According to Joseph Massad, how do US military and political interests in North Africa and the Middle East impact discussions of sexual rights?
US military and political interests in North Africa and the Middle East impact discussions of sexual rights because of the “Western interventionist trends and their effects on the contemporary Arab world” that Joseph Massad speaks about in their article, Re-Orienting Desire (160). Colonization is often spoken about in terms of physical locations, but Massad refers to colonization in terms of thought processes and areas of knowledge as well. As the West worked on sexual liberation in their own nations, they also sought out the liberalization and “universalization of ‘gay rights’” internationally (160). Through organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the West was able to spread their beliefs about human rights, including sexual liberation and gay rights into other nations. Western-led NGOs try to change and spread the idea of gay rights, which can be looked at as that as a type of a missionary task and a way to spread cultural tolerance. This is problematic because then these rights are perceived to not exist in those areas already.
It is also problematic when organizations are labeled as international groups, but ran primarily by specific regions. The title of an international group is then misleading because the actions are still being represented from a Western-led perspective. When an issue becomes politicized, such as sexual rights in North Africa and the Middle East many organizations are going to jump on board to help “save” or “liberate” those that are deemed less fortunate. As Massad writes, “By inciting discourse on homosexual and gay and lesbian rights and identities, the epistemology, nay, the very ontology of gayness is instituted in such discourse” (174). Massad goes on to write that when gayness is politicized, it is turned to “support them or oppose them” (174). Issues such as telling people how they should identify reaffirms the need for a label to be visible within LGBT politics.
Joseph Massad, “Re-Orienting Gay Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World”, in Desiring Arabs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 160-190
