[csaa-forum] Call for Papers: The Cultural Study of Commercial Sex

[Dean Durber]

Call for Papers

Sexualities: Special Edition

The Cultural Study of Commercial Sex

Given the proliferation of forms of commercial sex, the scarcity of
research –except on ‘prostitution’ – is remarkable. The focus is usually on
personal
motivations, the morality of the buying-and-selling relationship, stigma,
violence and disease prevention. Questions of desire and love are usually
sidelined; relationships are rarely contextualized culturally or conceived
as complex; concrete sexual issues are hardly dealt with. Commercial sex is
usually disqualified from cultural research and treated only as a moral
issue.

A new field of the cultural study of commercial sex would refer to all
commercial goods and services with an erotic or sexual element – a rich
field
of human activities, every one operating in complex socio-cultural contexts
where the meaning of buying and selling sex is not always the same.

Sites of the sex industry: Bars, restaurants, cabarets, clubs, brothels,
discotheques, saunas, massage parlours, sex shops, peep shows, hotel rooms,
flats, bookshops, striptease and lapdance venues, dungeons, internet sites,
beauty parlours, clubhouses, cinemas, public toilets, phonelines and
occasional sites such as stag and hen events, shipboard festivities and
‘modelling’, swinging and fetish parties.

Participants in the sex industry: Business owners, bartenders, waiters,
maids, cashiers, guards, drivers, cooks, cleaners, accountants, lawyers,
doctors, travel agents, tourist guides, estate agents, media editors and
entrepreneurs, outreach personnel, researchers – as well as those who sell
sex or its illusions and those who buy it.

The framework is addressed in ‘The Cultural Study of Commercial Sex’, by
Laura Agustín, published in Sexualities 8(5), 2005. The goal of the special
edition is to actively use a cultural framework for scholarly
conceptualizations that do not fit comfortably in the ‘prostitution’
tradition. Scholars from any
academic discipline are encouraged to contribute. Contributions are
particularly welcome that:
• question the discursive division between commercial and non-commercial
sex;
• examine the belief that sex-with-love or sex-with-partners is superior to
paid sex;
• consider concepts of consumption, entertainment and ‘having a good time’;
• explore different notions of desire;
• take into account ethnicity and class, as well as gender.

Deadline for submission of articles of no more than 6500 words: 1 April
2006. Sexualities is a refereed academic journal, so please note that
articles must be reviewed by two anonymous referees before decisions about
publication are made. For inquiries and to submit, contact Laura Agustín at
laura at nodo50.org