The nude beach as a liminal homoerotic place

Abstract

As a socially, culturally and sexually constructed space, the nude beach has been the focus of academic research. Some studies have analysed the nude beach as a place where erotic relations and meanings among men are performed, constructed, negotiated and transformed. These studies however have seldom acknowledged the multiple dimensions of sexualised practices and subjectivities taking place at the nude beach among men. By adopting a homoerotic framework, this study analyses a number of sexualised practices and subjectivities among men in the context of a nude beach in Mexico. Through ethnographic fieldwork and the adoption of photographs as a supplementary research tool, this study reveals that the nude beach becomes a setting for the performance of multiple sexual identities –often culturally determined- that go beyond the traditional notion of “gay”. It also suggests that the nude beach becomes a scenario for different social and sexual practices that define how the beach is constructed as a leisure and liminal space. The study concludes that the nude beach is an amalgamation of several social practices and subjectivities that are widely sexualised, and suggests that the concept of “gay nude beach”, which is frequently used in the literature, is simplistic when attempting to understand the complex dimensions of the several homoerotic relations among males.