Gay and straight men travelling for sex after the sexual revolution – differences and common frameworks

Research project
In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Christopher Ewing, Purdue University; USA

The project links sex tourism among gay men with sex tourism among heterosexual men in order, first, to examine the development of this form of tourism as well as the associated social and political discussions, cultural representations, and infrastructures from a distinctly historical perspective; and second, to overcome a latent division in the history of sexuality between queer and heteronormative sexuality by bringing these two groups together within a shared analytical framework.
This project, which was launched with funding from the Junior Host Program at Freie Universität Berlin, creates a space for the joint publication of three articles addressing the following topics: 1) the sexual fantasies underlying tourist encounters; 2) the transactional dimension of these encounters, as well as critiques of commercialization, exploitation, and international regimes governing sex work; 3) the integration of sex tourism into sexual politics and its temporal logics with regard to notions of progressiveness and backwardness.