The politics of white women's underwear in Sri Lanka's open economy

In 1992 the Sri Lankan government offered Private investors financial incentives to establish two hundred export-oriented garment factories in villages throughout the island. The political opposition's critical response was to argue that in these garment factories, "our innocent girls are sewing underwear for white women." This article examines the meaning and impact of this critique by placing it in the context of the intertwining discourses and practices of nationalism and sexuality in Sri Lanka. This case study has wide comparative implications. When nation-states become increasingly involved in the global economy, nationalists often debate the cultural effects of economic shifts. By considering how economic and cultural interests are tightly interwoven and mutually constitutive, I aim to further our understandings of how and why gender is deployed in these debates. Moreover, by considering bow these debates actually affected working women, I aim to highlight the ways in which debates such as these can influence social practices.