A Black Feminist Autoethnography on Race, Desire, and Erotic Massage
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Touching Paranoia: A Black Feminist Autoethnography On Race, Desire, And Erotic Massage Jasmine Salters University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the African American Studies Commons, Communication Commons, and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Salters, Jasmine, "Touching Paranoia: A Black Feminist Autoethnography On Race, Desire, And Erotic Massage" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2563. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2563 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2563 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Touching Paranoia: A Black Feminist Autoethnography On Race, Desire, And Erotic Massage Abstract Despite declarations of a “post-race” America, race and racism continue to pervade all aspects of American life and society—from our laws and language to our daily interactions and erotic desires. Drawing on five years of ethnographic research at a Black-owned adult massage studio in Los Angeles County, California, Touching Paranoia focuses on the experiences of erotic masseuses of color (Black, Latina, Filipina, and mixed-race) to examine the ways race and racism infiltrate our intimate encounters and fantasies, and how women of color—who exist at the intersection of race, gender, class, and the economy—navigate and negotiate prejudice in an industry and larger society built on their devaluation. As an underground racialized and gendered sexual marketplace in which conscious and unconscious racial bias is expressed as “personal preference” and discrimination is unrestrained by laws and political correctness, the author finds that the commercial sex industry serves as a fruitful space to explore how the legacy of slavery continues to haunt and shape our erotic lives—from our sexual preferences to our preoccupation with and paranoia about interracial relations and Black sexuality, which remains enveloped in racist mythologies, fantasies, and distortions. Responding to calls of Black feminist theorists such as Cathy Cohen and Evelynn Hammonds to expand discussions of Black women’s sexuality beyond assault, injury, and exploitation, the author adapts theories from feminism (with a focus on critical race feminism, Black feminisms, and sex-radical feminism), performance studies, sex and sexuality studies, and Marxism to create a new Black feminist interpretive framework—sex-radical Black feminist Marxist feminism—attentive not only to a history of racial trauma and oppression, but the complexities and contradictions of Black female sexuality, pleasure, and subjectivity. She also advocates Black feminist autoethnography (BFA) as methodological and theoretical intervention in communication studies. Ultimately, Touching Paranoia maintains that the commercial sex industry is a critical site for the production of knowledge about race, sexuality, desire, paranoia, and the daily realities of women of color in “post-race” capitalist America, while also making the case for the erotic, touch, humor, and storytelling as potential sites of resistance, belonging, and increasing consciousness. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Communication First Advisor John L. Jackson Subject Categories African American Studies | Communication | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2563 TOUCHING PARANOIA: A BLACK FEMINIST AUTOETHNOGRAPHY ON RACE, DESIRE, AND EROTIC MASSAGE Jasmine Salters A DISSERTATION in Communication Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation ___________________________ John L. Jackson, Jr. Dean, School of Social Policy & Practice; Richard Perry University Professor Graduate Group Chairperson ___________________________ Joseph Turow, Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication Dissertation Committee Marwan M. Kraidy, Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics & Culture Victor Pickard, Associate Professor of Communication Dedication page Zine Mae Salters 10.31.36 – 05.21.14 ii ABSTRACT TOUCHING PARANOIA: A BLACK FEMINIST AUTOETHNOGRAPHY ON RACE, DESIRE & EROTIC MASSAGE Jasmine Salters John L. Jackson, Jr. Despite declarations of a “post-race” America, race and racism continue to pervade all aspects of American life and society—from our laws and language to our daily interactions and erotic desires. Drawing on five years of ethnographic research at a Black-owned adult massage studio in Los Angeles County, California, Touching Paranoia focuses on the experiences of erotic masseuses of color (Black, Latina, Filipina, and mixed-race) to examine the ways race and racism infiltrate our intimate encounters and fantasies, and how women of color—who exist at the intersection of race, gender, class, and the economy—navigate and negotiate prejudice in an industry and larger society built on their devaluation. As an underground racialized and gendered sexual marketplace in which conscious and unconscious racial bias is expressed as “personal preference” and discrimination is unrestrained by laws and political correctness, the author finds that the commercial sex industry serves as a fruitful space to explore how the legacy of slavery continues to haunt and shape our erotic lives—from our sexual preferences to our preoccupation with and paranoia about interracial relations and Black sexuality, which remains enveloped in racist mythologies, fantasies, and distortions. Responding to calls of Black feminist theorists such as Cathy Cohen and Evelynn Hammonds to expand discussions of Black women’s sexuality beyond assault, injury, and exploitation, the author adapts theories from feminism (with a focus on critical race feminism, Black feminisms, and sex-radical feminism), performance studies, sex and sexuality studies, and Marxism to create a new Black feminist interpretive framework—sex- radical Black feminist Marxist feminism—attentive not only to a history of racial trauma and oppression, but the complexities and contradictions of Black female sexuality, pleasure, and subjectivity. She also advocates Black feminist autoethnography (BFA) as methodological and theoretical intervention in communication studies. Ultimately, Touching Paranoia maintains that the commercial sex industry is a critical site for the production of knowledge about race, sexuality, iii desire, paranoia, and the daily realities of women of color in “post-race” capitalist America, while also making the case for the erotic, touch, humor, and storytelling as potential sites of resistance, belonging, and increasing consciousness. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... III INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 I. SING A BLACK GIRL’S SONG: A CULTURAL STUDIES APPROACH TO THE COMMERCIAL SEX INDUSTRY ......................................................................................... 1 Gentrification Of Commercial Sex (Aka Sex Work) ......................................................... 9 Black Sexuality, (Im)Morality, And Silence .................................................................... 12 The Erotic Life Of Racism And Paranoia ....................................................................... 14 Constructing A Sex-Radical Black Feminist Marxist Framework .................................. 18 II. BLACK FEMINIST AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AS FIXING METHODOLOGY IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES ........................................................................................... 24 ESSAYS ........................................................................................................................................ 33 I. POLITRICKING: PERFORMING RACE, SEXUALITY, & RESPECTABILITY THROUGH LATE CAPITALISM ........................................................................................................... 33 Politrickin’: An Essay ..................................................................................................... 35 II. TOUCH, DESIRE, AND RACIAL PARANOIA ..................................................................... 48 Touching Paranoia: An Essay ....................................................................................... 49 Sorry, No Ghetto Or Black Guys: An Essay .................................................................. 60 III. DUALITY & THE EMOTIONAL LABOR OF BLACK WOMANHOOD ............................... 72 Crooked Rooms, Locked Doors: An Essay ................................................................... 73 Excuse Me For Living: An Essay ................................................................................... 83 IV. NAVIGATING AND NARRATING STRATEGIES OF SURVIVAL: MANAGING EROTIC LABOR THROUGH FEMALE FRIENDSHIP, SPIRITUALITY, STORYTELLING, AND HUMOR .............................................................................................................................. 99 The Thing About Luck: An Essay ...............................................................................