The interplay between intimacy and commodification: Queer agency and vulnerability amid neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which lesbians’ economic and intimate lives are closely intertwined amid neoliberal development in the urban landscape. Previous research on queer urban life has primarily drawn attention to commodified gay neighbourhoods and other sites for sexual consumption, which are often marketised as part of a liberal and queer-friendly urban landscape, in Euro-American contexts. Such a focus is not adequate, however, to capture the complex interplay between intimacy and commodification in contemporary societies. Drawing upon interviews with 35 lesbians in Beijing, this study shows how the market is experienced by lesbians as a site of queer agency and vulnerability under neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics. The findings reveal ‘commodified forms of intimacy’, through which lesbians actively engage in the labour market and (queer-targeted) pink market in order to develop their intimate relations. Meanwhile, ‘intimatised forms of commodification’ illustrate how women’s gendered and sexual expressions are closely policed and evaluated in the workplace as a site of both economic production and the reproduction of social norms. Participants were conscious of their vulnerable position as women and lesbians in the marketplace, but they were active in strategising ways to navigate urban landscapes of heteronormativity and gender inequalities. This article helps to develop a deeper understanding of the complicated and contradictory impacts of neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics on queer communities. It contributes to urban sociology and sexuality studies by mapping the multiple connections between commodified relations and intimate relations in the neoliberal city.

Intimate networks of care: Perceptions of intergenerational family care and experiences of ageing among Chinese midlife and older lesbians and gay men

“…At least I can afford to hire a domestic helper or move to a better private care home’ (Lok, lesbian, aged 48). These remarks can be understood within the wider neoliberal environment, where more people, especially those in the LGBTQ community, aspire to become self‐enterprising agents and overcome the stigma attached to their sexual identities (Kong, 2023; Lo, 2023b). Nevertheless, apart from individual efforts, a few participants believed that community support would play a crucial role in later life.…”

“…In the context of care in later life, caring for others often entails ongoing self‐evaluations of moral virtue—notions of what is right and wrong—and societal pressure to assess how one is faring as a moral being according to dominant values (Broom et al., 2016; Sayer, 2005). This is particularly relevant in Chinese societies due to the cultural importance attached to interpersonal relations and intergenerational care, which firmly embed the relational self within the normative expectations of being a ‘good’ and ‘respectable’ person and child (Lo, 2023b). Meanwhile, the affective dimensions of care—qualities that establish intimate ties that bind—are often overshadowed by frameworks of moral obligation (Broom et al., 2016).…”

The Cross-Regional Impact of Taiwan’s Same-Sex Marriage Legalisation: The Queer Economy of Welfare Mix

“…The Cross-Regional Impact of Taiwan's Same-Sex Marriage Legalisation stumbling blocks in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Chinese societies (Kong, 2019;Lo et al, 2023;Lo, 2024). The fact that the Legislative Yuan passed a special law in 2019 legalising marriage for same-sex couples, without amending the traditional definition of marriage in the Civil Code, still demonstrates the hegemony of heteronormative values.…”