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Cruising the Village: A visual ethnography of public sex between men in Manchester city centre.
[Thesis]. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester; 2013.
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Abstract
This thesis explores the forms of movement and modes of perception of men seeking sex with other men along a stretch of canal, approaching the city centre of Manchester in the UK. It deals with two types of activity that were colloquially known as ʻcruisingʼ, a term which refers to the seeking of anonymous public sex by men wishing to meet other men and ʻbusinessʼ which describes a variety of exchanges of intimacy, for money, goods and/or services. My study incorporated a variety of places along the banks of the Rochdale Canal, including Manchesterʼs ʻGay Villageʼ. The Manchester Gay Village is well known locally, nationally and internationally for its late night hedonistic party scene and the annual Gay pride celebration that brings thousands of tourists to the city. However cruising and business were less well known, occurring in the out of sight corners of the village and sections of towpath along the canal. This research explores the forms of mobility by which these activities took place and through which the men made sense of their interactions. The first aim of this thesis is therefore to create an ethnography of these under- researched activities. A critical secondary contribution is the use of a combination of drawings, photography and text as an ethnographic novella integrated into the text. These ethno-graphics incorporate testimony from informants, experiences of fieldwork and recounted stories from informants. In addition to respecting the need to anonymise the identities of informants, they are particularly useful for revealing the qualities of uncertainty and of ʻflowʼ in the experiences they describe. A third and final aim of the thesis is to create an ethnography that could be useful to policy makers, outreach workers and informants. As such, these are forms of ethnographic representation and a means of collaborative intervention that can be the basis for considerations of how informants may change their lives and how their lives may be made safer.