Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution: Perceptions, Participation, and Belonging, the Netherlands and Denmark, 1960S-80S
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2016 Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution: Perceptions, Participation, and Belonging, The Netherlands and Denmark, 1960s-80s Andrew D.J. Shield City University of New York, Graduate Center How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1216 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] IMMIGRANTS IN THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: PERCEPTIONS, PARTICIPATION, AND BELONGING, THE NETHERLANDS AND DENMARK, 1960s-80s By ANDREW DJ SHIELD A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 ii © 2016 ANDREW DJ SHIELD All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in History to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dagmar Herzog, CUNY-GC ______________________ ____________________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Helena Rosenblatt, CUNY-GC ______________________ ____________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Julia Sneeringer, CUNY Queens College and GC Jan Willem Duyvendak, University of Amsterdam Nicholas Boston, CUNY Lehman College Todd Shepard, Johns Hopkins University David Troyansky, CUNY Brooklyn College and GC Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract IMMIGRANTS IN THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: PERCEPTIONS, PARTICIPATION, BELONGING, THE NETHERLANDS AND DENMARK, 1960s-1980s by Andrew DJ Shield Advisor: Professor Dagmar Herzog This is an historical study of first-generation immigrants in Denmark and the Netherlands in the 1960s-80s and their perceptions of the “Sexual Revolution.” Foreign workers and post- colonial immigrants arrived during the same decades when laws regarding women’s equality, contraception and abortion, homosexuality, pornography, adultery and divorce were challenged and reformed, in many cases in the context of intensive social movement activism. This research explores immigrants’ perceptions of the dramatic changes in sexual and gender relations transforming Europe in the 1960s-80s, and the instances of immigrant solidarity with, and participation in, networks for social justice, women’s equality, and sexual liberation. Part I of this dissertation focuses on foreign workers’ early impressions of gender equality and sexual liberality from 1965-1974. Part II centers on immigrant activism from 1975- 1985; during this time, left-wing immigrant groups in the Netherlands gained strategic and rhetorical inspiration not only from anti-fascism, but also from the women’s movement. Immigrant women—both actively, and just by being present—challenged European feminists to consider seriously the roles of ethnicity, race, and cultural difference in the women’s movement. v Part III focuses on immigrants and ethnic minorities in gay and lesbian “scenes” (e.g. bars, social circles) and formal organizations in the 1960s-80s. During these decades, contact advertisements in gay and lesbian journals facilitated new friendships, romances, housing connections, employment, and travel opportunities across both internal and external borders (e.g. inter-ethnic and international correspondence). Interviewees recount their experiences “coming out,” moving to cities, and being “one of the first” people of color in various gay and lesbian networks in these decades. By bringing together two seemingly disparate research fields—immigration history and sexuality history—this research complicates current political and journalistic discussions of the supposed binary between an Enlightened Europe, always tolerant of women’s independence and gay rights, and its international immigrants, “unable” to change their views on gender and sexuality. vi Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am so grateful to have met my supervisor, Dagmar Herzog, while waiting in the lunch line at the “Sex, Politics, and Culture in Contemporary Europe” symposium at Harvard University in April 2008. The following year, you welcomed me into your office at the Graduate Center, and never discouraged me from framing a project with “sexuality” in the title. Your lectures on cultural studies, epistemology, the history of psychoanalysis, opened my eyes to a vast range of literature beyond sexuality and gender theory. I only hope to be able to match the enthusiasm and rigor with which you engage with your students’ ideas, while also embarking on your own projects. Related, I am indebted to you, and all of those at CUNY responsible, for securing me with the Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship for four years, and the Advanced Research Collaborative grant for one year. To take two steps back: I am so appreciative of my unofficial advisor at Brown University, Mari Jo Buhle, for teaching me to treat cultural artifacts as archives, and to interweave history with other disciplines. Related, I am indebted to Gert Hekma, my first teacher of sexuality studies in 2005, for inviting me to the aforementioned Harvard symposium, and to Judith Surkis and Éric Fassin for organizing that event that sparked my academic career on these topics. To dissertation committee: thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this dissertation. Without your interest and reflection, these would be just words on paper (or stuck in a computer); your comments bring the ideas to life. My extended research network in the Netherlands always inspire new ideas: Jan Willem Duyvendak, thank you for organizing the first academic conference where I presented my preliminary research on this project, for signing me up for Dutch classes, and for engaging my vii endless questions on social debates in the Netherlands; to Paul Mepschen, Theo van der Meer, Mattias Duyves, Markus Balkenhol, Marlou Schrover and Rivke Jaffe, and to all the cousins in Leiden: dank u voor uw gezelligheid! My research network in Denmark has broadened the scope of my dissertation, has made me feel “at home” in this new part of the world: Rikke Andreassen, Michael Nebeling Petersen, Katherine Harrison, Maria Bee Christensen-Strynø: I look forward to our future research together. To Peter Edelberg, Christina Hee Petersen, Mons Bissenbakker, Mehmet Necef, Karin Lützin, Anette Warring, Kristian Møller Jørgensen, Matias Danbolt and many more; to my Danish teachers at Studieskolen, and to Fahad and Abdel-Basset, who met with me after classes to discuss Fremmedarbejderbladet and immigration in Denmark: tusind tak for jer hygge! To the CUNY Graduate Center professors who took the time to engage me on this specific project: Randolph Trumbach, your endless conversations on the matter were not forgotten, even if my research rarely reaches back to the eighteenth century; thanks to Julia Sneeringer, Mary Gibson, and Evelyn Ackerman for working through my earliest manifestations of this dissertation in our cozy writing seminars; to Helena Rosenblatt and Andreas Killen in European history, Daniel Hurwitz in American history, Beth Baron and Samira Hajj in Middle East history (and Arabic texts), and Julie Skurski and Talal Asad in Anthropology: thank you (and shukran likum)! To the unforgettable fellow PhD students: Megan x10, Chelsea, Chris E., Chris R., Jeremy, Diana, Kyle, and Ellen in history; Lydia, Junaid, Linsey, Chris B. in anthropology; Yana and Kalle in CLAGS; to everyone I met at through the Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute (TASI) and at various conferences; and to the TRINAS: you rock! Marilyn Weber and (again) Helena Rosenblatt—and not to forget Betty Einerman!— thank you for keeping a million logistics, papers, and people in order. The same goes to the viii librarians at Mina Rees Library, and the librarians, archivists and curators at the New York Public Library, the Amsterdam Public Library, the Danish Royal Lbirary, Kvinfo, LGBT Denmark, IHLIA, the Immigration Museum in Farum, and the International Institute for Social History. To my lovely Grandma Judy, you are one of the least nostalgic people I know, and yet you have tabs on a century of our family’s history. With an historian for a grandson, you put up with my endless questions about your father’s passage through Ellis Island, your uncle’s disappearance into the Soviet Union, your subway transfers in Brooklyn in the 1930s, and Grandpa’s journey through North Africa and Italy during WWII. To my sister Emily, thank you for making sure I traveled to Europe, for introducing me to alternative subcultures in the pre- Internet (mix-tape) era, and for teaching me the DIY spirit! And to my mother Diane—who studied in Paris in the spring of 1968—you have always expanded my knowledge of the decades this dissertation focuses on. Thank you reminding me that university “girls,” even in Massachusetts, were expected to wear skirts in 1965… and that these expectations extended so far beyond that. You challenged those roles then, and you have continued to defy assumptions ever since, as a single mother of two socially conscious individuals. To Ib, the best tutor in Danish language and culture I could ask for, which is ironic, since you’re Norwegian… You have introduced me to the world inside Copenhagen: the international park Superkilen in Nørrebro, the Muslim section of Vester Kierkegaard, the Greenland