Politicizing ‘the virtual’: examining the internet on the intersections of gender and sexuality in Sri Lanka

This chapter provides a review of existing scholarship that lies on the intersections of sexuality, gender, and technology in relation to Sri Lanka. Key intellectual developments and debates on technology, especially the internet and social media, as a site of both violence and contestation for gendered and sexualized subjects in Sri Lanka will be examined. The chapters look at the ways in which majoritarian politics, patriarchy, and heteronormativity surface online and what this means for women and queer Sri Lankans. Additionally, it also examines the ways in which women and queer Sri Lankans appear to be working on and through these platforms to resist these exclusionary power structures. In doing so, the intention is to highlight the complex ways in which the virtual is characterized by violence, inequality, and injustice, as well as community, solidarity, resistance, joy, and pleasure.