Queering the Hmong Diaspora: Racial Subjectivity and the Myth of Hyperheterosexuality

Talk by Dr. Kong Pheng Pha, UW-Madison
Abstract: In the wake of the US wars in Southeast Asia, the arrival of Hmong refugees reignited American anxieties about race and sexuality. Sensationalized media portrayals of child marriages, bride kidnappings, and polygamy framed Hmong communities as sexually deviant, reinforcing a racialized perception of their cultural practices. In his new book Queering the Hmong Diaspora: Racial Subjectivity and the Myth of Hyperheterosexuality, Kong Pheng Pha dismantles these narratives, revealing how legal cases, media representations, and legislative efforts have constructed Hmong Americans as hyperheterosexual and ungovernable subjects. This talk will present analysis of two legal case studies that showcase the fraught and often contradictory power dynamics that construct and constrain how Hmong Americans navigate liberal gender and sexual politics in the United States. Addressing these various difficulties through feminist, queer, and social justice lenses, Pha offers a critical framework for understanding how race and sexuality intersect in shaping the lives of minoritized refugee communities in the United States and beyond.

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