Ambivalent Sexualities in a Transnational Context

Romanian and Bulgarian Migrant Male Sex Workers in Berlin

in Journal of Bodies, Sexualities, and Masculinities
Author:
Victor Trofimov Dept. of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Viadrina European University, Germany victor.trofimov@hotmail.com

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Abstract

In this article, I explore negotiations of sexualities among Romanian and Bulgarian migrant male sex workers in Berlin. After explaining the concept of sexual script, I argue that inasmuch as those sex workers work on the gay male scene but spend the rest of their daily lives within the broader Romanian and Bulgarian communities, they need to negotiate between the gay male and the heteropatriarchal sexual scripts, which are prevalent in these social spaces, respectively. I examine six strategies by means of which the sex workers surf the binarisms of the scripts and in so doing reveal the ambivalence and sociospatial situatedness of human sexuality.

Contributor Notes

Victor Trofimov is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of Viadrina European University in Frankfurt on the Oder, Germany. He holds an MA in Gender Studies from Central European University in Budapest. In his doctoral dissertation, he explores negotiations of sexuality and national identity among Romanian and Bulgarian male street sex workers in Berlin. His research is based on participant observation in a drop-in center for male sex workers, ethnographic interviews, and discursive analysis. He is particularly interested in how the context of migrant sex work both reveals symbolic inequalities of sexualities inherent in the contemporary geosexual order and illustrates the fluidity of sexual identities. Email: victor.trofimov@hotmail.com

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