NO STRINGS ATTACHED: GAY CRUISING IN PREMIUM HEALTH CLUBS

Abstract

This thesis is concerned about the phenomenon of gay men’s cruising in premium health clubs in Singapore, with a specific focus on Fitness First gyms and its bathrooms. Through an ethnographic research undertaken at several of the clubs, I examine how the practice of cruising among men who have sex with men (MSMs), allows them to create a space apart from the normative pressures of Singaporean society through the clubs’ bathrooms. Salient to this study is the construction of space, in particularly the ways in which MSMs forge a sense of privacy through public sex. In so doing, I argue that because MSM sex is considered to be ‘deviant’ sex, MSMs who want to pick up casual sex have to do so in a covert though public way, and the socio-spatial constructions of the bathrooms make them amenable to this. Most significantly, we also see that the creation of the private-public space of the bathrooms relies on a shared etiquette and conduct among MSMs. As the study takes place at the bathrooms of Fitness First gyms, I have also looked into the role of gay gym culture in the formation of the cruising community and its semiotics, particularly the dynamics of the bodybuilding culture, the ideal male body and its relations to gay men cruising. I hope that this study will deepen our understanding towards a largely marginalised, often misrepresented community in a heteronormative, fairly conservative society.