Flirtatious geographies: clubs as spaces for the performance of affective heterosexualities

Abstract

This article addresses the (hetero)sexualized, sensuous and affective nature of straight club spaces in Singapore. By attending to the theoretical intersections between affect studies and feminist perspectives, I argue that straight clubs are sites for the performances of affective heterosexualities that may and may not end up re-inscribing asymmetrical gendered power relations. In so doing, I hope to contribute to the growing literature on affectual geographies by expounding on the numerous technologies of affect which are being deployed in order to incite, transmit and sustain (hetero)sexual desires between bodies. Flirtatious (hetero)sexual practices thus give rise to, and are a result of, the political manipulation of intensely felt affects. Furthermore, I suggest that we should not overlook how becoming (hetero)sexual ‘feels like’ because these ‘feelings’ work to crystallize (hetero)sexual spaces and subjectivities. Nonetheless, we must also be careful not to discount the salience of ‘heterosexuality’ as a representational device that serves to codify and categorize sexual desires between bodies.

Este artículo aborda la naturaleza (hetero)sexualizada, sensual y afectiva de los espacios de los clubes heterosexuales en Singapur. Prestando atención a las intersecciones teóricas entre los estudios del afecto y perspectivas feministas, este trabajo sostiene que los clubes heterosexuales son sitios para las performancia de las heterosexualidades afectivas que pueden o no terminar re-inscribiendo relaciones de poder asimétricas en cuanto al género. Al hacerlo, espera contribuir a la creciente literatura sobre las geografías afectivas exponiendo sobre las numerosas tecnologías del afecto que se despliegan con el objetivo de incitar, transmitir, y sostener los deseos (hetero)sexuales entre los cuerpos. Las prácticas del coqueteo (hetero)sexual, por lo tanto, dan lugar a y son el resultado de la manipulación política de afectos sentidos intensamente. Además, mientras se sugiere que no deberíamos dejar de ver cómo se ‘siente’ volverse (hetero)sexual debido a que estos ‘sentimientos’ funcionan para cristalizar los espacios/subjetividades (hetero)sexuales, debemos también ser cuidadosos de no descontar la relevancia de la ‘heterosexualidad’ como un dispositivo representacional que sirve para codificar y categorizar los deseos sexuales entre cuerpos.

本文处理新加坡异性恋夜店空间的（异）性化, 感观与情感的本质。透过致力于情感研究与女性主义视角的理论交锋，我主张异性恋夜店做为展演异性恋情感的场域，并不一定会导致重新铭刻不对等的性别权力关系。以此，我期盼透过详述用以撩拨, 传播和维系（异）性恋身体间的欲望的各类情感技术，对逐渐增长中的情感地理学做出贡献。（异）性恋的调情实践，促成对于密集感知的情感的政治操弄，并同时为此一操弄的结果。更进一步而言，当我们主张不应忽略成为（异）性恋作何‘感觉’, 因为这些‘感觉’具体化了（异）性恋空间／主体性之时，我们必须小心不要低估了‘异性恋’的特点做为将身体间的性欲进行编码与分类的再现机制。

Keywords:

• clubbing
• performance
• affect
• heterosexuality
• gender

Keywords:

• ir a los clubes
• performancia
• afecto
• heterosexualidad
• género

Keywords:

• 泡夜店
• 展演
• 情感
• 异性恋
• 性别

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Dr Eric Olund, Erica Yap and Cheng Yi'En for helpful comments on previous drafts of the article. My heartfelt thanks also go to the editor of GPC, three anonymous referees and my thesis supervisor Associate Professor Shirlena Huang for their immense guidance and patience.

Notes

1. The bracketed term (hetero)sexuality is used to emphasize heterosexuality as a type of sexuality that often goes unnoticed. It also connotes the precariousness of normative sexuality as something that has to be constantly reenacted as not just sexual, but heterosexual.

2. These interviews were conducted in English. Although some of my respondents spoke in Singlish (colloquial English), there were no major issues in translatability. Their names have been changed to ensure their anonymity.

3. As a novice clubber who was not acquainted with the clubbing scene, I did not have many social contacts at first. This meant feeling out of place initially as I took time to familiarize myself with the spatiality of these clubs. Exchanges between other clubbers and those who work in the club, e.g. bouncers and bar tenders, were brief and generally limited with a lot of gesticulating because of the noisy club environment. Field notes were briefly recorded using a mobile phone throughout the night in the club, and later elaborated in full after each clubbing night-out.

4. Pick-up refers to making a casual acquaintance with a stranger, sometimes in anticipation of sexual relations.

5. Grinding/bump-n-grind/dirty-dancing/freak-dancing/dry-humping is a dance genre associated with clubs that play hip-hop music. It simulates sexual acts as two people in close bodily contact rub against each other fully clothed and is accompanied with rhythmic pelvic thrusts. It tends to start off with one partner (generally a man) behind the other (generally a woman).

6. Cock-blocking refers to the act of intercepting a man who tries to get close to a woman.