Intimacy across the Fencelines: Sex, Marriage, and the U.S. Military in Okinawa

by Rebecca Forgash

Overview

Intimacy across the Fencelines examines intimacy in the form of sexual encounters, dating, marriage, and family that involve US service members and local residents. Rebecca Forgash analyzes the stories of individual US service members and their Okinawan spouses and family members against the backdrop of Okinawan history, political and economic entanglements with Japan and the United States, and a longstanding anti-base movement. The narratives highlight the simultaneously repressive and creative power of military "fencelines," sites of symbolic negotiation and struggle involving gender, race, and class that divide the social landscape in communities that host US bases.

Intimacy Across the Fencelines anchors the global US military complex and US-Japan security alliance in intimate everyday experiences and emotions, illuminating important aspects of the lived experiences of war and imperialism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501750410
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rebecca Forgash is Professor of Anthropology at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Intimate Effects of U.S. Empire
1. International Marriage in Japan's Periphery
2. Race, Memory, and Military Men's Sexuality
3. Living Respectably and Negotiating Class
4. The Marine Corps Marriage Package
5. Creating Family and Community across Military Fencelines
Conclusion: On Stories and Silences

What People are Saying About This

Christopher Nelson

In this carefully crafted book, Forgash's ethnographic inquiry into sex, affect, and the construction of new forms of sociality adds an important dimension to our understanding of the lived experience of war and imperialism.