Cameron Collins

Response to Malek Alloula and Ann Laura Stoler Readings, Week 3:

Both articles this week concern themselves with colonial discourses of race and gender. Ann Laura Stoler’s article on various modes of sexual management in colonial societies demonstrates the politicization of dominant, eugenic notions of native sexuality and gendered roles. Malek Alloula’s reading draws heavily on photography from late colonial postcards to visually represent the “Oriental” woman as a sign within various discourses also present in the Stoler article. Colonial understandings of natives as particularly hyper-sexual deviants and generally inferior others are central to both readings.

The Alloula reading hones in on European conceptions native women’s sexuality. A series of postcard photographs depict Algerian women simultaneously as prisoners and sexual objects. To Europeans, the presence of barred windows and “Moorish” women would connote the harem. As a sign, harems signify both the naturally imprisoned nature of Algerian women and the essential sexuality and usability of their bodies. While these postcards are meant for circulation between European tourist and their relations rather than as documents for colonial policy, the comprehensible meanings of the staged photograph exemplify the constructed knowledge about Algerian women as well as a practical support for the discursive system containing subaltern peoples.

Stoler provides a broader, more historical and political context for this same discursive system. By charting the progression from colonial promotion of concubine culture among European men to the official outlaw of European-native sexual relations, Stoler highlights a variety of discourses of power. Primary among those are power relations between men-women and colonialist-subaltern. Stoler blends the two, reflecting on the political utilization of women in maintaining colonial dominance. As European women were encouraged to live in colonies, policies against cross-race sexual relations became stricter. One apt example includes laws against sexual assault or attempted sexual assault of European women by native men (this notably excludes laws concerning rape by European men). The increasing prevalence of these laws in the latter stages of colonialism reflect the understanding of the native as an uncontrollable sexual deviant, the political utility of women in maintaining colonial mores, and a great cultural concern with European racial superiority. Those laws illustrate the intimate link between colonial and gendered power relationships.