The Sexual Organization of the City

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Edited by Edward O. Laumann, Stephen Ellingson and Jenna Mahay

University of Chicago Press

Due/Published October 2005, 435 pages, paper

ISBN 0226468976

New in paper (F05)

In The Sexual Organization of the City, Edward Laumann and the coeditors of this book argue that the idea of the city as a place where "anything goes"--where you can have any kind of sex you want, with whomever you like, anytime or anywhere you choose-- is a myth. Drawing on extensive surveys and interviews with Chicago adults, they show that the city is--to the contrary--a place where sexual choices and options are constrained. From Wicker Park and Boys Town to the South Side and Pilsen, they observe that sexual behavior and partnering are significantly limited by such factors as which neighborhood you live in, your ethnicity, what your sexual preference might be, or the circle of friends to which you belong. In other words, the social and institutional networks that city dwellers occupy potentially limit their sexual options by making different types of sexual activities, relationships, or meeting places less accessible.

To explain this idea of sex in the city, the editors of this work develop a theory of sexual marketplaces--the places where people look for sexual partners. They then use this theory to consider a variety of questions about sexuality: Why do sexual partnerships rarely cross racial and ethnic lines, even in neighborhoods where relatively few same-ethnicity partners are available? Why do gay men and lesbians have few public meeting spots in some neighborhoods, but a wide variety in others? Why are African Americans less likely to marry than whites? Does having a lot of friends make you less likely to get a sexually transmitted disease? And why do public health campaigns promoting safe sex seem to change the behaviors of some, but not others?

Considering vital questions such as these, and shedding new light on the city of Chicago, this work promises to recast our ideas about human sexual behavior.