Adam: The first thing that struck me was the idea of transnational gay or LGBTQ ideas and ideologies were in a way spread by globalization. We often cite globalization as a negative for the global south, and in a way marginalized people but as well exposed their identities and given them support from other nations. It has helped the subjugated find a voice, maybe not the poor society but a higher society. I feel like in a way globalization has helped people experience/find solidarity within a minority community such as the LGBTQ community.
Mishell: In my presentation for Dr. Stoddard’s class we brought up a key point from the reading:
“Liberatory social movements along with consumer demands based on tourism have brought ideas of gay pride and LGBTQ lifestyles to many parts of the world” pg.146
When you mention globalization this immediately comes into mind and has me thinking of the positive and negative effects it has on LGBT communities around the world. For example tourism in the reading talks about the high demand for the ladyboys of Thailand and their exoticness regarding sex. Tourism was good in the sense that it allowed for the acceptance of these bodies/identities within their economical community. But on the other hand it was placing sex workers at risk due to the sexualization of their identities and the negative connotations surrounding sex tourism in Thailand.
Adam:Going off of Mishell’s idea of sex tourism, it reminds me of my research methods paper for Dr. Wong’s class. I talked about the effect of globalization and tourism on the sex trafficking industry. A comparison i see between these two ideas of thought is that globalization has brought great economic prosperity to cities and metropolitan areas but not rural areas. This is important because most progressive thought and most social progression/ social movements such as the LGBTQ movement occur in cities, and those in rural areas are left behind. So, gay communities, or gay individuals in rural communities do not have a voice because of globalization they have been left behind as well as their industries, livelihoods and resources.
Mishell: I partially agree with you, on the part that globalization did bring these ideas to the communities. I am just having a hard time on blaming the slow development of rural areas to it. I think it dates back way further to the time of colonization. We have spoken previously in class how the colonized were often made feel inferior as an incentive by the colonizers to make them excel in their laws and cultures brought to them by the colonizers. It dates back to this ideas that they are to uphold these original values such as binary identities to the T. Globalization although it spread more ideas it also created a chaos in the culture.
Writer: Mishell
Contributor: Adam