Nadine Cattan

Gay and lesbian emotional geographies of clubbing: reflections from Paris and Turin

Urban nighttime entertainment spaces, including bars, pubs, and clubs, are a crucial space for the performance of gendered social relations and the experience of sexual identities. This article investigates the emotional spaces of commercial gay and lesbian recreation in two different settings: lesbian nights in Paris, France, and gay clubs in Turin, Italy. This research was carried out through direct observation and auto-ethnographic fieldwork. Drawing on the literature from emotional geographies, the article proposes an alternative take on the geography of gay and lesbian clubbing by applying the metaphors of the island and the archipelago from cultural geography to the gay and lesbian scene. The island and archipelago are presented as metaphors that imply emotions, performance, materiality, spatiality, strategy, and imagination in the performance of the gay and lesbian playscape. The article argues that the club, intended as a type of gay and lesbian island, does not necessarily imply a condition of insulation. Rather, the island implies both metaphor and materiality, and movement may also be considered an emotional strategy for gays and lesbians in the heteronormative urban space.

Selling cruises: Gender and mobility in promotional brochures

Leisure cruising combines movement and stativity in a particular tourist experience: users are supposed to enjoy very different activities, with the movement of the ship guiding them to their destinations. This article analyses visual representations of gender and mobility in over 600 images collected from leisure cruise promotional brochures by taking advantage of a qualitative methodology and by focusing on narratives related to themes of pleasure, work, age and contact with nature/culture. The results stress the presence of an implicitly masculine gaze, with complex and non-linear associations with the themes of mobility and immobility, which relates to visual narratives in a number of different ways, testifying to the multiple meanings that may be assumed by the idea, the practice and the experience of movement.

Atlas mondial des sexualités

« Les femmes et les hommes du XXIe siecle inventent les codes amoureux de demain. » Plus de 120 cartes et infographies pour un panorama inedit des lois et des pratiques sexuelles dans le monde. • Loi et justice : la prostitution combattue dans les pays du Nord et le tourisme sexuel en plein essor dans les pays du Sud. • Viols impunis, droit a l’IVG sans cesse menace : un tour du monde des discriminations. • Vie amoureuse : la polygamie est denoncee en Europe, mais l’infidelite plebiscitee pour faire durer le couple. • Ou en est-on des tabous, des libertes ? Comment se font et se defont les modeles traditionnels ? Entierement mis a jour, cet atlas arrive a point pour instruire le debat : la sexualite n’est pas uniquement une affaire de vie privee et affective, elle est aussi une grande question de societe.