Pleasure in danger: queer counterpublics and the policing of ‘chemsex’

• In Event: Roundtable: Strange bedfellows or long-lost lovers? Queer Theory and Critical Criminology

Abstract

This paper will take a case study-based approach to examine the silo-ing of critical criminology and queer theory, and explore the relationship between the enforcement of ‘counterpublic health’ (Race, 2009) strategies aimed at community self-management of ‘chemsex’ practices amongst men who have sex with men (MSM), and creeping processes of criminalisation in England & Wales. Community responsibilisation in queer counterpublics has often been positioned as a means of resisting the stigmatising carceral logics that typically underpin policing and punishment of drug users. However, I will argue that a dialogue between queer theory and critical criminology is crucial for scrutinising how the renouncement of pleasure for the sake of the health of the community contributes to processes of marginalisation, policing, and criminalisation of sexualised drug use.

Author

• Alex Dymock, Goldsmiths, University of London