Sexual Politics and the Mediation of Class, Gender and Race in Former Slave Plantation Societies: The Case of Haiti

This chapter aims to analyse the roots and dynamics of the sexual politics and argues that such a counter-power is part of the strategy of resistance/survival, yet it also embodies empowerment. The material basis of male dominance and of the gender hierarchy generally resides in men’s control over women’s labour. This control is exercised by excluding women from access to essential productive resources and by restricting their sexuality. In Haiti, however, patriarchy as a specific form of the sex/gender system is very complex. In most poor households, rural and urban, there is a sexual division of labour. In addition to paid work, Haitian women perform most of the household chores. Sexual encounters that lead to the formation of households are from the beginning social. The most fundamental relation in slave-based plantation societies was the bipolar racial and class division between white master and black slave. The extent of informal unions had important consequences for race and class relations in Haiti.