Moral Geographies, Politics of Desire & Urban Segregation
SEX & THE CITY
Start
Dr Nazanin Shahrokni, IS385 Week SEVEN Lecture, 2025
Disciplining bodies & Desires
• Cities are not neutral—they reflect power, morality, and control.
• Who gets to be visible? Who is hidden? Who is policed?
• "Space is never just about land; it is about control." • Moral geographies define ‘respectability’ & ‘deviance’ in urban life.
Next
Mapping morality onto urban space
moral geography
Cities designate spaces as ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’ through laws and policing.
"Space is produced through power and contested through resistance." "The city is not just a place—it is an argument about who belongs." Moral geographies are not fixed: they shift in response to cultural anxieties, poltiical power and economic interests. They are also tied to notions of respectability.
Next
moral panic
• Stanley Cohen: Societies manufacture moral panics to control marginalized groups.
• "Moral panics create monsters, but the real danger is who gets to define them."
• "The police, the media, and the state love a good villain. It keeps them in power."
Next
Case studies
Gayborhoods
redlight districts
Both reveal deeper contradictions in urban governance-where state & society simultaneously tolerate, exploit, and repress sexual identities & economies
Next
Gayborhoods
sites of survival & resistance
A gayborhood is born out of exclusion & dies from its own success.
PHASE I Closeted (Pre-WWII): Hidden networks, underground bars, and coded language
PHASE II Out and Proud (Post-WWII-1990s): Political movements, visibility, and territorialization
PHASE III Gentrified** (1990s-Present): Rainbow capitalism, real estate investment, and displacement
Next
The Rise and Fall of Gayborhoods
"You can’t Airbnb the revolution."
• San Francisco’s Castro, New York’s Greenwich Village, and Paris’ Le Marais started as refuges.
• "The city gives and the city takes away. Today’s sanctuary is tomorrow’s commodity."
• Gentrification drives LGBTQ+ people out of the very spaces they created.
Next
When Fear Justifies Oppression
• HIV/AIDS Crisis (1980s) → "A plague sent by God!" led to state-sanctioned queer repression.
• Police raids on bathhouses, curfews, and ‘clean-up’ campaigns.
• "The moment we get too visible, the state reminds us we were never welcome."
Next
gayborhoods for sale
the irony of inclusion
Homonormativity: The shift from radical activism to rainbow capitalism. "First they police us, then they brand us." Example: The Castro’s ‘trendy’ rebranding pushed out working-class LGBTQ+ residents. "Pride is now a business plan, not a protest."
Next
Rebels in Rainbows
queer resistance
QUEERSTORy
QUEERING THE MAP
LGBTQ+ ZINES
CITIES AS SITES OF QUEER ACTIVISM
Next
Gayborhoods: A Critical approach
The Masculinization of Gay Urban Space
Gayborhoods as Sites of Racial and Class Exclusion
The Commodification of Queer Spaces: Rainbow Capitalism
The Exclusion of Trans & Non-Binary People
COMPLETE!
Next
redlight districts
A visit to Storyville
"Every city wants sex workers. They just don’t want them in the brochures." - Hubbard
Surveillance & Control Prostitutes monitored, while male clients remain invisible.
Economic Interests Sex work brings in tourism, yet remains criminalized.
Moral Regulation Keep vice ‘contained’ but profitable.
Next
moral geography & redlight districts
Pathologization of the Sex Worker Media constructing sex workers as diseased, criminal or victims justifying policing
Moral Containment Separation of sex work from "respectable" spaces, reinforcig genderd moral geographies
Racialized/Classed Dimensions Poor women of color are disproportionately criminlized within red-light zones.
Next
The Hypocrisy of Urban Clean-Ups
Amsterdam’s De Wallen: Legal yet under attack by gentrification.
"Cities love red-light districts when they make money, but hate them when they talk back."
Project 1012: Sex workers displaced in favor of ‘respectable’ businesses.
"Sex work is tolerated only when it stays silent."
COMPLETE!
Next
Sex workers fight back
Amsterdam (2015): Sex workers storm City Hal---l"Don’t save us, save our jobs!" Barcelona’s La Casa de X: Sex-worker led housing cooperative UK’s English Collective of Prostitutes: Pushing for full decriminalization.
India's Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee: Advoating decriminalization
Next
the city as a moral battleground "The urban battlefield is not just about land—it is about bodies, identity, and power." Desire is policed, marketed, and weaponized.
Next
see you next week.
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Transcript
Moral Geographies, Politics of Desire & Urban Segregation
SEX & THE CITY
Start
Dr Nazanin Shahrokni, IS385 Week SEVEN Lecture, 2025
Disciplining bodies & Desires
• Cities are not neutral—they reflect power, morality, and control. • Who gets to be visible? Who is hidden? Who is policed? • "Space is never just about land; it is about control." • Moral geographies define ‘respectability’ & ‘deviance’ in urban life.
Next
Mapping morality onto urban space
moral geography
Cities designate spaces as ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’ through laws and policing. "Space is produced through power and contested through resistance." "The city is not just a place—it is an argument about who belongs." Moral geographies are not fixed: they shift in response to cultural anxieties, poltiical power and economic interests. They are also tied to notions of respectability.
Next
moral panic
• Stanley Cohen: Societies manufacture moral panics to control marginalized groups. • "Moral panics create monsters, but the real danger is who gets to define them." • "The police, the media, and the state love a good villain. It keeps them in power."
Next
Case studies
Gayborhoods
redlight districts
Both reveal deeper contradictions in urban governance-where state & society simultaneously tolerate, exploit, and repress sexual identities & economies
Next
Gayborhoods
sites of survival & resistance
A gayborhood is born out of exclusion & dies from its own success.
PHASE I Closeted (Pre-WWII): Hidden networks, underground bars, and coded language
PHASE II Out and Proud (Post-WWII-1990s): Political movements, visibility, and territorialization
PHASE III Gentrified** (1990s-Present): Rainbow capitalism, real estate investment, and displacement
Next
The Rise and Fall of Gayborhoods
"You can’t Airbnb the revolution."
• San Francisco’s Castro, New York’s Greenwich Village, and Paris’ Le Marais started as refuges. • "The city gives and the city takes away. Today’s sanctuary is tomorrow’s commodity." • Gentrification drives LGBTQ+ people out of the very spaces they created.
Next
When Fear Justifies Oppression
• HIV/AIDS Crisis (1980s) → "A plague sent by God!" led to state-sanctioned queer repression. • Police raids on bathhouses, curfews, and ‘clean-up’ campaigns. • "The moment we get too visible, the state reminds us we were never welcome."
Next
gayborhoods for sale
the irony of inclusion
Homonormativity: The shift from radical activism to rainbow capitalism. "First they police us, then they brand us." Example: The Castro’s ‘trendy’ rebranding pushed out working-class LGBTQ+ residents. "Pride is now a business plan, not a protest."
Next
Rebels in Rainbows
queer resistance
QUEERSTORy
QUEERING THE MAP
LGBTQ+ ZINES
CITIES AS SITES OF QUEER ACTIVISM
Next
Gayborhoods: A Critical approach
The Masculinization of Gay Urban Space
Gayborhoods as Sites of Racial and Class Exclusion
The Commodification of Queer Spaces: Rainbow Capitalism
The Exclusion of Trans & Non-Binary People
COMPLETE!
Next
redlight districts
A visit to Storyville
"Every city wants sex workers. They just don’t want them in the brochures." - Hubbard
Surveillance & Control Prostitutes monitored, while male clients remain invisible.
Economic Interests Sex work brings in tourism, yet remains criminalized.
Moral Regulation Keep vice ‘contained’ but profitable.
Next
moral geography & redlight districts
Pathologization of the Sex Worker Media constructing sex workers as diseased, criminal or victims justifying policing
Moral Containment Separation of sex work from "respectable" spaces, reinforcig genderd moral geographies
Racialized/Classed Dimensions Poor women of color are disproportionately criminlized within red-light zones.
Next
The Hypocrisy of Urban Clean-Ups
Amsterdam’s De Wallen: Legal yet under attack by gentrification.
"Cities love red-light districts when they make money, but hate them when they talk back."
Project 1012: Sex workers displaced in favor of ‘respectable’ businesses.
"Sex work is tolerated only when it stays silent."
COMPLETE!
Next
Sex workers fight back
Amsterdam (2015): Sex workers storm City Hal---l"Don’t save us, save our jobs!" Barcelona’s La Casa de X: Sex-worker led housing cooperative UK’s English Collective of Prostitutes: Pushing for full decriminalization. India's Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee: Advoating decriminalization
Next
the city as a moral battleground "The urban battlefield is not just about land—it is about bodies, identity, and power." Desire is policed, marketed, and weaponized.
Next
see you next week.