Date of Award
Spring 5-2013
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Program
Urban Studies
Department
School of Urban and Regional Studies
Major Professor
Beriss, David
Second Advisor
Ehrenreich, Jeffrey
Third Advisor
Gladstone, David
Abstract
In this research I examine the complexity of male sexuality and masculinity among male sex workers in New Orleans. Despite danger to their health and social standing, men engage in risky sexual behavior with other men for both business and pleasure. These behaviors may stem from the thrill of risk itself, or from other causes such as unexplored sexual inhibitions on the part of the male sex workers or their clients. Focusing on male sex workers, this ethnographic study explores why male sex workers engage in work that is high risk and potentially very dangerous. It examines the world of male sex work as one of the few places where men who adopt homosexual identity and those who refuse it are in intimate contact with one another. It offers us the opportunity to address questions about male sexual identity and homosexual desire, while attempting to understand the commodified spatial practices of a sexual culture in New Orleans.
Recommended Citation
Piqueiras, Eduardo, "Commodified Risk: Masculinity and Male Sex Work in New Orleans" (2013). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1660.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1660
Included in
Gender and Sexuality Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.