Making Political Hay of Sex and Slavery: Kansas Conservatism, Feminism and the Global Regulation of Sexual Moralities

Abstract

When I returned to my home state of Kansas in the fall of 2004, there was palpable excitement among the state's small liberal community about the possibility of unseating the incumbent president, George W. Bush, in the then upcoming national election. Although few in number, the state's liberal activists had frequently found themselves on the front lines and even occasionally on the winning side of recent skirmishes in the 'culture wars', the battle over the regulation of sexuality, including abortion and gay marriage initiatives. For liberals in the US and, in particular, for feminists, the 'culture wars' have come to represent a high stakes battle over the appropriation of the language of 'moral values', a struggle that bears material consequences in the form of regulatory policies and laws, the brunt of which fall on women's bodies. Liberal activists in Kansas, by virtue of their minority status, clearly understood the power accorded to those who set the terms of debate. Now they hoped their hard work would pay off with a political and ideological shift in the White House, if not in Kansas.