Eroticization of the Body, Reflexivity, and Qualitative Methodology in Criminology: An Omerta

Abstract

This article reflects upon the notion of reflexivity in qualitative methodology, both generally and specifically within the field of criminology. This reflection stems from completing my pre-field research in Costa Rica, which I undertook while completing my doctoral thesis regarding the sexuality of solo female travelers. Based on a sexual assault I experienced during this pre-field research, I critically discuss the notion of reflexivity in cases where the security of researchers is undermined by the relations of power that exist between gatekeepers and participants as a result of gender identity and the eroticization of the body. This article specifically questions the space assigned to researchers and their bodies in the reflexive process that occurs during fieldwork.We were allowed to play with their words, their ideas, their culture as long as we pretended we were men. As soon as our cunts bobbed into the light of day, they stiffened, their lips tautened, they seemed to draw themselves into themselves; they cut us down. It was better not to try. One part of ourselves mocked another.We joined in their ridicule of our own aspirations. Either you played their game or you didn't play at all.

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

“…And even if we were to diminish or deny the impact of our sexualities on our research, we will still be sexually positioned by those we research (Cupples, 2002;Newton, 1993;Valentine, 2002). In a poignant reflection on sexual assault during field work on sexual encounters between female tourists and local men in the Caribbean, Montmagny Grenier (2021) shows how it was actually the negation of her sexuality and the illusion of being able to work as a professional and "thus" asexual researcher that made her and other sex researchers not envisage being eroticized or sexualized during fieldwork by people other than the participants.…”