Soft City - Sex for Business and Pleasure in New York City

In The Soft City, the ethnographer Terry Williams ventures deep into the underground world of sex in New York. The book explores different aspects of the "perverse space" of the city: porn theaters, sex shops, peep shows, restroom cruising, sadomasochism clubs, swingers' events, and many more.

List of contents

Introduction
1. Soft City Encounters
2. Topless and Bottomless Bars
3. Gender Play
4. Peep Shows
5. Escorts and Clients
6. Smell, Touch, and Participation
7. Sadomasochism and Bondage
8. Orgies and Swinger Events
9. Lesbian and Gay Spaces
10. The Future of the Soft City
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Methodological Ethics
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Terry Williams is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the New School for Social Research. His previous Columbia University Press books are The Con Men: Hustling in New York City (2015); Teenage Suicide Notes: An Ethnography of Self-Harm (2017); and Le Boogie Woogie: Inside an After-Hours Club (2020).

Summary

In The Soft City, the ethnographer Terry Williams ventures deep into the underground world of sex in New York. The book explores different aspects of the “perverse space” of the city: porn theaters, sex shops, peep shows, restroom cruising, sadomasochism clubs, swingers’ events, and many more.

Product details

• Authors: Terry Williams
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.04.2022
• EAN: 9780231177955
• ISBN: 978-0-231-17795-5
• No. of pages: 312
• Series: The Cosmopolitan Life
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; New York, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Prostitution & Sex Trade, Urban communities