The continuous policing of reproductive sexuality characteristic of most forms of modern nationalism ought to lead us to the realization that just as nationalism is an ideology inextricably intertwined with racism, so too are racism and nationalism bound together with sexist and heterosexist reproductive imperatives. From this perspective, it becomes clear that in order to fully limn the idea of nation it is necessary to refocus the study of the keyword on discussions of the ideological and material processes that exploit existing race, gender, and sexual hierarchies in the production of nations, nationals, and feelings of national belonging. Such a reorientation ideally would begin with the idea that the “nation” is differently produced in each instantiation and historical conjuncture, and within the context of each raced, gendered, and sexualized social and political formation.

This is an excerpt from Alys Eve Weinbaum’s entry in Keywords for American Cultural Studies (p. 170).