Title
Performing the Filipina “Mail-Order Bride”: Queer Neoliberalism, Affective Labor, and Homonationalism
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-19-2013
Department 1
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Abstract
The 2005 video/performance art piece, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride, by the Filipina American performance-art ensemble, the Mail Order Brides, examines the role of affective labor in constituting gay marriage as a form of US homonational belonging. In a contemporary context of capitalist globalization, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride critiques the subjugation of the third-world woman worker within a queer neoliberal logic, highlighting the inability of the mainstream US LGBT movement to address issues of race, migration, and labor. The Mail Order Brides enact forms of feminist camp and ethnic drag to denaturalize the affective labor that is embodied within the figure of the Filipina “mail-order bride.” In doing so, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride links an analysis of transnational Filipina labor with a critique of queer cultural politics in the US In its critique of queer neoliberalism, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride builds on and contributes to queer of color social movements committed to racial and economic justice.
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
DOI
10.1080/0740770X.2013.849064
Version
Post-Print
Recommended Citation
Velasco, Gina. "Performing the Filipina 'Mail-Order Bride': Queer Neoliberalism, Affective Labor, and Homonationalism." Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 23, no. 3 (2013): 350-372.
Required Publisher's Statement
This article is also available on the publisher's website: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0740770X.2013.849064