Cruising Sex

Andriotis, K. (2010). Heterotopic erotic oases: The Public Nude Beach Experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 37(4): 1076-1096.

by Konstantinos Andriotis

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738310000447

Despite the importance of beaches for a broad spectrum of recreational activities, very little is known about the... more Despite the importance of beaches for a broad spectrum of recreational activities, very little is known about the multitude of beach use in marginalized spaces offering a range of opportunities for transgressive behaviour. To explore the ways that the principles of Foucault’s heterotopia are articulated by users of a gay nude beach, functioning as an erotic oasis, this study adopted a covert ethnographic approach which involved non-participant observation. The results of the study offer a unique glimpse into the role of beach, body and sexuality in the tourism experience and unlock the complexities and entanglements engaged in deviant beach use.

Keywords: heterotopia, erotic oasis, beach experience, nudism, gay space, sexual body.

Sites of public (homo) sex and the carnivalesque spaces of reclaim the streets

by Gavin Brown

This chapter explores two sets of (often fleeting) contemporary urban spaces that demonstrate some of the emancipatory... more This chapter explores two sets of (often fleeting) contemporary urban spaces that demonstrate some of the emancipatory potential of the city – sites of public (homo)sex and the carnivalesque spaces created by the direct actions of the anti-capitalist disorganisation Reclaim The Streets(RTS). Just as the actions of RTS consciously attempt to undermine (however briefly) the privatisation of public space and the alienated conpartmentalism of our lives, the liminal spaces of public (homo)sex transcend the private/public binary through which contemporary sexual citizenship is defined. Although the spaces created by RTS actions and for public (homo)sex challenge certain societal norms and demonstrate the potential for new forms of commuality, I question the extent to which these spaces and the acts that constitute them are capable of promoting real and sustainable emancipatory change. Based on participatory ethnographic research in both sets of spaces, this chapter explores the tensions and contradictions contained within these sites.

Ceramics, clothing and other bodies: affective geographies of homoerotic cruising encounters

by Gavin Brown

This paper provides a new approach to the geographies of cruising and public homosex. For some time, social scientists... more This paper provides a new approach to the geographies of cruising and public homosex. For some time, social scientists have contended that, in those semi-public spaces where
men meet each other for sex, actions speak louder than words and men’s competency in using the space is more important that the (sexual) identities they claim in other aspects of their lives. This paper extends that argument in a new direction through an engagement with recent theorizations of affective geographies and more-than-representational approaches to spatial practices. Through a series of short vignettes of cruising encounters on city streets, in public toilets and in urban green spaces, this paper examines how public homosex is enacted and performed in relation to both human and non-human bodies, objects and the environment in which it takes place. The encounters described in the paper draw attention to the complex choreography of gestures through which cruising is performed and sexual engagement is negotiated ethically. I contend that the site-specific, performative nature of these sexual encounters suggests a more contingent sexuality arising from the interaction of bodies in specific environments and exceeding the boundaries of reified sexual identities.

"Bahnhof Boys: Policing Male Prostitution in Post-Nazi Berlin"

by Jennifer Evans

"Mourning, Yearning, Cruising: Ernesto Pujol's 'Memorial Gestures'

by David Getsy

_PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art_ 90 (September 2008): 11-24

This paper analyzes Ernesto Pujol's performance titled 'Memorial Gestures: Mourning and Yearning at the Rotunda',... more This paper analyzes Ernesto Pujol's performance titled 'Memorial Gestures: Mourning and Yearning at the Rotunda', performed at the Chicago Cultural Center in October 2007.  The central theme of the twelve-hour, silent performance was the mourning of soldiers lost in war, but the work invoked larger narratives of rapport and loss in order to address this theme.  Focusing on the use of bodily communication used by the performers to maintain and adapt the work, this essay shows how Pujol's development of this mode of practice drew on analogous types of non-verbal intimacies associated with cruising.  Through an analysis of the logistics of the performance practice, the essay shows how the tactics of public, non-verbal communication in cruising were extrapolated to provide a moving rendition of the larger theme of loss.  Both mourning and cruising find in silence a space in which the intimate is produced in and as public, and this essay shows how the experiences of queer sexualities can be understood as a resource in the development of public and accessible modes of artistic practice.