Public Sex/Gay Space

by Alex Brown

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231106912
• ISBN13: 9780231106917
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Somewhat uneven, but important multidiscplinary perspective

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.