TY - JOUR
T1 - Postfeminist Heterotopias
T2 - negotiating ‘safe’ and ‘seedy’ in the British sex shop space
AU - Evans, Adrienne
AU - Riley, Sarah
AU - Shankar, Avi
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - This article contributes to debates concerning the sexualization of culture in the European context by analysing shifts in contemporary forms of British women's (hetero)sexual sexual subjectivities in relation to consumer culture. The article employs a 'heterotopological' analysis of how space is materialized through history, power and discourse. A two-part analysis is employed that, first, maps the history of British sex shops in relation to two discourses of sexuality and consumption, namely 'safe' and 'seedy'; and second, analyses how these discourses can be taken up and negotiated by young women today, as evidenced in a focus group discussion on 'Ann Summers'. It concludes that new directions and interesting insights into the intersections of space, power, gender and sexuality within neoliberal postfeminist shifts in feminine identity can be made by considering female-oriented sex shops as 'postfeminist heterotopias'.
AB - This article contributes to debates concerning the sexualization of culture in the European context by analysing shifts in contemporary forms of British women's (hetero)sexual sexual subjectivities in relation to consumer culture. The article employs a 'heterotopological' analysis of how space is materialized through history, power and discourse. A two-part analysis is employed that, first, maps the history of British sex shops in relation to two discourses of sexuality and consumption, namely 'safe' and 'seedy'; and second, analyses how these discourses can be taken up and negotiated by young women today, as evidenced in a focus group discussion on 'Ann Summers'. It concludes that new directions and interesting insights into the intersections of space, power, gender and sexuality within neoliberal postfeminist shifts in feminine identity can be made by considering female-oriented sex shops as 'postfeminist heterotopias'.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954718050&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350506810368817
U2 - 10.1177/1350506810368817
DO - 10.1177/1350506810368817
M3 - Article
SN - 1350-5068
VL - 17
SP - 1
EP - 19
JO - European Journal of Women's Studies
JF - European Journal of Women's Studies
IS - 3
ER -