Dangerous Intercourse: Gender and Interracial Relations in the American Colonial Philippines, 1898–1946

by Tessa Winkelmann

In Dangerous Intercourse , Tessa Winkelmann examines interracial social and sexual contact between Americans and Filipinos in the early twentieth century via a wide range of relationships―from the casual and economic to the formal and long term. Winkelmann argues that such intercourse was foundational not only to the colonization of the Philippines but also to the longer, uneven history between the two nations. Although some relationships between Filipinos and Americans served as demonstrations of US "benevolence," too-close sexual relations also threatened social hierarchies and the so-called civilizing mission. For the Filipino, Indigenous, Moro, Chinese, and other local populations, intercourse offered opportunities to negotiate and challenge empire, though these opportunities often came at a high cost for those most vulnerable. Drawing on a multilingual array of primary sources, Dangerous Intercourse highlights that sexual relationships enabled US authorities to police white and nonwhite bodies alike, define racial and national boundaries, and solidify colonial rule throughout the archipelago. The dangerous ideas about sexuality and Filipina women created and shaped by US imperialists of the early twentieth century remain at the core of contemporary American notions of the island nation and indeed, of Asian and Asian American women more generally.

312 pages, Hardcover

Published January 15, 2023

Reviews

[Livia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read on the plane, great exploration into how interracial relationships have shaped the nature of American colonialism and sociopolitics and morality in these settler colonies. Lovely reminder of how women of color are delegitimized and largely treated as opportunities for consequence-free, exoticized sexual relationships within the framework of white empire, and how the mixed-race marriages and children that result from this are still largely excluded from legitimate American society. I think this goes beyond regular racism too, but has a lot to do with the American conception of race as hypodescent and the difficulty of categorization that mixed-race children inherently pose. Enjoyed the word "colonionormative" – epic neologizing. Apologies if this review is a bit curt, it is 5 am in the Atlanta airport and I have not slept.

Quotes:

“So much of the scholarly work on colonial moral reform is focused on white women and religious groups and their proselytizing in nonwhite colonized countries, saving white men from the dangers of interracial sex and saving colonized peoples from barbarism.”

“[...] the press quickly speculated as to Chester’s sanity, spreading rumors that he possessed some sort of mental incapacitation such as tropical neurasthenia, a made-up pseudoscientific condition wherein white people lost their vitality in inhospitable climates.”

“Moralists, racial segregationists, Filipino elites, and Filipina women in relationships with Americans all had a stake in the Davis murder trial.”

“In this Englishwoman’s estimation, Filipina wealth and worldliness was nothing but pitiable self-aggrandizing mimicry.”

[Jiewei Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool ideas, interrogating how intimacy and relationships can be products of colonial logics. Especially in the manner we police them.