Distributed for Zubaan Books
Intimate City
A profile of the history of sex work and the sexual economy in Mumbai, India's cultural and financial capital.
In Intimate City, Manjima Bhattacharjya examines how globalization and technology have changed where and how sexual commerce is transacted. She maps offline and online geographies of sex work and unearths new perspectives: from changing red-light areas to the world of escort services; from the experiences of massage boys to men in search of casual encounters cruising the internet highways. Through these fascinating narratives, Bhattacharjya analyzes how the internet has reconfigured intimacies in the digital age. In doing so, she offers a new lens to look at long-held feminist understandings of sex work, choice, consent, and agency against the backdrop of the “maximum city” of Mumbai.
In Intimate City, Manjima Bhattacharjya examines how globalization and technology have changed where and how sexual commerce is transacted. She maps offline and online geographies of sex work and unearths new perspectives: from changing red-light areas to the world of escort services; from the experiences of massage boys to men in search of casual encounters cruising the internet highways. Through these fascinating narratives, Bhattacharjya analyzes how the internet has reconfigured intimacies in the digital age. In doing so, she offers a new lens to look at long-held feminist understandings of sex work, choice, consent, and agency against the backdrop of the “maximum city” of Mumbai.
Table of Contents
Glossary
Introduction: Sex, Commerce and World Cities
A Note on Methodology and Positionality
SECTION 1: GLOBALIZATION AND SEX WORK
1 A ‘Geographies’ Approach
2 Who Sells and Who Buys? Political Economies
3 Changing Sexual Scripts: Enter Technology
Notes in the Margins #1: A New Landscape for Feminists
SECTION 2: HISTORIES AND GEOGRAPHIES – BOMBAY/MUMBAI
4 Red Light Histories
5 Cultural Topographies, Embedded Traditions
6 Raid and Rescue Geographies
Notes in the Margins #2: Caste Enters the Debates
SECTION 3: THE UNIVERSE OF SEXUAL TRANSACTIONS ONLINE
7 The ‘Discerning Gentleman’ Client
8 Obedient and Willing: Constructing the Escort Girl
9 The New Age Boys’ Clubs
Notes in the Margins #3: What Men ‘Need’
SECTION 4: REAL MEETS VIRTUAL
10 Casual Encounter Specialists
11 The Cruisers
12 Servicing Female Clients
13 An Escort Girl’s Perspective
Notes in the Margins #4: A Precarious Life
Conclusion: ‘Intimacities’: Urban Lives and Intimacy in the Age of the Internet
Notes
References
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Sex, Commerce and World Cities
A Note on Methodology and Positionality
SECTION 1: GLOBALIZATION AND SEX WORK
1 A ‘Geographies’ Approach
2 Who Sells and Who Buys? Political Economies
3 Changing Sexual Scripts: Enter Technology
Notes in the Margins #1: A New Landscape for Feminists
SECTION 2: HISTORIES AND GEOGRAPHIES – BOMBAY/MUMBAI
4 Red Light Histories
5 Cultural Topographies, Embedded Traditions
6 Raid and Rescue Geographies
Notes in the Margins #2: Caste Enters the Debates
SECTION 3: THE UNIVERSE OF SEXUAL TRANSACTIONS ONLINE
7 The ‘Discerning Gentleman’ Client
8 Obedient and Willing: Constructing the Escort Girl
9 The New Age Boys’ Clubs
Notes in the Margins #3: What Men ‘Need’
SECTION 4: REAL MEETS VIRTUAL
10 Casual Encounter Specialists
11 The Cruisers
12 Servicing Female Clients
13 An Escort Girl’s Perspective
Notes in the Margins #4: A Precarious Life
Conclusion: ‘Intimacities’: Urban Lives and Intimacy in the Age of the Internet
Notes
References
Acknowledgments