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- Convenors:
-
Ewa Majczak
(London School of Economics)
Akanksha Awal (University of Oxford)
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- Formats:
- Panels
- Sessions:
- Thursday 23 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
In this panel, we investigate the claims made on the body in sexual relationships in order to understand how the pleasures of the body owned, had or shared constitute and unsettle the romantic ideals of love.
Long Abstract:
Starting from the monogamous claims of sexual exclusivity, the specific ways of sharing the pleasures of the human body is central to the constitution of social understandings of love (Berlant and Warner, 1998; Reddy, 2012). Yet, the anthropology of intimacy has paid little attention to the contestations over the ownership of the human body in sexual relationships (cf. Spronk 2014). In this panel, we investigate how the ideas and contestations over bodily pleasures desired, derived and shared constitute ideals of romantic relationships. We invite papers to examine discourses about the body across a wide range of intimate practices: courtships, hook-ups, marriages, break-ups, open and polyamorous relationships. For example: what kinds of claims are made over human bodies in different kinds of romantic relationships and what understandings of love emerge therein? What kinds of bodily experiences are appropriately experienced in particular types of relationships and how do these constitute ideals of relationality? How, furthermore, do digital technologies and new dating apps transform (or not) understandings of sex as an expression of love? What are the new vocabularies to name such relationships? And what does it tell us about the constitution of public/private, market/domestic and sex/love dichotomies of social organization? By integrating the understandings of bodily pleasures as owned, had or shared into the analysis of intimacy, this panel aims to explore post-love relationalities, where love is dislodged from its coveted position in assembling relationships (Povinelli, 2006).
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 23 July, 2020, -Claire Vionnet (Swiss National Science Foundation)
Paper short abstract:
Dance floors fulfill the need of intimacy for singles who reject the dominant form of monogamy and search for alternatives of love and sexuality. In Contact Improvisation, sensoriality is temporarily shared between strangers through touch and massage, allowing people to play out sexual fantasies.
Paper long abstract:
Currently undertaking a multi-sited ethnography on the production of intimacies in Contemporary Dance in Montreal, Paris and Dakar, I've been investigating the articulation between intimacy, sexuality and eroticism. The dance floor is a libidinal catharsis, functioning as a metaphor in which people can "play" out their sexual fantasies. Particularly within the Contact Improvisation scene, practitioners develop physical intimacies with people from different generations, genders and cultures, flirting with the boundaries of sexuality. The proximity between bodies generates sensoriality between strangers. In big cities like Montreal and Paris, contact improvisation works as an exchange platform for singles to claim freedom, and reject sexual exclusivity. Temporary bodily pleasures become more important than commitment into a routinized relationship, reinforcing the fantasy of romantic love inherited from 18th century literature (Alain de Botton 2009). The dance floor provides a sensorial space (touch, in contact with the whole body, caress) in which singles can fulfill their longing for touch and intimacy. The dance floor's romances can extend to daily life and turn into love affairs. In Montreal, the Contact Improvisation scene is closely linked to Cozy practice: romantic collective evenings of sensorial bath and massage. This shows a diversification of ways of relating with others, generating more physical connections (with strangers). Intimacy is redefined beyond the classical private/public dichotomy. Contact Improvisation and Cozy events underline the oscillation of the contemporary subjectivity between autonomy and connectivity: a fear of alienation, simultaneously a neediness for intimacy (Marar 2012, 6).
Niya Neykova (Bulgarian Academy of Science)
Paper short abstract:
The study is interested in how love practices in the period of courtship are digitized in the life of Bulgarian youths. It explores the new unwritten codes, hierarchies and rituals the virtual body follows in different social media platforms perceived as specific arenas of intimacy expression.
Paper long abstract:
Media have become "infrastructures of intimacy" (Paasonen, 2017). In contemporary sociability online social media platforms function as an extension of the offline networks (boyd & Ellison, 2007). Different platforms for communicating with a romantic partner are used at different stages from the "initiation to intimacy" (Yang, Brown, and Braun, 2014), as "layers of electronic intimacy" which directly reflect the level of intimacy users would like to express. This could be interpreted in parallel with the search for the "appropriate shape" of the virtual body to be used on each one.
The aim of the study is to trace how the theme of love and the love practices in the period of dating, courtship and eventual separation are digitized in the life of Bulgarian youths. The observation does not concentrate on a specific digital space, but is rather interested in the dynamics of media consumption as a whole. Results are based on in-depth interviews. Different online spaces are interpreted as arenas of specific intimacy expression - the arena of drama, the arena of love models, the arena of flirting and sexting, the arena of deep love. The research explores the complex strategies of self-expression, the need of external validation, the new digital ways of creating an intimate atmosphere, but also the social, ethnic and gender differences in online love expression on social media. We can speak of new unwritten codes, norms, hierarchies and rituals, which acquire the significance of meaningful and less meaningful displays of love.
Megan Routledge (Goldsmiths)
Paper short abstract:
With increasing platform given to demi, grey and asexual people, those with short-term loss of sex-drive and growing numbers of non-monogamous/ non-exclusive sexual relationships, is it time to entirely divorce the acts and concepts sex, sensuality, romance and exclusivity from each other?
Paper long abstract:
With increasing platform given to demi, grey and asexual people, those with short-term loss of sex-drive and growing numbers of non-monogamous/ non-exclusive sexual relationships, is it time to entirely divorce the acts and concepts sex, sensuality, romance and exclusivity from each other?
In the framework of compulsory monogamy, predominate across the West, sexual and sensual bodily contact is expected to be present and exclusively within the sexual-romantic relationship whose aim is to travel up the 'relationship escalator' towards a narrowly defined category of commitment. When this sexual and sensual bodily contact is not present there is judged to be a problem with that relationship: its' compatibility, its' health, its' potential for longevity, and often its' potential to produce children. However, not only does sexual and sensual bodily contact not have to be present within a lifelong romantic connection but it can also thrive and be health outside of it with a multitude of people.
The current framework of sexual contact leaves those without sexual desire within realms of shame or oddity, much like those that do not feel the need for sexual exclusivity even in spaces of sex positivity which retrain the uninterrogated connection between sex and commitment.
How can we begin to separate these concepts and take seriously the experiences of these 'others'? And what other practices or concepts are brought into question through this separation?
Joshua Bluteau (coventry university)
Paper short abstract:
Instagram users assert that there is inequality in the censorship of images that depict certain bodies, groups and sexualised content. This paper asks how inequitable censorship alters understandings of appropriate forms of desire and love, through the visibility of certain bodies and relationships
Paper long abstract:
'Instagram is silencing queer voices!' This message often appears in response to news that Instagram has removed a recent post from one of my interlocutors. As a digital anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork with men who use Instagram such criticisms are not uncommon. The sharing of digital images has become an intimate practice in its own right, with hook-up-apps encouraging the sharing of explicit or revealing self-portraits to such an extent that they have become both normative and enshrined within the vernacular of these closed digital spaces. Instagram however, is an open digital space where anyone can access the images posted, drawing into question how bodies presented in such a space should be policed. This panel has assembled to question how post-love relationalities function, and this paper will add to this discussion through an analysis of the digital landscape in which love is idealised, bodies are coveted and relationships are formed. Instagram has received much media attention for the type of content that it allows to be posted to its platform. This paper will consider this as well as content which is prohibited to analyse the manner in which certain types of sexualised digital body are deemed offensive and inappropriate, and the impact on those who desire or love this kind of body. This will be used to assess how understandings of sex as an expression of love are changing in an increasingly digitised world where sexualised digital bodies presented on Instagram change understandings of desire, ownership and love.
Kostia Lennes (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the coconstruction of intimacy between male escorts and their male clients in Paris, France. Far from being a basic economic relationship based solely on gain and service quality, this process is a crucial aspect that emerged from the fieldwork.
Paper long abstract:
The concept of intimacy remains very elusive in the social sciences, and more specifically within anthropology. From Nicole Constable's "commodification of intimacy" (2009) to a recent special issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (Sehlikoglu & Zengin 2015) on revisiting intimacy, a quick look at the literature shows the complexity of defining such a term in our discipline. A few social scientists, such as Frank (1998), have paid attention to the complex and various meanings given to that concept in the context of (mostly indoor) female sex work. Indeed, the idea that female sex workers and their clients are not only involved in economic and exploitative relationships but also develop intimate connections is more and more acknowledged in sex work research. However, much less is known on such relationships when it comes to male sex work and online sex work (often referred to as escorting). Drawing on an on-going ethnographic research conducted in Paris among male escorts who advertise their services online for male clients, this paper aims to propose a conceptualization of intimacy as it is lived, experienced and referred to by the participants. Far from being a basic economic relationship based solely on gain on the one hand and the service quality on the other hand, the coconstruction of intimacy is a crucial aspect that emerged from the fieldwork. Yet, money undoubtedly plays a major role in this process. This is what this paper explores.
Geir Henning Presterudstuen (University of Bergen)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I analyse sex and sexuality as key modalities through which young Fiji citizens experience modernity through their bodies.
Paper long abstract:
The young Fiji citizens I conduct research with frequently highlight their own bodies as the main site for constructing and experiencing modernity. They sculpt their bodies to look modern through dieting or exercise, adorn their bodies with modern hair styles, Western-style clothing and tattoos, or engage in a variety of bodily practices that are valorized as progressive and popular. In this paper I conceptualize sex and sexuality as key modalities through which such cultural valuations become embodied and sensuously real. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic research in urban, multi-ethnic Fiji I discuss how young people experience sex in context of rapid social change and how they use 'sexy' and 'sexiness' as reference points for judging their own and others' appearance, the nature of a desirable, or modern, body, and how these bodies are positioned and utilized experientially. A key argument is that the present moment is one that provides increased sexual license and freedom while also giving rise to new insecurities. In my analysis I pay particular attention to how young people perceive and negotiate notions such as sexual agency, consent and power. As I conclude my paper I reflect on what ethnographic studies of sexual practice and the discourses that surround them can contribute to broader conceptual debates about gender, sexuality and subjectivity in contemporary society.
Maiko Kodaka (SOAS, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will discuss female fan culture surrounding male porn actors in female-friendly pornography, and face-to-face interaction that they have with them. In order to shed light on how addiction to simulated intimacy affects female fans' gendered understanding of love, intimacy, and marriage.
Paper long abstract:
The paper will discuss female fan culture surrounding male porn actors in female-friendly pornography, Josei-muke (literally means "for women" in Japanese) adult videos, and face-to-face interaction that they have with them. Since the decline of Adult Video industry, which is equivalent to Japanese porn industry, due to free online streaming sites, one of the biggest AV companies in Japan, Soft on Demand (SOD), decided to launch a new production line for female consumers in 2009, called SILK LABO. The crucial innovation of SILK LABO is the cult-like fandom that has evolved around its male actors, Eromen, which is a combination of erotic and men. Their main job is to act in SILK LABO's films and to interact with fans at fan events where fans can shake hands, take photographs, or hug them. Sometimes fans that belong to official fan clubs set up by SILK LABO can apply for lunch dates with Eromen, so that they can enjoy a pseudo-relationship. Alexandra Hambleton (2016) has argued that the discourse which SILK LABO produces was submissive because it was 'reinforcing ideas of normative female desires and sexual behavior' (2016, p439) in Japanese society. However, underlying problem is not just gender clichés, but also fans' understanding of love, intimacy and marriage due to their ability of buying intimacy from Eromen. The paper will discuss the cognitive problems of those female fans who are addicted to such a consumption of intimacy based on fieldwork which has been conducted from September 2018 to August 2019.