Touching Encounters: Sex,Work, & Male-for-Male Internet Escorting

Synopsis

Often depicted as deviant or pathological by public health researchers, psychoanalysts, and sexologists, male-with-male sex and sex work is, in fact, an increasingly mainstream pursuit. Based on a qualitative investigation of the practices involved in male-with-male--or m4m--Internet escorting, Touching Encounters is the first book to explicitly address how masculinity and sexuality shape male commercial sex in this era of Internet communications. By looking closely at the sex and work of male escorts, Kevin Walby tries to reconcile the two extremes of m4m sex--the stereotypical idea of a quick cash transaction and the tendency toward friendship and mutuality. In doing so, Walby draws on the work of Foucault to make visible the play of power in these physical and commercial relations between men. At once a revelation to the sociology of work and a much-needed critical engagement with queer theory, Touching Encounters responds to calls from across the social sciences to connect Foucault with sociologies of sex, sexuality, and intimacy. Walby does this and more, retying this sexual practice back to society at large.

Copyright:

2012

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780226870052

Publisher:

The University of Chicago Press

Date of Addition:

11/11/15

Copyrighted By:

The University of Chicago Press

Adult content:

Yes

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Business and Finance, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender, Social Studies

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.