Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Sociology

Committee Chair

Carol Rambo

Committee Member

Gretchen Peterson

Committee Member

Wesley James

Abstract

Drawing on evocative autoethnographic accounts of cruising for sex in public, this paper examines the cruising subculture within gay culture as a voluntary risk-taking leisure activity and thereby a form of edgework. Traditionally, edgework has been conceptualized along gendered lines, which associate risk with masculinized and feminized forms of risk-taking. Therefore, this paper also seeks to push the theoretical conceptualization of edgework beyond the gendered interpretations associated with the theory by using queer theory to re-examine the order/chaos binary along the heterosexual/homosexual edge of sexual identity. By queering edgework, cruising becomes a voluntary risk-taking leisure activity that both shatters and reifies sexual identity along this heterosexual/homosexual edge.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

Notes

Embargoed until 4/5/2024

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