Sex and the City

Eroticized Space

Cities have been vilified as morally dubious places of iniquity for much of human history. The great wave of European and North American urbanization that followed the Industrial Revolution disrupted older forms of kinship and family life as people migrated to cities in search of work, lived in new forms of dwellings, and adjusted their quotidian lives to the clock-time of industrial modernity. These new forms of urban life and the anonymity and freedom afforded by large, concentrated populations enabled unorthodox sexual practices and the development of new subcultures based around minority sexualities. In this way, cities themselves have become eroti-cized—there is the possibility of sexual adventure to be found in the circulation of the crowd, the comin-gling of different classes in public space, and the spectacle of the electrified city at night.

Initially identified by the poet Baudelaire on the streets of fin de siècle Paris, the flâneur, or gentlemanly stroller, has become emblematic of the erotic tensions underpinning the enjoyment of urban life. The nineteenth-century flâneur strolled the streets of Paris, idly observing the city and its inhabitants and engaging his senses with all of the pleasures the [Page 698]city had to offer, including its women. Despite his heterosexual origins, the figure of the flâneur has been adopted by writers who have explored the possibilities for homoerotic pleasure in the city. Although usually perceived to be male, the flâneur is a frequent figure in lesbian novels and is often used as a mechanism for exploring the performance of female masculinities. Nevertheless, in negotiating the city's streets, the lesbian flâneur must also negotiate the many ways in which heterosexism and patriarchy constrain women's use of public space.

There are certainly similarities between the flâneur's pleasure-seeking strolls through the city streets and the act of homoerotic cruising. Cruising exploits the ambiguities of encounters on the city streets—the cruiser's glance can easily be interpreted as a modest interaction intended to enforce anonymity and separation, rather than an invitation for connection. Given this ambiguity, cruising is more effective in those urban sites where the cruiser knows he (or she) might find others looking for similar encounters. Consequently, cruising is enacted through an embodied understanding of the erotic potential of specific (urban) sites. Through cruising, the gay flâneur not only seeks sexual adventure but can find community and solidarity (often across social divisions, such as class boundaries and sexual identity).

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