This book explores the hidden world of sex clubs. These are not strip clubs, lap dancing clubs, or brothels; these are clubs that men and women visit to have no strings attached sex. Each year sex clubs, traditionally called swingers clubs, are visited by over one million people in the UK. Using social and cultural theory, the author explores the cultures of desire through themes such as erotic hierarchies, atmospheres and power, women and sexual fantasies, men, masculinity and non-consent, hypersexualized black bodies, heterosexuality and queer heteroeroticism and trans desires. From cuckolding to group sex, bareback sex to intergenerational sex, partner swapping and threesomes to BDSM and fetish nights, sex clubs host a diverse range of sexual encounters that are part of a growing trend of recreational sex. Despite there being over 40 clubs in the UK alone, we continue to know very little about who is visiting the club, why they go there and what people do.
This book―drawing upon ethnographies, interviews and large-scale quantitative data―is one of the first in the field to systematically collect and critically interrogate sex clubs and their erotic encounters. This will not only be the first sustained social and cultural analysis of sex clubs themselves, but it also aims to lure the reader into the club through discussions of ethnographic encounters, enabling them to experience the unique dynamics of sex clubs and their cultures of desire.
Author(s): Chris Haywood
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 212
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Welcome to the Erotic Oasis
Introduction
Welcome to the Club
Seeking Erotic Encounters: What Is This Book About?
Inside the Erotic Oasis: Looking Through the Book
Visiting the Playrooms: Moments of (P)leisure
Towards the End of the Night
Bibliography
Chapter 2: Secret Sex Clubs
Introduction
Sex Clubs and Recreational Sex
The Control and Regulation of Clubs
This Book and Its Methodological Approach
Sex Clubs: Where Are They? What Are They? Who Is Attending?
Where Do We Find Sex Clubs? Geographies of (P)Leisure
Recreational Sex and Playrooms
Who Visits Sex Clubs?
Sexual Identities and Sexual Practices
Preferred Sexual Practices
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Cultures of Desire: Erotic Hierarchies and Affective Atmospheres
Introduction
Sex Clubs and Public Intimacy
The Playrooms
Complicating Hedonism: Erotic Hierarchies
Affective Atmospheres: Feeling the Place
Conclusion: Cultures of Desire
Bibliography
Chapter 4: ‘Greedy Girls’: Women and the Insatiable Abject
Preface
Introduction
Greedy Girl: ‘I Want It How I Want It’
The Desirable Abject: The Pleasure of Fucking with Men
Black Women and Radical Passivity
Women Desiring Pleasure: Beyond Feminism and Post-feminism
Conclusion
Bibliography
Chapter 5: Sex Clubs, Dark Rooms and Post-Masculinity Erotics
Introduction
Beyond Respectable Masculinities
Masculinity Rules, Consent and Same-Sex Practices
‘Leaving Behind Men as Studs’
New Erotic Configurations and Post-Masculinity
Conclusion
Bibliography
Chapter 6: ‘You Lot Are So Hot’: Race, Black Men and Commodity Fantasies
Introduction
Black Bulls: ‘I Want a Black Man Who Knows What He Is Doing’
The Desire for a Black Masculinity
Folding in Masculinities: Cuckolds, Hotwifing and Wittoling
Conclusion: Black Men’s Pleasure
Bibliography
Chapter 7: Erotic Outlaws: Tactile Looks, Women Desiring Women and Transgender Bodies
Introduction
Collapsing Heteronormativity: Towards a Conjoining of Bodies
Sex Beyond the Heteronormative: Female on Female
Violent Transgression
Conclusion
Bibliography
Chapter 8: Conclusion
Introduction
Conclusion: Leaving with the Lights on
Bibliography
Index
