Sexuality+and+Drug+Use

=Sexuality and Drug Use= toc

The Cultural and Geographical/Spatial Relationship Between Sex and Drugs
Looking at the work of Foucault to frame our discussion about sexuality and drug use, we can understand how sex practices and drug use are interconnected through socially and spatially prearranged customs and practices (Del Casino, 2012). Foucault was interested in mapping out different spaces where sex is labeled, discussed, normalized, pathologized, or branded as moral or immoral. Branding and labeling ultimately makes up the rules governing sex that a society or group abides by (Del Casino, 2012). An example of this spatial relationship is the popular adage that sex belongs, “in the bedroom,” or as for Foucault, where bathhouses hold a significant meaning for permissible sex within the gay community. Spaces reserved for sex and drug use are regulated through state and civil society and through the self regulatory systems of groups (Del Casino, 2012). Given the vast variety that exists both globally and within small subcultures, drug use and sexual practice cannot be reduced to a singular story or narrative (Del Casino, 2012).

Sex and Drugs
Drugs co-create with their users a bodily set of feelings, sensations, desires, and outcomes, which in turn create new human–nonhuman combinations of bodies, drugs, sexual experiences, and other socio-spatial interactions (Del Casino, 2012). Methamphetamine could produce heightened levels of physical ‘pleasure’ or social connections through the sharing of this drug (Del Casino, 2012). Hormones could produce physical changes in a user’s body that allow the user to perform or bring about certain embodiments (Del Casino, 2012). The interplay between sexuality and drug use can show how people perform their identities as drug users and sexual beings in relation to the spaces of sex and drugs as well as to socio-cultural and geopolitical realities (Del Casino, 2012).

Cross-cultural Examples
We can see the dynamic interaction between sexuality, drug use, and the socio-cultural context in which they are combined across cultures. Here, we examine four specific examples:

In the United States: Methamphetamine Use among MSM //by Kim McLaughlin// Drug Use and Sex in the Gay Circuit Party and Rave Party Cultures //by Bridget Callahan//

Across the Globe: Culture, Society, Drugs and the Sex Industry in Thailand //by Noelle Cordeaux// Sex and Khat Use in Ethiopia //by Lindsay Lock//

=References= Del Casino, V. J. (2012, March). Drugs, sex, and the geographies of sexual health in Thailand, Southeast Asia. //Social & Cultural Geography, 13//(2), 109-125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2012.655766