Secret objects in the home: Potency, (in)visibility and everyday relationships

Abstract

This article argues that the material dimensions of secrecy, which have been neglected within academic research into consumption and into material culture, are ripe for sociological analysis and attention. We draw on two empirical projects – one using qualitative interviews to talk to women about their sex toys and the other ethnographically informed research into things people keep but are no longer using - to explore secret things within the home. By taking a facet methodology approach, we consider secret objects in relation to each other and interrogate how secrets are made (in)visible through strategies and practices around objects within the home and how the potency of secret objects is managed. We make two key arguments: first, considering the relationship between secrecy and intimacy, we argue that there are three dimensions of secrecy (which do not always coalesce): what is known about, what is verbalised, and what is materialised. Second, we redirect the idea of relational work to material things, looking at where things are kept, who they are revealed to and the silences around things, and argue that these practices are part of the work of everyday relationships and intimacies. The article demonstrates that objects are vital in understanding how secrecy, intimacy and everyday relationships are lived and forms part of a wider argument for the sociology of culture to centre the unnoticed and mundane.