“Oops, I didn’t know we couldn’t talk about sex”: Sex researchers talking back to the erotophobic academy using the researcher’s erotic subjectivities

Abstract

A proliferation of research outputs in recent years that takes into account the erotic subjectivities of the researcher seems to suggest that both research on sexuality and the inclusion of the desiring researcher’s body in academic writings have become accepted as valuable and relevant academic research topics and methods. Yet, the often animated and at times uncomfortable discussions these academic interventions generate—also beyond academic settings—attest to the enduring sensitivity that comes with (discussing) the researcher’s sex and sexuality. This special section aims to provide a space to explore the methodological, ethical, and epistemological implications of (i) the researcher’s immersion in or withdrawal from sexual/ized interactions, and (ii) reflexively reporting about the researcher’s erotic subjectivities in scholarly outputs such as journal articles or conference presentations. In doing so, it not only critiques current academic structures and a masculinist politics of science that are at best not equipped to take into account the complexities of (auto-)ethnographic sex research. It also turns a critical eye towards the blind spots we might have as sex researchers towards the differential power relations with different actors involved in (auto-) ethnographic research that explicitly deals with the researcher’s erotic subjectivities. Reducing those blind spots will make us less vulnerable to gratuitous comments by the erotophobic academy as well as the increasing conservative societal forces who are all too eager to delegitimize our academic writings, while exploring the complexities of (auto-) ethnographic sex research aims to increase the rigour of our work. By talking back, we aim to advance conversations on the methodological, ethical and epistemological implications of taking seriously the researcher’s erotic subjectivities in our research endeavours.