8 Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities
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Cuauhtémoc Sanchez Vega
Abstract
This chapter evidences historically rooted constraints on sexual expression while focusing on the sexual agency that can be mobilised by older Purépecha women (north-western Mexico). It considers how pre-Hispanic, pre-Imperial and heteropatriarchal Purépecha culture, where women were a means of exchange, has resonated through history and inter-articulated with (equally patriarchal) Spanish settler colonialism to reinforce regulation of (older) women’s sexuality in ways that continue to deny them pleasure and autonomy. In postcolonial (or neocolonial) times, women’s oppression has been cemented by modernist, monogamous romantic love that reinforces ideas of women as property. Such thinking recalls feminist observations on how women in the global South have had to reckon with colonialism and patriarchy shared by colonised men and their colonial oppressors. Drawing on interviews and a workshop involving a total of 20 women aged 50–82, this chapter draws on critical feminist analysis in asserting women’s sexual autonomy. It is suggestive of a decolonial sensibility in highlighting the value of Indigenous, older women’s sexual knowledges via fantasies, ‘suggesting new ethics of pleasure … pointing towards a more convivial model of sexual morality’ capable of transcending patriarchy. The chapter resonates with feminist postcolonial analysis that envisions productive, emancipatory dialogues between Western and Indigenous thought.
Abstract
This chapter evidences historically rooted constraints on sexual expression while focusing on the sexual agency that can be mobilised by older Purépecha women (north-western Mexico). It considers how pre-Hispanic, pre-Imperial and heteropatriarchal Purépecha culture, where women were a means of exchange, has resonated through history and inter-articulated with (equally patriarchal) Spanish settler colonialism to reinforce regulation of (older) women’s sexuality in ways that continue to deny them pleasure and autonomy. In postcolonial (or neocolonial) times, women’s oppression has been cemented by modernist, monogamous romantic love that reinforces ideas of women as property. Such thinking recalls feminist observations on how women in the global South have had to reckon with colonialism and patriarchy shared by colonised men and their colonial oppressors. Drawing on interviews and a workshop involving a total of 20 women aged 50–82, this chapter draws on critical feminist analysis in asserting women’s sexual autonomy. It is suggestive of a decolonial sensibility in highlighting the value of Indigenous, older women’s sexual knowledges via fantasies, ‘suggesting new ethics of pleasure … pointing towards a more convivial model of sexual morality’ capable of transcending patriarchy. The chapter resonates with feminist postcolonial analysis that envisions productive, emancipatory dialogues between Western and Indigenous thought.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
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In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
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Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
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Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
-
In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
-
Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
-
Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
