CrossRef 2022

Bathing in the Queer City

Olga Petri

Abstrak

This chapter examines the urban adaptations and peculiarities that made communal bathing in St. Petersburg so notably convenient as a context for queer encounters. It discusses how the goalposts in the negotiation over this space shifted in response to government action in the form of the Bathhouse Ordinance of 1879. The chapter then describes how and why this unprecedented and ambitious legislation failed to achieve the intended reforms and instead reinforced queer spatial patterns and the commercial role of sex in the city's bathhouses. The ordinance marked the transition from a bathing tradition in which prostitution was peripheral to one in which it was central to the commercial viability of this singular urban space. Ultimately, the failed reforms provide an important example of an evolving entente and negotiation regarding the city's queer spaces among urban administrative authorities, people who had a pecuniary interest in bathing, queer men, and the general public.

Penulis (1)

O

Olga Petri

Format Sitasi

Petri, O. (2022). Bathing in the Queer City. https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501763779.003.0004

Akses Cepat

Informasi Jurnal
Tahun Terbit
2022
Bahasa
en
Sumber Database
CrossRef
DOI
10.7591/cornell/9781501763779.003.0004
Akses
Terbatas