Sexuality and space
Encyclopedia
Sexuality and space is a field of study within human geography
. The phrase encompasses all relationships and interactions between human sexuality, space and place, themes studied within, but not limited to cultural geography
, i.e. environmental and architectural psychology, urban sociology, gender studies, queer studies, socio-legal studies, planning, housing studies and criminology.
Specific topics which fall into this area are the geographies of LGBT
residence, public sex environments, sites of queer resistance, global sexualities, sex tourism
, the geographies of prostitution
and adult entertainment, use of sexualised locations in the arts, and sexual citizenship. The field is now well represented within academic curricula at University level, and is beginning to make its influence felt on secondary level education (in the UK).
The origins of the term "Sexuality and Space" can be traced back to the early 1990s where usage of the phrase was popularized by two publications. In 1990 what may be described as 'Gay Geography' was presented to a wider audience when an article by Larry Knopp was published in the Geographical Magazine to some controversy. In 1992 Beatriz Colomina's Sexuality and Space (Princeton Papers on Architecture) was released; in which the term is used to elaborate on the symbolism of towers and other structures as Phallic icons. The paper goes on to discuss the sexual psychology of color and other design elements. A review of the papers was released by Elizabeth Wilson in Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997.
Within contemporary geography, studies of sexuality are primarily social and cultural in orientation, though there is also notable engagement with political and economic geography, particular in work on the rise of queer autonomous spaces, economies and alternative (queer) capitalisms. Much work is informed by a politics intended to oppose homophobia and heterosexism, inform sexual health, and promote more inclusve forms of sexual citizenship. Methodologically, much work has been qualitative in orientation, rejecting traditional 'straight' methodologies, yet quantitative methods and GIS have also be utilized to good effect. Work remains predominantly focused on the metropolitan centres of the urban West, but there have been notable studies that focus on rural sexualities and sexualities in the global South.
BInnie, J. (2004). The Globalization of Sexuality. London, Sage.
Binnie, J. and Valentine, G. (1999). "Geographies of sexuality - a review of progress " Progress in Human Geography 23(2): 175-187.
Blidon, M. (2008). "Jalons pour une géographie des homosexualités." Espace geographique 2(37): 175-189.
Brown, G., Lim, J and Browne, K. (2007). Introduction, or Why Have a Book on Geographies of Sexualities? Geographies of Sexualities. K. Browne, Lim, J. and Brown, G. London Ashgate.
Brown, M. a. K., L. (2002 ). We’re Here! We’re Queer! We’re Over There,Too! Queer Cultural Geographies Handbook of Cultural Geography. K. Anderson, Domosh, M., Pile, S. and Thrift, N. . London, Sage.
Greyling, M. (1995). "Inventing Queer Place: Social space and the urban environment as factors in the writing of gay, lesbian and transgender histories" http://www.marcgreyling.com/queer/
Hubbard, P. (2008). "Here, there, everywhere: the ubiquitous geographies of heteronormativity Geography Compass. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/4408
Johnston, L. and R. Longhurst (2010). Space, place and sex: geographies of sexualities. Lanham, MA, Rowman and LIttlefield.
Kitchin, R. (2002). "Sexing the city: The sexual production of non-heterosexual space in Belfast, Manchester and San Francisco " City 6(2): 205-218.
Knopp, L. (2007). From lesbian to gay to queer geographies: Pasts, prospects and possibilities. . Geographies of sexualities: Theory practices and politics G. L. Brown, J. and Browne, K. Chichester, Ashgate.
Oswin, N. (2008). "Critical geographies and the uses of sexuality: deconstructing queer space." Progress in Human Geography 32(1): 89-103.
Perreau, B. (2008). "Introduction:sur la champ in/discipliner la sexualite." EchoGeo 5(July/August).
Human geography
Human geography is one of the two major sub-fields of the discipline of geography. Human geography is the study of the world, its people, communities, and cultures. Human geography differs from physical geography mainly in that it has a greater focus on studying human activities and is more...
. The phrase encompasses all relationships and interactions between human sexuality, space and place, themes studied within, but not limited to cultural geography
Cultural geography
Cultural geography is a sub-field within human geography. Cultural geography is the study of cultural products and norms and their variations across and relations to spaces and places...
, i.e. environmental and architectural psychology, urban sociology, gender studies, queer studies, socio-legal studies, planning, housing studies and criminology.
Specific topics which fall into this area are the geographies of LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
residence, public sex environments, sites of queer resistance, global sexualities, sex tourism
Sex tourism
Sex tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes.The World Tourism Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, defines sex tourism as "trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary...
, the geographies of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and adult entertainment, use of sexualised locations in the arts, and sexual citizenship. The field is now well represented within academic curricula at University level, and is beginning to make its influence felt on secondary level education (in the UK).
Origins and development
The work of sociologists has long been concerned with the relationship between urbanization and sexuality, especially in the form of visible clusters or neighbourhoods typified by specific sexual moralities or practices. Identification of 'vice areas' and, latterly, 'gay villages', has been a stock in trade of urban sociology since at least the time of the Chicago School.The origins of the term "Sexuality and Space" can be traced back to the early 1990s where usage of the phrase was popularized by two publications. In 1990 what may be described as 'Gay Geography' was presented to a wider audience when an article by Larry Knopp was published in the Geographical Magazine to some controversy. In 1992 Beatriz Colomina's Sexuality and Space (Princeton Papers on Architecture) was released; in which the term is used to elaborate on the symbolism of towers and other structures as Phallic icons. The paper goes on to discuss the sexual psychology of color and other design elements. A review of the papers was released by Elizabeth Wilson in Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997.
Within contemporary geography, studies of sexuality are primarily social and cultural in orientation, though there is also notable engagement with political and economic geography, particular in work on the rise of queer autonomous spaces, economies and alternative (queer) capitalisms. Much work is informed by a politics intended to oppose homophobia and heterosexism, inform sexual health, and promote more inclusve forms of sexual citizenship. Methodologically, much work has been qualitative in orientation, rejecting traditional 'straight' methodologies, yet quantitative methods and GIS have also be utilized to good effect. Work remains predominantly focused on the metropolitan centres of the urban West, but there have been notable studies that focus on rural sexualities and sexualities in the global South.
Geographies of LGBT
Although 'minority' sexuality remains a topic that hardly gets a mention in school geography, it has become an accepted part of many university geography departments and is often taught as part of courses on Social and Cultural Geography. Arguably, the most influential book-publication to position sexuality as an accepted part of geography was Mapping Desire, an edited collection by David Bell and Gill Valentine . Bell and Valentine provide a critical review of the history of geographical works on sexuality and set an agenda for further research. They are especially critical of the earliest sexual geographies written during the 1970s and 1980s in the UK and North America. In contrast to the ‘dots on maps’ approach of the 1970s and 1980s, Mapping Desire represents an attempt to map the geographies of homosexuality, transsexuality, bisexuality, sadomasochism and butch-femme lesbian identities. This represented an important landmark in geographer's engagement with, and development of, queer theory. Subsequent research has developed this work, with an increasing focus on transnational LGBT activism; the intersections of nationhood and sexuality and questions of LGBT citizenship and sexual politics at scales from the body to the global.Heterosexual geographies
Research on Sexualities and Space has widened over time to encompass studies not just of LGBT populations but also the geographies and spaces of heterosexualities. This has included, inter alia, consideration of the impacts of sexuality on the visibilities of commercial sex; the design and consumption of housing; spaces of sex education; the sexualisation of leisure and retail spaces; landscapes of sex tourism; spaces of love, caring and intimacy. This has bought geographies of sexuality into dialogue with gender geography by showing that sexual norms reproduce particular ideas of masculinity and femininity.Geographies of sex commerce
Research on the location of vice and prostitution have long been associated with the study of sexuality and space. Pioneering - if controversial -in this area was Symanski's (1988) Immoral Landscape; subsequent studies have considered the socio-legal regulation of spaces of prostitution, adult entertainment, sex shops and hostess bars, and sought to place such issues in a wider theoretical context relating to the reproduction of heteronormality. Much work, however, ignores male sex work as well as forms of intersex and trans- work, whilst other work continues to focus solely on the relationship between locations of sex working and the distribution of sexual infection, including HIV. Studies such as Risk Assessment of Long-Haul Truck Drivers by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, active since April 2007, may also be related to this field of study as the statistics gathered will represent sampling of sexual behaviour in a controlled population of a subgroup.Organizations
Within the discipline of Geography, initial scepticism and even opposition to research on sexuality has given way to recognition that geographies of sexuality offer an important perspective on the relationship between people and place (albeit that some continue to regard the area as of marginal importance). The following academic organizations are devoted to the study of Sexuality and Space.- Sexuality and Space Speciality Group of the AAG, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- Sexuality, Space and Queer Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society, UK https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=SSQWG
Introductory Readings and Key Texts
Bell, D. and G. Valentine, Eds. (1995). Mapping Desire: geographies of sexualities. London, Routledge.BInnie, J. (2004). The Globalization of Sexuality. London, Sage.
Binnie, J. and Valentine, G. (1999). "Geographies of sexuality - a review of progress " Progress in Human Geography 23(2): 175-187.
Blidon, M. (2008). "Jalons pour une géographie des homosexualités." Espace geographique 2(37): 175-189.
Brown, G., Lim, J and Browne, K. (2007). Introduction, or Why Have a Book on Geographies of Sexualities? Geographies of Sexualities. K. Browne, Lim, J. and Brown, G. London Ashgate.
Brown, M. a. K., L. (2002 ). We’re Here! We’re Queer! We’re Over There,Too! Queer Cultural Geographies Handbook of Cultural Geography. K. Anderson, Domosh, M., Pile, S. and Thrift, N. . London, Sage.
Greyling, M. (1995). "Inventing Queer Place: Social space and the urban environment as factors in the writing of gay, lesbian and transgender histories" http://www.marcgreyling.com/queer/
Hubbard, P. (2008). "Here, there, everywhere: the ubiquitous geographies of heteronormativity Geography Compass. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/4408
Johnston, L. and R. Longhurst (2010). Space, place and sex: geographies of sexualities. Lanham, MA, Rowman and LIttlefield.
Kitchin, R. (2002). "Sexing the city: The sexual production of non-heterosexual space in Belfast, Manchester and San Francisco " City 6(2): 205-218.
Knopp, L. (2007). From lesbian to gay to queer geographies: Pasts, prospects and possibilities. . Geographies of sexualities: Theory practices and politics G. L. Brown, J. and Browne, K. Chichester, Ashgate.
Oswin, N. (2008). "Critical geographies and the uses of sexuality: deconstructing queer space." Progress in Human Geography 32(1): 89-103.
Perreau, B. (2008). "Introduction:sur la champ in/discipliner la sexualite." EchoGeo 5(July/August).