Public Sex/Gay Space (Between Men~Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies) [Paperback]

William L. Leap (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231106912 | ISBN-13: 978-0231106917 | Publication Date: December 22, 1998

Male homosexual activity in public and semipublic locations is a central but seldom explored dimension of gay culture around the world. The majority of existing research emphasizes the impersonality of such erotic interaction and underscores the element of danger involved. While never denying the danger of anonymous public sex in the age of AIDS, the contributors to Public Sex/Gay Space go beyond narrow moralisms about the need to regulate unsafe sexual practices to discuss the significance of sex in public. William Leap has brought together contributions from such fields as anthropology, sociology, literary criticism, and history to reinvigorate the discussion on this issue, with twelve essays providing a more nuanced portrait of why public sexual activity is such an integral part of gay culture. The authors present rich ethnographic snapshots of male sex in public places--many drawn from interviews with participants or, in some instances, the authors' personal experiences.Contributors investigate a broad cultural spectrum of gay sexual space and activity: in a public park in contemporary Hanoi, at the beachfront community of New York's Fire Island, and in nineteenth-century Amsterdam, for example. They explore issues such as visibility and secrecy, as well as economic status and social class, and interrogate the historical trajectories through which certain locations come to be favored sites for sexual encounters. Together, they offer insight into the ways in which public sex calls into question the very line that divides "public" from "private."

Editorial Reviews

Review

Public Sex/Gay Space is an important collection. All the pieces raise honest, important, and uninhibited questions about the sex lives of many gay (and nongay) men. A colorful, insightful, and often original book. -- Roger N. Lancaster author of Life is Hard

Almost all of the 12 essays in this volume explore the world of casual and anonymous sex among men . . . An interesting volume with some good descriptive work. The book will appeal to those who want to learn about the world of man-to-man sex in public and semipublic places . . . [W]ell documented. -- Review

At a time when the culture of men who have sex with men is under attack from all sides in the United States--caricatured by politicians, sacrificed by gay assimilationists, scapegoated for AIDS despite its essential role in HIV prevention, neglected by the gay organizations--this book brings much-needed light. It shows how little the reality of public sex conforms to the stereotype. It should be essential reading for journalists, politicians, and queers alike. -- Roger N. Lancaster editor of Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory

In an era of increasing sexual repression, attacks on radical sexual expression are being launched from all quarters: aging gay liberationists, a medical establishment mired in outmoded models, pandering right-wing politicians, and profiteering religious fanatics. So-called public sex is an easy target for the antisex, antipleasure opportunists. Given the limited corpus of scientific publications on fringe sexualities in general and public sex in particular, the essays in this volume are a welcome addition to the discourse on an understudied and poorly desribed phenomenon that is both ancient and widespread. -- Ralph Bolton editor of The AIDS Pandemic --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

At a time when the culture of men who have sex with men is under attack from all sides in the United States--caricatured by politicians, sacrificed by gay assimilationists, scapegoated for AIDS despite its essential role in HIV prevention, neglected by the gay organizations--this book brings much-needed light. It shows how little the reality of public sex conforms to the stereotype. It should be essential reading for journalists, politicians, and queers alike.

(Roger N. Lancaster, editor of Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (December 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231106912
• ISBN-13: 978-0231106917
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #497,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat uneven, but important multidiscplinary perspective, February 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Public Sex/Gay Space (Between Men~Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies) (Paperback)

The most important lesson from this book is that there is no such thing as "privacy" for gay sex.A few chapters are mystifying (Hollister's and Lane') but there are fascinating chapters on cruising in Hanoi (Aaronson), straight-identified men's wider conception of "private" than gay men's (Leap), historical explorations of 19th-century Netherlands (van der Meer)and 1950s Montrel (Higgins), and -- far and away the most graphic -- Stephen Murray's demonstration that gay men differ in their responses to and valuations of being observed having sex.