Making Space for an Agentic Sexuality? The Examination of a Lesbian/Queer Bathhouse

Abstract

Although an extensive body of work exists exploring the relationships between space and gender, gender performance and identity, little attention has been given to examining the space-agency nexus of lesbian/queer subjects in sexed spaces — this is particularly the case when it comes to exploring lesbian/queer sexualities. Drawing on face-to-face interviews and observations, I examine participants' experiences at Pussy Palace, a lesbian/queer bathhouse in Toronto, Canada, focusing in particular on the ways in which the space enabled and constrained spatial praxis and agency. I conclude that the embodied desire found at Pussy Palace undermines the hegemonic discourse that treats women as passive and subjugating subjects. At the same time, the bathhouse erects its own marginalizing forces, while fostering a particular training of the body that narrows the range of emergent sexualities and alternative sexual scripts.