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This paper examines the politics of pleasure at the site of the carnival. Carnival spaces have long been celebrated as subversive where both sexualized and gender boundaries are contested and rendered contingent. The place and performance of 'party' in the spaces of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) Prides in Dublin and Brighton and Hove are the focus. Specifically, I address the parade through each city and the 'party' after this parade. Drawing on empirical research (221 self-reporting questionnaires undertaken by non-heterosexual women and qualitative research with forty-nine women) the paper examines the messy (re)constitution of Pride spaces through politics, fun and commercialization. I argue that the tensions between politics, the party and payment offer nuanced conceptualizations of Pride spaces in 'liberal' societies. Hedonistic Pride spaces, whilst challenging heteronormativity, are sites of fun. I argue they are best conceptualized as 'parties with politics', once again moving discussions of political action between the politics-party binary. In conclusion, I suggest that, alongside discussions of discriminations, abuse and prejudices, examinations of 'sexual deviancy' should include fun and partying in the performance of politics. Here, hedonism and enjoyment are read as central to a party with politics and thus the (re)constitution of sexed spaces, bodies and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores performances of heterosexuality amongst single, straight British expatriates resident in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I draw on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, involving participant-observation and interviewing. Specifically, I focus on performances of transient heterosexuality, by which I mean performances of heterosexuality that are characterised by frequent sexual encounters with successive partners and which are enacted in relation to discourses of transience. Firstly, I explore how Dubai is understood as a particular 'landscape of desire' (Bell and Valentine 1995), arguing that performances of transient heterosexuality are privileged in its bar/club spaces. I suggest that the changing nature of British transnationalism, transformations in Dubai's night-time economy and, in particular, expatriate discourses about the transnational city as a holiday-like space, influence such performances. Secondly, I consider the ambivalence amongst single British expatriates towards performances of transient heterosexuality. I argue that such performativity is celebrated as an escape from domesticated forms of couple intimacy yet, at the same time, constructed as a negative result of transnationalism. Finally, I explore how single British expatriates' performances of heterosexuality are refracted through more widespread, and powerfully gendered, international discourses about couple intimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the politics of pleasure at the site of the carnival. Carnival spaces have long been celebrated as subversive where both sexualized and gender boundaries are contested and rendered contingent. The place and performance of 'party' in the spaces of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) Prides in Dublin and Brighton and Hove are the focus. Specifically, I address the parade through each city and the 'party' after this parade. Drawing on empirical research (221 self-reporting questionnaires undertaken by non-heterosexual women and qualitative research with forty-nine women) the paper examines the messy (re)constitution of Pride spaces through politics, fun and commercialization. I argue that the tensions between politics, the party and payment offer nuanced conceptualizations of Pride spaces in 'liberal' societies. Hedonistic Pride spaces, whilst challenging heteronormativity, are sites of fun. I argue they are best conceptualized as 'parties with politics', once again moving discussions of political action between the politics-party binary. In conclusion, I suggest that, alongside discussions of discriminations, abuse and prejudices, examinations of 'sexual deviancy' should include fun and partying in the performance of politics. Here, hedonism and enjoyment are read as central to a party with politics and thus the (re)constitution of sexed spaces, bodies and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]