Gender Policing the Poor: Toward a Conceptual Apparatus

The term gender policing is widespread in gender studies. However, far too often, this term is used without reference to the actual institution of the police, who, as armed agents of the state, occupy a particular place in the social, political, and economic enforcement of gender norms. This paper probes the concept of gender policing, especially in relationship to class, race, and sexuality, by interrogating why policing as an institution is often so absent from accounts of gender policing and normativity. It asks whether the term gender policing is really the appropriate frame for interrogations of gender normativity.