The erotics of conduct

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article uses a selection of 1970s and 1980s sex manuals to explore Anglo-American gay culture in the years immediately before and after the emergence of HIV/AIDS. Arguing that these texts represent a neglected historical archive, the essay demonstrates that the model of gay liberation that they espouse is caught between individualistic and collective versions of sexual identity, and that this split can best be understood in relation to the wider genre of the conduct book. Noting that sex manuals are inevitably connected to questions of citizenship and imagined selfhood, the article uses a side-by-side reading of The Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex to show that both texts are structured by demeaning assumptions about class, race, and gender identity. The discussion foregrounds Alan Sinfield’s work, especially his questioning of the egalitarian model of gay identity and his attention to queer reading practices. This in turn leads to a consideration of how anti-relational queer theory might be part of a longer tradition of gay conduct writing; this part of the essay revisits and extends an existing debate between Sinfield and Leo Bersani.