Theorizing the Monogamous State: Intersections of Race, Coloniality, and Sexuality

Theorizing the importance of the state in regulating sexuality and how sexuality shapes the state has been key to understanding state control and definition. Monogamy has been treated as an implicit aspect of sexual regulation, but its significance in defining the state has yet to be theorized. The lack of explicit attention to monogamy dovetails with a lack of attention to colonial and racial histories in state boundary-work. This article theorizes the monogamous state to uncover a grid of intelligibility that connects colonial understandings of perverse sexuality to polygamy, in contradistinction to moral and productive monogamy. Drawing on the case of France, I examine how the state defined itself against a racialized, polygynous Other as part of its civilizing mission to make monogamy central to citizenship and public order. I identify three historical periods that demonstrate the building, consolidation, and reinforcement of the monogamous state.