(Re)writing global gender norms: the role of southern actors - a comment

In this article, based on my personal experiences as an ethnographer working in Indonesia, Singapore, and Fiji, I provide two case studies of two women, who don’t know each other, who are ‘writing’ Global Gender in Singapore and Indonesia. Both are wives and mothers, the former is a liberal-democratic opposition party activist, while the latter is a Black/Death Metal guitarist in a local, highly-respected underground band. Both are totally committed to their chosen pathways and belief systems and act as social glue within their organizations and subcultures (grounded cosmopolitanism, if you will). Then, I present two mini-case studies that suggest some formidable barriers still exist to rewriting Global Gender. If these barriers are not overcome, people will have to write Global Gender or not-Global Gender within their own little independent silos or rooms with restricted views looking out over dystopian landscapes characterized by surveillance, control, friendlessness, and alienation.