UNDERLAYERS OF CITIZENSHIP: Queer Objects, Intimate Exposures, and the Rescue Rush in Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya in recent years, diapers have played a central role in anti-homosexual discourses, suggesting that anal sex results in chronic bodily incontinence. But rumors about adults in diapers do not pertain only to homosexuality. They also describe bodily ruptures resulting from sex work, illicit moneymaking practices, and “immorality,” more generally. This article explores how the resonances between different deployments of diapers help constitute the homosexual body as a target of outrage, violence, and exclusion. I argue that rumors about adults in diapers identify and expose national threats in the hidden layers of intimate life to produce good citizenship. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s work, I approach diapers as “queer objects,” because they offer an alternative entry point into discussions of intimate citizenship: they bracket the reified category of the homosexual and demonstrate how sentiments associated with homophobia emerge in a wider set of struggles with bodies, work, respectability, and progress.