Reworking Identity, Reworking Heteronormativity: The Case of Tongqi in China

Abstract

Scholars have studied the mundane reproduction of heteronormativity in everyday life. What happens when heteronormativity is disrupted? We shed light on this question using data from in-depth interviews with 34 heterosexual women ( tongqi) in China who are unwittingly married to men who have sex with men (MSM). Our analysis reveals four ways in which tongqi draw upon heteronormativity to rework their identities in response to the disclosure of their husbands’ sexuality: oppositional identity work to restore an unblemished identity, relational identity work to distance oneself from other tongqi, maintenance identity work to sustain the marriage, and subversive identity work to challenge heteronormativity. The ways in which tongqi negotiates gender and sexual hierarchies in relational power dynamics show the inherent link between gender and sexuality in the maintenance of gender order. More broadly, we highlight how identity provides a crucial link between individuals’ management of the contradictions in the dominant sexual binary and the reproduction of heteronormativity.