Although an extensive body of work exists exploring the relationships between space
and gender, gender performance and identity, little attention has been given to
examining the space-agency nexus of lesbian/queer subjects in sexed spaces
— this is particularly the case when it comes to exploring lesbian/queer
sexualities. Drawing on face-to-face interviews and observations, I examine
participants' experiences at Pussy Palace, a lesbian/queer bathhouse in Toronto,
Canada, focusing in particular on the ways in which the space enabled and
constrained spatial praxis and agency. I conclude that the embodied desire found at
Pussy Palace undermines the hegemonic discourse that treats women as passive and
subjugating subjects. At the same time, the bathhouse erects its own marginalizing
forces, while fostering a particular training of the body that narrows the range of
emergent sexualities and alternative sexual scripts.
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