Public Sex and Private Eye

My forthcoming book, Public Sex and the Law: Silent Desire is featured in the latest issue of Private Eye. Yes, I'm officially the stuff of satire. You can see the text on page 5 and it's reproduced below.

Sextures: E-journal for Sexualities, Cultures and Politics

A new e-journal has launched called Sextures. The journal describes itself as 'A NEW CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN SPACE FOR SEXUALITIES IN THE HUMANITIES, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES'. Take a look at the first issue here. The contents of the first issue are as follows:

Editorial

Alexander Lambevski, "Querying (Sexual) Citizenships," (PDF)

ESSAYS

Shannon Woodcock, "Gay Pride as Violent Containment in Romania: A Brave New EUrope,"

Irene Dioli, "Back to a Nostalgic Future: The Queeroslav Utopia,"

Tiffany Jones, "The Queer Joys of Sexless Marriage: Coupled Citizenship's Hot Bed!",

Alexander Lambevski, "Emotions, Belonging and the Microsociology of Venal Border Crossings: Encountering the Macedonian State as a Flexible Queer Citizen-Cowboy,"

Review Article

Alexander Lambevski, "Foucault, Gay Subjectivity and the Sociology of Emotions in Queer Studies,"

InterAlia: Table of Contents

InterAlia, a journal published in English and Polish has just published the latest issue online. The journal describes itself as: 'InterAlia, a peer-edited scholarly journal for queer theory, is open to submissions from a wide range of fields, written either in Polish or in English. Among the issues we hope our contributors will address is the translatability of queer concepts across cultural and linguistic borders; the relationship between queer theory and activism; the possibility of reconciling the different positionings within the queer community that are related to such factors as gender, race, class, age, sexual practices, and geographical location; the relevance of queer studies for understanding the discourses, cultural practices, and institutions that surround us; and the potential of queer as a counterdiscourse or counterpractice'.

The contents of the latest issue are as follows:

• Editorial #3
  Editorial
• If queer theory were my lover
  Nathan Long
• Empire of Desires: History and Queer Theory in an Age of Global Affect
  Howard Hsueh-Hao Chiang
• Queer Subject Economies. Managing Diversity and Precariousness in Neoliberalism
  Volker Woltersdorff
• Queer Postnationalism in 'Breakfast On Pluto'
  Sascha Pöhlmann
• Queering America: Joy Harjo's Vision of Radical Contingency
  Joan Burbick
• Uniwersalizm i partykularyzm w polityce emancypacji – fałszywa alternatywa
  Tomasz Jarymowicz
• Polityka tożsamościowa organizacji gejowsko-lesbijskich w Polsce a polityka „queer''
  Rafał Majka

The journal can be accessed here.

The best and worst sex (and science) stories of 2009

Petra Boynton has a fabulous blog and her entry on 'the best and worst sex (and science) stories of 2009' is well worth a read. Take a look here.

Resource Focus: LES Online

Here's a fab resource. It's an open access academic journal entitled 'LES Online' which states its aim as being 'to contribute to the study of lesbian issues and to promote actions that improve lesbian equal opportunities and civil rights. This is a multi-language publication. Papers may be presented in Portuguese, Spanish, English or French'.

Take a look at the journal here.

A Decade in Review

Personally, it doesn’t yet feel like we are about to end a decade. It was so much easier in the last century, the 80’s moving into the 90’s, the 90s into the new millennium. We’ve only just decided that the current decade is called the ‘noughties’, so goodness knows what the decade we’re moving into is called. Roll on the ‘twenties’ and then we will know what to call years again.

So what of the past decade? The papers and magazines are starting their reviews of the decade and our pop culture but what about the decade and law and sexuality? It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster and here I am to review some aspects. I’m sure I’ll miss some stuff out so feel free to add suggestions via the comments link at the bottom of this post.

The Internet

Let’s start with what I think has been the biggest engine of cultural transformation over the last decade – the Internet. Think back to 1999. The Internet was there but still comparatively basic. No Facebook, no Twitter, in fact nobody had heard of ‘social networking’ sites. Gay.com chat rooms were the big way for gay men to communicate and arrange quick sexual rendezvous based on minimal profiles or to explore their sexuality with men across the globe. 1999 also saw the launch of Gaydar, a website that was to transform gay lifestyles and effectively kill off Gay.com. According to QSoft Consulting, the company behind Gaydar: ‘Membership grew rapidly by around 10% a month until the end of the first year. By November 2000, there were 78,000 members. By November 2001, there were 220,000 members. By November 2002, there were 640,000. At the end of 2004, they had more than 1.2 million members - 500,000 in the UK alone. By early 2007 it had over 3.8 million members.’ Recent years have seen the emergence of ever more gay networking sites with Fitlads reported as in second place to Gaydar in the UK, based on hits. Manhunt is also a player along with more ‘specialist’ sites such as Squirt and BarebackRT. In North America, Craiglist has done much the same job as Gaydar and more recently, Grindr on the iPhone has entered the scene.

Porn

Self made porn on Xtube or free videos on YouTube was still something for the future so pornography was something largely behind pay walls. The last decade saw the emergence of Triga in the UK; a porn company that celebrated and sexualised the ‘scally’, the chav’ and a working class image of the English. It’s received academic attention in itself and is still a success. Current titles include ‘The English Scally Collection’, ‘Cocks n Robbers’, ‘Young Offenders’, ‘White Van Man’, ‘Skinheads’ and ‘Council Scum’. Porn also got ‘harder’, in every sense, as the Internet helped propel ‘R18’ porn into more homes and barebacking porn made not only a return, but the years of condom covered penises, led to the very sexualising of ‘raw’ sex.
As we enter the new decade, barebacking porn is likely to be a key issue and a divisive one at that.

The Escort and Male for Male Sex Work

Again, in part thanks to the Internet, this decade has seen the apparent growth in the male for male sex worker, at least in our consciousness. Sex work as an acceptable ‘side line’ has a long history within queer culture and so its continued presence should not come as a huge surprise. Chat rooms do seem to have contributed to what I’ve called the ‘ad hoc sex worker’ who might get asked for a meet, and says no, but will meet/perform a particular sexual act for a fee. They are not advertising themselves as a sex worker, might not regard themselves as a sex worker but will move into this mode of behaviour where they see a quick opportunity. Technology has also allowed for the growth in those who offer online striptease or sexual acts either solo or with their partner/others creating an additional form of sex work in the new millennium.

Something About Marrying

The end of the decade has been dominated by debates around marriage, particularly in America. A growing number of nations are accepting gay marriage but with that acceptance comes challenging questions for the LGBQ community and how those identities become defined. Is marriage a ‘straight’ jacket for our community or the successful culmination of years of campaigning? In the UK, will there been an attempt to get ‘marriage’ rather than a Civil Partnership? Personally, I doubt it. I have a feeling we are stuck with CP’s and I’m not sure there’s even an appetite for debate. People talk of getting married’ so society seems comfortable with that interpretation.

The Law and the Future

Of course, there has been a huge amount of landmark legislation, not just the Civil Partnership Act. The Equality Act, Gender Recognition Act, Sexual Offences Act, Criminal Justice and Immigration Act and current Equality Bill have shaped, continue to shape and are likely to shape the coming years. I can’t think of another decade with a similar flurry of sexual legislation for the English legal system. If this last decade has been about planting the seeds of legislative reform, the coming decade is likely to see those seeds grow, in ways we can not quite envisage now.

Resource Focus: Gender & Sexuality Blog

Here's a great resource that I think I mentioned some time ago but is certainly worth flagging up again - particularly to students with a US angle on their L&S/GSL research. The resource in question is a blog called Gender & Sexuality Law. It's written by two Columbia Law School Professors - Katherine Franke and Suzanne Goldberg. The Law School is also home to the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law. Take a look at the blog here.

Coming out at Christmas

With the countdown to Christmas, our minds are probably less focused on issues of sexuality. Yet for many, the switching on of festive lights, the scrums in shops and other annual events that herald the arrival of Christmas can give rise to anxiety as gay men and women are thrown back into the heteronormative world of their parents and family. This can mean several days in which otherwise openly 'out' queers open up the closet door and jump back in, assuring elderly relatives that they just haven't met the right person yet etc etc. Despite our legal reforms and apparently progressive society, the continued presence of the Christmas closet is a reminder that we still have a long way to go.

The London Gay Men's Chorus did a great song on Coming Out at Christmas. You can watch it below.

Was it a Wedding cake?

I was just doing a bit of channel hoping and caught the 'and finally' item on ITV news. The report was about a giant 'Wedding' cake in Scotland. There were constant references to 'wedding' day nerves, getting 'married' and so on only we discovered it was a same sex couple who as we all know, can NOT legally get married in the UK. They will not be having a wedding. They will be having a Civil Partnership Ceremony were they enter into a Civil Partnership. The academic distinction between the two is perhaps ever more academic thanks the growing number of people in the media, and amongst the wider public who talk about getting 'married' in the context of Civil partnerships. Rather than highlight that Civil Partnerships are something different, this cultural trend draws civil partnerships further into a heteronormative framework. It seems only a matter of time before the term 'Civil Partnership' is just an odd phrase that appears on some 'marriage' documents.

BTW- I can't link to the story as ITN and ITV news don't have the story on their websites. If anyone finds it, please add the link as a comment! Thanks.

Queer theory, cyber-ethnographies and researching online sex environments

I've just published a new article called 'Queer theory, cyber-ethnographies and researching online sex environments'. You can read it in Information & Communications Technology Law (Vol 18, No 3, pp297-314. Here's the abstract:

'Both the act and the commission of the act of sex have been transformed by technology. This has in turn led to emerging research that seeks to consider online research methods and methodologies that take account of the new medium, with a number of studies examining specific groups and the behaviour of those groups from a socio-legal perspective. This paper will seek to consider the application of queer theory to researching so-called ‘virtual’ or online sex groups. It will examine how the virtual spaces, and the researchers who survey them, are constituted. The ethical and practical issues that emerge in surveying these groups from a queer
theory perspective will also be explored.'

As ever, I'd welcome any feedback.

Moscow Pride to be held in...Germany?!

Pink News reports that the Commissioner for Human Rights in Moscow, Alexander Muzykantsk, 'has suggested that Russian gays and lesbians should hold gay Pride marches in Germany'. In an interview with a Russian magazine, he apparently suggested Berlin as it is 'de facto the world capital for sexual minorities'. Poor Mr Muzykantsk seems to have had some difficulty with the word 'Pride'. It does rather defeat the object of the event if it is in another country. Of course, these is a history of violence at previous Moscow Pride events (apparently originating with the Police) and the annual festival has long courted controversy.

I'm not sure whether this is a calculated 'we don't want homos here' measure or is a sign of ignorance in the true sense of the word, a lack of awareness about the importance of Pride. I'm therefore reluctant to say rise up and march against this Russian barmpot (at least not yet) but rather, continue the dialogue and emphasise the importance of this event to Muzykantsk and others like him.

Lesbians and 'Corrective' Rape

Sky News is carrying a horrendous story about the 'corrective' rape of Lesbians in South Africa. According to the piece, 'Sky News has found evidence of widespread abuse against the lesbian community - resulting in a new trend of so-called "corrective rape".' Read the full story here.

Bring on the Public Sex

What a fabulous man Michael Petrelis is. He's been informed in a right row that seems to be flying around the right wing twitterati and bloggers. Following a San Franciscan public meeting with local officials and interested parties, Michael Petrelis, a local advocate talked about the loss of public sex space at the Folsom and Dore Valley fairs. Following the loss of public sex space (in response to a small number of complaints), Petrelis suggested the provision of a 'public sex tent'. He blogged: 'I said a tent, that would be clearly marked for oral sex and alcohol-free, should be considered, as a safe space for consenting adults to engage in fellatio on a public street. Of course, some poor suckers, er, lucky volunteers would have to head up a committee to maintain security at the tent, or other structure, if this idea is to become reality, and I'd be the first to kneel down and pray that this happens.' Personally, I'd rather people were able to engage in sex within the open air at these events but the tent idea seems a pragmatic suggestion.


What then seems to have happened is that Mayoral candidate and District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty suggested he was open to the idea and that seems to have been interpreted as it happening. The right such as this blogger and this one plus this editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle are bitterly opposed and seem to have gone a bit hysterical. My suggestion to those offended would be stay away -it's quite clearly a defined space event so keep out. If you don't want children to see these things, don't take them.

Follow Michael Petrelis' blog here.

Finally - a contest I could win!

Fabulous story in the Guardian today about a new beauty pageant in Venezuela. The piece reports that 'to be overweight is one social transgression. Venezuelan men who cannot face the gym but want to show off at the beach get abdominal implants, yielding impressive if fake six-packs. A more serious taboo is to be gay. Venezuela outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation but there is widespread homophobia, including police harassment. Caracas's gay scene is inhibited compared to other Latin American capitals such as Buenos Aires, Bogota and Mexico City.'

The full story can be viewed here along with a video supporting the piece.

Paedophile Singing Toy Mouse

I was listening to Radio 4 this morning and like the studio presenters, I found myself hugely amused by a story in The Sun this morning. The newspaper reports on a £2.99 Chinese Christmas toy that is supposed to sing 'Jingle Bells' when you squeeze his belly. As one parent discovered, the voice actually sounds like he is singing 'paedophiles, paedophiles'. The Sun wrote: 'The £2.99 Chinese-made novelty is sold in smaller shops and on market stalls. Distributors Humatt, of Ferndown, Dorset, said the man providing the voice could not pronounce certain sounds. His singing was then speeded up to make it higher-pitched - distorting the result further.'

You can see a picture of this charming toy along with listening to the song on The Sun website by clicking here. Given that at the start of the decade, a toy manufacturer would probably have been lynched for producing something like this, it's interesting that we collectively laugh now.

Sexualities: Table of Contents

Contents of the latest issue of Sexualities:

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick: In the Bardo (2 May 1950—12 April 2009)

Jason Edwards

Sexualities 2009;12 675-677

Putting the ‘T’ into South African Human Rights: Transsexuality in the Post-Apartheid Order

Louise Vincent and Bianca Camminga

Sexualities 2009;12 678-700

HIV-Positive Women on Secrets, Condoms and Gendered Conversations

Carol Long

Sexualities 2009;12 701-720

Opposing striptopia: The embattled spaces of adult entertainment

Phil Hubbard

Sexualities 2009;12 721-745

‘Just Take Viagra’: Erectile Insurance, Prophylactic Certainty and Deficit Correction in Gay Men’s Accounts of Sexuopharmaceutical Use

Martin Holt

Sexualities 2009;12 746-764

Book Review: Viv Burr and Jeff Hearn (eds), Sex, Violence and the Body: The Erotics of Wounding. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 256 pp. ISBN 0—230—54934—9 (hbk). £50.00

Jackie Turton

Sexualities 2009;12 765-766

Book Review: Jayne Caudwell (ed.), Sport, Sexualities and Queer/Theory. New York: Routledge, 2006. x + 180pp. ISBN 978—0-415—36762—2

Kellie Burns

Sexualities 2009;12 766-768

Gay Marriage

Nate Silver offers an interesting analysis of recent developments wit gay marriage in the US on the blog FiveThirtyEight. It applies statistical analysis to some of the policy votes. For me, the debate in the US continues to contrast so dramatically with the 'like it and lump it' approach of the UK and the Civil Partnership Act. Personally, I'm increasingly of the view that marriage should be separated from the state and more flexible legal partnerships of the sort Nancy Polikoff have advocated come into existence. The debate in the US provides a more thoughtful and academic discussion but that is of small comfort to those who continue to face discrimination and can not even be by the hospital bed of those they love.

Another Queer Challenge for Anglican Church

Six years after the election of the first openly gay Anglican Bishop, Gene Robinson, an LA diocese made history last night by electing the first openly Lesbian Anglican Bishop in the form of Rev Mary Glasspool. It will put further pressure on the world-wide head of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury,Rowan Williams. I suspect the Church will come up with another fudge and it will further fragment. In that context, I'm not sure how great news this is. If we have a small part of the church that is more open minded but the rest becomes even more determined in it's homophobia, that seems a shallow victory. We should also not forget that this election has yet to be confirmed. Still, a story to watch. Read the BBC report here.

Sealed with a kiss

Mark Simpson blogged abut this over a month ago, but as I get back my blogging mojo, it's still worth re-mentioning here. After the metrosexual, cometh the metrotextual. This is the heterosexual male who can not be seen without the latest stylish phone. The Sydney Morning Herald and other papers were following up on research by the mobile operator, T-mobile which revealed 22% of makes regularly ended their texts with a kiss, even to male friends. I can't beat Simpson, so read his analysis here.

Handbags and Botox: Windows on a Queer Life

I promised this blogger some time ago that I would mention his blog but in my blogging hiatus I didn't get around to it. It's written by a twenty four year old in Manchester and it offers an interesting and humorous insight into modern gay life. Read the blog here.

University LGBT Networks

With a bit of fanfare, Salford University has launched a new staff LGBT network, which they hope to develop into a regional group. Anecdotally, there does seem a bit of a drive to rejuvenate or set up these groups in UK universities at the moment. The group at Sunderland had a bit of a re-launch earlier in the year with a new research seminar series. I spoke at the first event about my male sex work research and I'll have to make sure I post details of the next two seminars. At a time of increasing pressure on research in UK universities the establishment/rejuvenation of these groups tells us that there are a growing number of academics determined to find a place and build inter-disciplinary networks for their research. Similarly, these groups also highlight the need that academics feel exists, for a conduit through which they can build contacts and alliances within and beyond HE institutions. I'm cheered by these developments for they suggest a determination amongst academics that LGBT research will continue to carve out a role in UK universities and society as a whole.

Reflections on World AIDS Day

With the passing of another World AIDS Day it is perhaps inevitable that we should stop and reflect on the purpose of the day. HIV rates continue to rise and there is an apparent growth in the number of 'gay' men barebacking. With each December 1st, funds are raised and some HIV.AIDS stories appear in the media that might otherwise be overlooked. We also see people wearing red ribbons and a few plucky activists might wave a few banners in urban areas for an hour or two. This is not to criticise these activities, but to recognise them for what they are. Worthy but limited efforts. If a man attends one of these events, wears his red ribbon, contributes funds and then goes to a sauna and has unprotected sex it does make the whole thing somewhat futile.

Many men love to bareback. They love the feel, love the experience and as long as a condom gets int he way of that experience, the condom is not going to win. I am increasingly of the view that only a vaccine will lead to the end of HIV/AIDS. I don't think 'awareness' will change things and the more we preach and condemn those men who do bareback, the more pointless these campaigns will appear. Of course, there are also those men who deliberately seek to transmit HIV and that's a separate and more complex issue that I'm exploring in a forthcoming article.

Queer Sex and George Michael

Apologies for referencing yet another Guardian story but today the magazine includes an interesting interview with George Michael. Apart from the open use of drugs (which will do nothing to silence his many critics), he is wonderfully open about his sex life. His clear rejection of monogamy (but his equal commitment to his boyfriend, Kenny Goss) is unusual among celebrities.

For me, he is important for keeping the subject of public sex a talking point. There is a wonderful section int he interview when he talks about cruising and remarks: 'The handful of times a year it's bloody warm enough, I'll do it. I'll do it on a nice summer even–ing. Quite often there are campfires up there. It's a much nicer place to get some quick and honest sex than standing in a bar, E'd off your tits shouting at somebody and hoping they want the same thing as you do in bed. DyaknowhatImean?'.

It's a real contrast to the depictions of desperate old men that sections of the media would have us believe. Michael offers a 'rational' explanation for the non-queer audience. Of course, this explanation is familiar but it's important that it continues to be put out there. Perhaps more interesting is the later line he adds: 'I have friends up there, I have a laugh'. On the one hand, it's a place for quick uncomplicated sex, and yet it is also a space that has a form of 'community' and is also an environment in which friendships can be forged and sustained.

Teaching Kids Feminism

The Guardian ran an interesting story yesterday about gender constructions amongst children. The piece wanted to explore whether it was possible to teach a five year old feminism through the books that children are provided with. Five different books were considered and the piece concluded by stating: 'you can't teach gender studies to small children in a day, but you can make a start'. Of course, we don't know the range of other books that the children had been exposed to but thinking about the perceptions of gender (and sexuality) that children are exposed to should be something that parents think about in terms of providing a mix of texts to young kids.