Given the way that women have been at the forefront of the revolution, and that feminine power has been weaponized in interesting ways in the htamein protests, the intersection of gender and politics is a particularly relevant topic today. With apologies to the many other important texts on gender in Myanmar that we hope to get to at some point, we give you Spiro’s hard-to-find chapter on a village perspective on the danger of women’s sexuality, one we counterpoise with Chie Ikeya’s exploration of P Monin’s progressive (if bourgeois) ideas about sex. We have Tharaphi Than’s book on women in Burma, one that examines a number of interesting political positions held by women across history, including the role of woman soldiers; Jenny Hedström’s more recent work reveals how Kachin women provide emotional, physical, and material labour to support their autonomy efforts. Finally, Chu May Paing argues that Buddhist nationalist desires are mediated through the female body and its reproductive potential. And a bonus: for a related text that features women’s voices in political revolution, see our very first Deep Cuts, here.
Check here for the PDFs.
Burma Studies Group 