Intoxicating the ‘charmed circle’: Constructions of deviance and normativity by people who combine drugs and sex

Abstract

Sex involving illicit drugs is currently receiving close academic attention. For the most part, research in this area is public health orientated and focuses on the experiences of men who have sex with men engaging in ‘chemsex’. In the current article, I use in-depth interview data from 14 participants across a range of gender and sexual identities to undertake a queer criminological analysis of sex on drugs. Taking Gayle Rubin’s foundational Thinking Sex as a starting point, I argue that participants’ narratives construct a sober/drug-involved sex hierarchy in which the former is afforded a higher status. I then utilise critical work on drug ‘effects’, Tim Dean’s work on ‘raw sex’ and notions of stigma to interrogate assumptions underpinning this hierarchy. I argue that the perceived artificial nature of intoxicated intimacy, the unmediated appeal of sober sexual intimacy and stigma connected to certain drugs and certain sex-on-drug-practices underlie participants talk. I conclude that ‘thinking sex on drugs’ demonstrates the productive potential of criminological engagement with queer theory, and vice versa.