posted on 2009-03-31, 11:54authored byBaptiste Coulmont, Phil Hubbard
Pornographic and erotic materials (e.g. magazines, DVDs, sex toys. fetishwear
and lingerie) have always been subject to regulation because of the
perceived potential of such items to ‘corrupt and deprave’. Yet the state and
law has rarely sought to ban such materials, attempting instead to reduce the
visibility of, and access to, them. The outcomes of such interventions have,
however, rarely been predictable, something we explore with reference to the
changing regulation of sex-shops in Britain and France since the 1970s.
Noting ambiguities in the legal definitions of spaces of sex retailing, this
paper traces how diverse forms of control have combined to restrict the
location of sex-shops, simultaneously shaping their design, management and
marketing. Describing the emergence of gentrified and ‘designer’ stores, this
paper argues that regulation has been complicit in a process of neoliberalisation
that has favoured more corporate sex-shops - without this
having ever been an explicit aim of those who have argued for the regulation
of sex retailing.
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Geography and Environment
Citation
COULMONT, B. and HUBBARD, P., 2009. Consuming sex: socio-legal shifts in the space and place of sex-shops. Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference 2009, 7th-9th April 2009 at Leicester De Montfort Law School