Overview

Often depicted as deviant or pathological by public health researchers, psychoanalysts, and sexologists, male-with-male sex and sex work is, in fact, an increasingly mainstream pursuit. Based on a qualitative investigation of the practices involved in male-with-male—or m4m—Internet escorting, Touching Encounters is the first book to explicitly address how masculinity and sexuality shape male commercial sex in this era of Internet communications. By looking closely at the sex and work of male escorts, Kevin Walby tries to reconcile the two extremes of m4m sex—the stereotypical idea of a quick cash transaction and the tendency toward friendship and mutuality. In doing so, Walby draws on the work of Foucault to make visible the play of power in these physical and commercial relations between men. At once a revelation to the sociology of work and a much-needed critical engagement with queer theory, Touching Encounters responds to calls from across the social sciences to connect Foucault with sociologies of sex, sexuality, and intimacy. Walby does this and more, retying this sexual practice back to society at large.

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9780226870069

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Reviews

Strongly grounded in debates within sociology, Kevin Walby's work reaches beyond its disciplinary base by drawing on anthropology, psychology, and philosophy, as well as on literary/cultural theory and queer theory. Touching Encounters is very well-researched, well-organized, and well-written - an original and fascinating contribution to the new sociology of sex. (Tim Dean, University at Buffalo, SUNY)

Author Information

Kevin Walby is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Victoria. He is coeditor of Emotions Matter: A Relational Approach to Emotions and Brokering Access: Power, Politics, and Freedom of Information Process in Canada. He is also the Prisoners' Struggles editor for the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons.

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