straight women in small towns of Odisha, India. Unveiling a strategic appropriation of labor within these unions, the study demonstrates how gay men leverage the misogynistic and heteropatriarchal order for personal gains. Unmarried gay men express aspirations to marry conventionally attractive, less educated women, intending to tactically engage their wives in domestic responsibilities, affording the men the freedom to cultivate multiple same-sex intimate relationships. The marriages are portrayed as functional, with participants describing experiences of "marital bliss" and rationalizing the dispensability of romantic love for heterosexual success.
A materialist perspective is applied to examine the tension within these marriages, where the social reproduction of queer/trans communities intersects with the reproduction of capitalist relations. As outlined by Hennessy (2013), certain bodies, particularly those of the wives, are marked as hyper-exploitable, contributing to the intricate web of power dynamics. Simultaneously, the gay men navigate and perpetuate heteronormative expectations, accruing value within this socio-cultural framework. Noteworthy is the ability of these individuals to maintain intimate same-sex relationships without formally annulling their marriages, challenging traditional notions of marital structures. This research contributes to the understanding of how the intersectionality of social reproduction and capitalist relations shapes the experiences of those involved in non-normative marital arrangements in the specific socio-cultural context of small-town India.