Using ethnographic data generated in Southwest Britain and an embodied social paradigm, this article explores the opportunities, pleasures, and risks attendant to urban male heterosexualities. Participant observation and informal ethnographic interviews with nightclub security staff, or “doormen,” contextualize and embody abstract and sterile risk discourses and knowledges. Although careful to avoid a pathologizing biomedical perspective, several social risks are identified, which may amplify or minimize the conditions of possibility for HIV transmission. These include risks to existing intimate relationships and ontological security, violence, and embarrassment.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adler, P. A.
, and P. Adler. 1987. Membership roles in field research. London: Sage.
2.
Allison, A.1994. Nightwork: Sexuality, pleasure, and corporate masculinity in a Tokyo hostess club. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3.
Bataille, G.
[1962] 1987. Eroticism. London: Boyars.
4.
Bauman, Z.1999. On postmodern uses of sex. In Love and eroticism, edited by M. Featherstone. London: Sage.
5.
Bech, H.1999. Citysex: Representing lust in public. In Love and eroticism, edited by M. Featherstone. London: Sage.
6.
Bellaby, P.1990. To risk or not to risk? Uses and limitations of Mary Douglas on risk-acceptability for understanding health and safety at work and road accidents. Sociological Review38:465-483.
7.
Bendelow, G.
, and S. Williams, eds. 1998. Emotions in social life: Critical themes and contemporary issues. London: Routledge.
8.
Binnie, J.2000. Cosmopolitanism and the sexed city. In City visions, edited by D. Bell and A. Haddour. Essex, UK: Pearson Education.
9.
Bloor, M.1995. The sociology of HIV transmission. London: Sage.
10.
Bloor, M.
, M. Barnard, A. Finlay, and N. McKeganey. 1993. HIV-related risk practices among Glasgow male prostitutes: Reframing concepts of risk behaviour. Medical Anthropology Quarterly7:1-19.
11.
Charmaz, K.
, and R. Mitchell. 2001. Grounded theory in ethnography. In Handbook of ethnography, edited by P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, and L. Lofland. London: Sage.
12.
Coffey, A.1999. The ethnographic self: Fieldwork and the representation of identity. London: Sage.
Courtenay, W.2000. Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's wellbeing: A theory of gender and health. Social Science & Medicine50 (10): 1385-1401.
15.
Davies, P.
, F. Hickson, P. Weatherburn, and A. Hunt. 1993. Sex, gay men and AIDS. London: Falmer.
16.
Davis, M.1983. Smut: Erotic reality/obscene ideology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
17.
Douglas, M.1985. Risk acceptability according to the social sciences. London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
18.
Douglas, M.1992. Risk and blame. London: Routledge.
19.
Elias, N.
[1939] 2000. The civilizing process: Sociogenetic and psychogenetic investigations. Oxford, UK: Blackwells.
20.
Featherstone, M.1991. The body in consumer culture. In The body: Social processes and cultural theory, edited by M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth, and B. Turner. London: Sage.
21.
Giddens, A.1992. The transformation of intimacy: Love, sexuality and eroticism in modern societies. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
22.
Glaser, B.
, and A. Strauss. 1964. Awareness contexts and social interaction. American Sociological Review29:669-679.
23.
Glaser, B.
, and A. Strauss. 1967. The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.
24.
Goffman, E.1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday Anchor.
25.
Goffman, E.1968. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Middlesex, UK: Penguin.
26.
Hammersley, M.1992. What's wrong with ethnography?London: Routledge.
27.
Hart, G.
, and S. Carter. 2000. Drugs and risk: Developing a sociology of HIV risk behaviour. In Health, medicine and society, edited by S. Williams, J. Gabe, and M. Calnan. London: Routledge.
28.
Holland, J.
, C. Ramazonoglu, S. Sharpe, and R. Thomson. 1992. Pleasure, pressure and power: Some contradictions of gendered sexuality. Sociological Review40:645-674.
29.
Jackson, S.
, and S. Scott. 1997. Gut reactions to matters of the heart: Reflections on rationality, irrationality and sexuality. Sociological Review45 (4): 551-575.
30.
Kaplan, D.
, and E. Ben-Ari. 2000. Brothers in arms: managing gay identity in combat units of the Israeli army. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography29:396-432.
31.
Lupton, D.1999. Risk. London: Routledge.
32.
MacPhail, C.
, and C. Campbell. 2001. “I think condoms are good but, aai, I hate those things”: Condom use among adolescents and young people in a Southern African township. Social Science & Medicine52:1613-1627.
33.
McKeganey, N.
, and M. Barnard. 1992. AIDS, drugs and sexual risk: Lives in the balance. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
34.
McKeganey, N.
, and M. Barnard. 1996. Sex work on the streets: Prostitutes and their clients. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
35.
Moatti, J.
, and Y. Souteyrand. 2000. Editorial: HIV/AIDS social and behavioural research: Past advances and thoughts about the future. Social Science & Medicine50:1519-1532.
36.
Monaghan, L.2001. Bodybuilding, drugs and risk. London: Routledge.
37.
Monaghan, L.
, M. Bloor, R. P. Dobash, and R. E. Dobash. 1998. Bodybuilding and sexual attractiveness. In The body in qualitative research, edited by J. Richardson and A. Shaw. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
38.
Peart, R.
, D. Rosenthal, and S. Moore. 1996. The heterosexual singles scene: Putting danger into pleasure. AIDS care8 (3): 341-349.
39.
Plummer, K.1995. Telling sexual stories. London: Routledge.
40.
Rhodes, T.1997. Risk theory in epidemic times: Sex, drugs and the social organisation of “risk behaviour.”Sociology of Health & Illness19 (2): 208-227.
41.
Rhodes, T.
, and L. Cusick. 2000. Love and intimacy in relationship risk management: HIV positive people and their sexual partners. Sociology of Health & Illness22 (1): 1-26.
42.
Richardson, D.
, ed. 1996. Theorising heterosexuality. Buckingham, UK: OUP.
43.
Schutz, A.1970. Reflections on the problem of relevance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
44.
Shilling, C.1993. The body and social theory. London: Sage.
45.
Shilling, C.
, and P. Mellor. 1996. Embodiment, structuration theory and modernity: Mind/body dualism and the repression of sensuality. Body & Society2 (4): 1-15.
46.
Silverman, D.1993. Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analysing talk, text and interaction. London: Sage.
47.
Simmel, G.
[1910] 1997. The adventure. In Simmel on culture, edited by D. Frisby and M. Featherstone. London: Sage.
48.
Smart, C.1996. Collusion, collaboration and confession: On moving beyond the heterosexuality debate. In Theorising heterosexuality, edited by D. Richardson. Buckingham, UK: OUP.
49.
Thompson, G.2000. Watch my back. Sussex, UK: Summersdale.
50.
Thompson, N.1997. Masculinity and loss. In Death, gender and ethnicity, edited by D. Field, J. Hockey, and N. Small. London: Routledge.
51.
Turner, B.1992. Regulating bodies: Essays in medical sociology. London: Routledge.
52.
Turner, B.1996. The body and society. 2d ed.London: Sage.
53.
Valverde, M.1987. Sex, power and pleasure. Toronto, Canada: Women's Press.
54.
Verbrugge, L.1985. Gender and health: An update on hypotheses and evidence. Journal of Health and Social Behavior26:156-182.
55.
Vidich, A.1955. Participant observation and the collection and interpretation of data. American Journal of Sociology60:354-360.
56.
Watson, J.2000. Male bodies: Health, culture and identity. Buckingham, UK: OUP.
57.
Weaver, A.
, and P. Atkinson. 1994. Micro-computing and data analysis. Aldershot, UK: Avebury.
58.
Weitman, S.1999. On the elementary forms of the socio-erotic life. In Love and eroticism, edited by M. Featherstone. London: Sage.
59.
Wellings, K.
, J. Field, A. Johnson, and J. Wadsworth. 1994. Sexual behaviour in Britain. London: Penguin.
60.
Whittaker, D.
, and G. Hart. 1996. Research note: Managing risks: The social organisation of indoor sex work. Sociology of Health & Illness18 (3): 399-414.
61.
Wight, D.1999. Cultural factors in young heterosexual men's perception of HIV risk. Sociology of Health & Illness21 (6): 735-758.
62.
Williams, S.1998. Health as moral performance: Ritual, transgression and taboo. Health2 (4): 435-457.
63.
Williams, S.
, and G. Bendelow. 1998. The lived body: Sociological themes, embodied issues. London: Routledge.
64.
Winlow, S.2001. Badfellas: Crime, tradition and new masculinities. Oxford, UK: Berg.
