Cries of Pleasure and Pain: Vocalizations Communicating How Touch Feels in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

Research on interaction has recently ventured into the domain of sensoriality, hitherto considered inaccessible for video analysis. This article contributes to this emerging field by targeting the interface of touch and vocal sound, dissecting the intersubjective potential of sounding when bodies are intertwined. Studying naturally occurring affective episodes between romantic partners at their homes with the methods of multimodal interaction analysis, we demonstrate how vocalization can express comfort and thus lead to extension of mutual bodily contact, or inform of discomfort, which leads to swift release of the problematic contact. We argue that, by providing immediate and nuanced access to other participants’ ongoing bodily experiences, haptic sensoriality is partially distributed into the auditory domain. The relevance of progressivity in body contact is continuously negotiated and has moral, social, and relational implications, providing grounds for continuous realization of consent. Data are in Finnish.