Coming Out à l'oriental: Maghrebi-French Performances of Gender, Sexuality, and Religion

Abstract

In this article, I examine issues of gender, sexuality, and religion for North African (Maghrebi)-French men in contemporary France. I introduce performance artist-photographer “2Fik,” one of the Maghrebi-French research subjects from my 2010 fieldwork, and examine excerpts of his particular coming out story to his parents and situate it in relation to recent work on homosexuality in the housing projects of France's banlieues [suburban neighborhoods] (Chaumont, 2009; Naït-Balk, 2009). The interviewee's narrative interweaves a variety of discourses and imagery that help distinguish his experience from those found in those publications as well as in recent scholarship on sexuality, citizenship, and transnationalism (Cruz-Malavé & Manalansan, 2000; Hayes, 2000; Leap & Boellstorff, 2004; Patton & Sánchez-Eppler, 2000; Provencher, 2007a). I argue that 2Fik's story and photography provide him a unique voice that draws on feminist and queer perspectives—informed by both reformed Islam and contemporary Western values—to “decline” (Rosello, 1998) and rewrite longstanding stereotypes of Islam in France. In fact, by acting as a “citizen-photographer” (Möller, 2010), 2Fik successfully declines stereotypes including the absent Muslim father, the veiled woman, and the symbolic violence associated with heteronormativity and traditional masculinity in Maghrebi-French families.

Keywords:

• Banlieue
• cité
• citizenship
• coming out
• feminism
• Islam
• Maghrebi-French
• North African
• photography
• queer
• religion
• sexuality

Notes

1. The interviewee has given the author permission to use his artistic name “2Fik,” which is pronounced similarly to his real name.

2. This article is part of a larger book-length project that will examine how Maghrebi-French sexual citizens draw from a variety of Western and non-Western discourses when negotiating their sexuality in a largely secular country like France.

3. See, for example, Têtu 154 (April 2010) special issue on “Les Beurs.”

4. Tarr (2005) and Provencher (2008) also note the role of the absent father.

5. I would like to thank Dr. Stephanie Cox for pointing out 2Fik's work and introducing him to me.

6. Indeed, recent cinema also deals with the longstanding umbilical cord in Maghrebi and Maghrebi-French families. See Malik's story in Mehdi Ben Attia's Le fil [The String] (2010).

7. The use of capital letters represents moments in the French-language interview where the interviewee code switches voluntarily to speak English.

8. Kathryn is the ninth and latest character 2Fik has created. She is Alice's intern and refuses to speak French.

9. See http://www.facebook.com/pages/2Fik/164140444028

10. Visit 2Fik's Web site at http://www.2fikornot2fik.com