Title: The Boyfriend’s Vibe: Erotic, Emotional, and Affective Labor

Speaker:  David Tsoi Kwok Kwan (Department of Anthropology, CUHK)

Date: 4 December 2020

Time: 1:00-2:30 pm

Zoom Meeting Info

Link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/98216399170

Meeting ID: 982 1639 9170

Passcode: 642795

Abstract:

This talk is based on a chapter of my MPhil thesis titled “Precarious Labor, Vulnerable Intimacy: A Study of Queer Sex Work in Hong Kong.” Masseurs in local gay massage parlors provide not only massage services, but also “happy ending”, namely sexual release, for customers. Masseurs have been cast into the public spotlight in local new reports in which depicts gay commercial sex is described as the gist of masseurs’ work. Drawing from eight months of field work and in-depth interviews, I argue for the importance to adopt a more nuanced approach to studying the role of sex in masseurs’ labor process, one that pays attention to affects, emotions, and human relations. Masseurs engage in a labor process that values the production of intimate feelings, which I describe as the “boyfriend’s vibe.” In this talk, I will discuss how the boyfriend’s vibe is delivered through masseurs’ deployment of sex and emotions at different times and spaces, and how in some cases emotional labor and affective labor related to elevating customers’ sense of class could potentially lead to alienation of labor in masseurs. If time permits, I will address how the Anti-extradition bill movement, a recurring theme in my fieldwork, ushered in unexplored spaces and new challenges in relation to emotional labor and affective labor.

Bio:

David Tsoi is a current MPhil student in the Department of Anthropology, CUHK. In his study of queer anthropology, he is particularly interested in how the intersecting notions of intimacy, class, desirability politics, and capitalism inform the labor conditions and the process of subject-formation of queer sex workers in Hong Kong.