Lecture by Astou Gueye: "Selling Eroticism: Senegalese Urban Sexualities and the Economy of Jongé"

In Senegal, women deploy significant resources to perform jongé, a set of embodied and discursive practices revolving around womanhood, femininity, and sexuality. Although this cultural practice has several social components, its recent commoditization posits sexuality as a critical element in its understanding and performance. In their staging of jongé, Senegalese women use various erotic paraphernalia from multiple places to perform their sexuality. Through feminist ethnographic methodologies the paper examines the relationship between consumption and sexuality in the context of jongé. It analyzes the linguistic, symbolic, and material resources used to perform jongé. In doing so, the paper demonstrates how Senegalese women construct and enact their sexual and social identities through producing and consuming sexual commodities. Buying, selling, talking about, and consuming these goods is also where they negotiate their sexual, social, cultural, and economic agency.                  

This lecture is open to all. Please join us!

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