ABSTRACT

This chapter employs a multifaceted transnational perspective and discusses transnationalism in terms of the classic notion of being engaged in both home and host countries; by performing Indonesian dances in Perth, the women are engaged in the transnational expression of gender and sexual norms. Transnational studies have critiqued the gaps in studies on gender, migration and transnationalism. Pessar and Mahler have argued that neglected areas of study include the role of the state and the social imaginary in gendering transnational processes and experiences beyond migration. The chapter explores the simultaneous negotiations of sexuality, femininity and transnational subjectivity for older Indonesian women. It analyses their experiences as female characters in cultural dance performances, which were received by audiences as "hilarious" and/or sexually unappealing. The two grandmothers who are the featured dancers in this chapter are Indri and Ningsih. These grandmothers perform transnational sexualities; they are Indonesian female dance performers in the migrant setting of Perth.