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With(out) pleasure: Desexualization, gender and sexuality at work

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Author

  • Katie Sullivan

Summary, in English

This article explores desexualization in massage therapy as a complex interaction between therapists and clients wherein sexual subjectivities are co-constructed, reified and in one case revised to highlight how workers can create a professional sexual identity in the spaces between desexualization and re-eroticization. Findings suggest that organizational mandates for desexualization as well as therapists' own framing maintains gendered subjectivities that paint men as aggressors and women as victims. It also offers, through the philosophy of one female therapist, an alternative to desexualization that seeks to encourage sexuality based on professionalism, respect and choice. A key implication of this study is that a more holistic and context-dependent view of work and workers is necessary for scholars and practitioners to understand the promise and perils of organizational desexualization.

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

346-364

Publication/Series

Organization

Volume

21

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • re-eroticization
  • gender
  • ethnography
  • professionalization
  • desexualization

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1350-5084