The post-national sexual contract: An examination

Abstract

This paper examines the sexual contract in the 21st century. The analysis first focuses on the transformation in modernity from the liberal to the neoliberal social contract. This is then compared to the changes in the private spheres of home and domesticity. It is argued that the new gender composition of Western homes that consist of female migrant labour, contests the idea of the sexual contract as institutionalised in modernity. The work of Carole Pateman is taken as a starting point, while some new artistic interventions, as well as transnational motherhood and sham marriages, are used to inspect the future of the social contract in the 21st century.