Sexuality Studies and Leisure Studies doing it together

Jack Lukkerz
Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies, Malmö University

Sexuality is a human force that shapes significant parts of our lives, from childhood to old age. But even though most of us engage with, or express sexuality, albeit in vastly different ways, we find ourselves in a world where strong opinions exist about what sexuality is, how it should be expressed, what constitutes the right and wrong kind of sexual expression, and what the desirable and sought-after sexual expression would be. For a majority, those who live squarely within the norm, it is rarely an issue when their own sexuality asserts itself. But for many others, whose sexuality clashes with prevailing ideals and conventions, sexuality and the desire associated with it can lead to significant suffering.

In this context, Sex and Leisure becomes highly relevant. Initially, upon receiving the book, I spontaneously thought: isn’t it implicitly understood that sex is something people engage in during their leisure time? Is there a need for a book with that perspective? However, the concept of leisure can certainly be expanded to encompass recreation, a time for recuperation, and an opportunity for self-care as well as connecting with others through engaging in sexual activity. Here, the authors do something new and quite exciting, at least in my view. For someone like me, not familiar with leisure studies, placing sexuality and sexual activity within this field of research is an intriguing scholarly approach. As the authors in various ways shed light on sexuality and its role as a leisure activity, they draw from the field of sexology (and sexuality studies), which happens to be my professional domain, as well as from LGBTQI studies, which I consider as my personal domain. Both fields also encompass the historically strong activism of the LGBTQI movement and the understanding of sexuality and its expressions as something individuals perform, construct, or consume. Overall, this approach makes the book doubtlessly worth considering for all of us within sexology and sexuality research.

The author, inspired by Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, coins the term “homotopia” to describe a place where sex is provided in exchange for payment but where both sellers and buyers share cultural backgrounds, values, and attitudes.

Studying sexuality with all its expressions is not a new question within the research field of leisure studies. The editors, Diana C. Perry and Corey W. Johnson at the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo in Canada, in discussing previous research point out how sex has been a subject of study before: as a matter of health, sports, geographical locations, or digital environments, or more specific aspects such as queer tourism and queer athletes. Through its selection of studies, this book adds further perspectives on the study of sex and leisure, parallel to, I argue, my own research area. The editors indicate the direction of the book already in the acknowledgment: “This book is written in gratitude for those people who continue to push the boundaries of normative, and often oppressive, sexual identities and practices.” For a sexologist and sexuality researcher, a book from a completely different research area can hardly start better. So, let me delve into some of the individual chapters of the book.

Liza Berdychevsky, associate professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at the University of Illinois in the USA, emphasizes in the initial chapter the importance of critical reflexivity in all research regarding sexuality and leisure. She also highlights its role as the hub where ontology, epistemology, methodology, validity, and credibility converge. In other words, it’s about the human capacity to think, and to reflect on our thinking, or to reflect on what we think, which all together should be a central aspect of sexuality research. Critical reflexivity aims additionally to examine knowledge construction but also point out tensions that can reveal new valuable perspectives. Ethical perspectives are nonetheless part of the art of reflection. Here, it contributes to everything from the researcher applying ethically defensible methods, through openness and respect, gaining access to a closed room, to the reflection helping the researcher to become aware of and strengthen their own empathetic ability. Berdychevsky refers to this as sensitive sex research. So, it’s all about maintaining a healthy distance while retaining emotional engagement. It is also working consciously, depending on whether the researcher is an insider, a person with their own experiences or personal access to the closed room, or an outsider without prior experience of a studied phenomenon. The author emphasizes the importance of subjectivity and diversity in research. In other words, there is no inherent value in seeking an objective and distant stance. Instead, it’s rather about embracing subjectivity and seeing it as a strength in qualitative research.

All text contributions concern specific aspects of sexuality research, areas that in a societal context are often perceived as both sensitive and controversial, or whose practitioners live with strong social stigma. The first chapter portrays the role of reflection and confession in BDSM research. Here, I would like to highlight the authors, DJ Williams, Emily E. Prior, and Jeremy N. Thomas’s message about the importance of enhanced collaboration between researchers and BDSM practitioners for deeper knowledge about BDSM as an aspect of leisure and recreation. In the next chapter, Jordan Bakhsh describes together with one of the book’s editors Corey Johnson the experiences of male strippers based on an autoethnographic approach, with masculinity and feminist theory as a framework. In the following chapter, Luc Couisenau approaches the increasingly recognized incel environment as part of a wide-ranging digital environment, with a societal interest as the driving force in highlighting a world where restrictive ideas and norms about masculinity and femininity increase the risk of heightened violence against women. Leisure research contributes here to better knowledge about the digital environments’ part and role in how people organize their lives for leisure and recreation purposes, with a special focus on sexuality, gender, and gender norms. Further on, Harrison Oakes situates along with the book’s two editors sexuality in the field of leisure and recreation research as well as the digital context. They do this through their study of dating apps with geolocation functionality, nowadays a common method in all dating apps. Self-representation is fundamental in this case, as is the construction of the desirable body as part of a normative and idealized understanding of masculinity, sexuality, and attraction.

In an article about pornography and women’s consumption of sexually explicit material (SEM), Bronwen Valtchanov examines together with Diana Perry women’s attitudes toward their own feminist values and the ambivalence and congruence that arises from consuming pornography. In yet another chapter, Gabby Skeldon and Brett Lashua, using a feminist perspective ,describe the drag culture and the different scenes where drag is expressed. Here, they investigate two crucial issues in drag as phenomenon: what does it really mean to perform as a woman and is it possible to define the drag scene with its variety of clubs and other places as safe spaces for women. The book concludes with a study by Aristeidis Gkoumas describing a particular phenomenon in Thailand, scooter ladies, or Thai women who operate within an environment where sex is offered in exchange for payment, but only to other Thais. The author, inspired by Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, coins the term “homotopia” to describe a place where sex is provided in exchange for payment but where both sellers and buyers share cultural backgrounds, values, and attitudes. This creates a double standard considering that the market for transactional sex in Thailand often caters to Western tourists. The relevance for leisure studies lies also in the study of a commercial activity that takes place in an urban leisure and recreational environment.

The book constitutes a both interesting and valuable contribution, with a range of examples demonstrating how research on sexuality can be conducted. Additionally, it’s worth highlighting the researchers’ active involvement in conducting their research and the reflections they share with us, such as those regarding autoethnographic research. I would like to reiterate that this book is not solely relevant to researchers in leisure and recreation studies. All of us researchers with an interest in human sexuality as academic research material gain access to highly intriguing and thought-provoking reflections and experiences through the excellent work of all the scholars in this book.

Copyright © Jack Lukkerz 2024