When Cities Get Married

Abstract

In this article, we examine the processes by which urban space became sexually coded through municipal consolidation in the nineteenth century. Our analysis covers the union of Van Vorst Township to Jersey City in 1851 and the absorption of the City of Brooklyn to "Greater New York" in 1898. In both cases, urban space was gendered and sexualized through courtship and marriage metaphors used by local newspapers. We argue that consolidation is represented in gendered and sexualized terms so that the question of municipal expansion became insulated from moral, racialized, and environmental concerns about the "threats" of the big city. Our analysis has contemporary relevance because it suggests the sexist and heterosexist norms that may be embedded in the noblesse oblige of contemporary municipal consolidation. It also suggests a way of looking at contemporary municipal boundary changes through a normative lens that takes us beyond economic notions of self-interest.Because cities are often seen as offering relative freedom to those who "deviate" from the norm, they are also frequently portrayed as a threat to those norms and traditions. This combination of urban freedom and threat is seen sharply in contemporary debates over same-sex marriage in the United States. In the furor over San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's decision in 183 AUTHOR'S NOTE: The authors wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers and Glen Elder for their engaged and insightful suggestions.