The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Welcoming the world? Hospitality, homonationalism, and the London 2012 Olympics

Welcoming the world? Hospitality, homonationalism, and the London 2012 Olympics
Welcoming the world? Hospitality, homonationalism, and the London 2012 Olympics
In an era of intense “entrepreneurial” city marketing, overt attempts to court LGBT consumers and investors have been made not solely through the promotion of lesbian and gay arts festivals, pride celebrations and “specialised” cultural events, but also through “mainstream” mega-events. This paper explores this with reference to London's 2012 Olympics, an event which welcomed LGBT spectators, volunteers and participants through a series of initiatives proclaiming the Games as distinctively “gay friendly”. Considering this in the light of queer critiques—particularly those concerning homonationalism—we argue that this marketing of London as sexually diverse relied on the effacement of certain sexual practices and spaces not easily accommodated within normative, Western models of sexual citizenship, tolerance and equality. In conclusion, it is argued that the Olympics represented a moment when particular ideas of sexual cosmopolitanism were deployed to regulate, order and normalise the variegated sexual landscapes of a world city.
sexuality, sex work, world cities, tolerance, homonormativity
0066-4812
598-615
Hubbard, Phil
6f0ff0e8-b62c-4e39-8e59-ee050e37d16e
Wilkinson, Eleanor
b4e83f65-1c06-4c86-b70c-4cd307d2738a
Hubbard, Phil
6f0ff0e8-b62c-4e39-8e59-ee050e37d16e
Wilkinson, Eleanor
b4e83f65-1c06-4c86-b70c-4cd307d2738a

Hubbard, Phil and Wilkinson, Eleanor (2015) Welcoming the world? Hospitality, homonationalism, and the London 2012 Olympics. Antipode, 47 (3), 598-615. (doi:10.1111/anti.12082).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In an era of intense “entrepreneurial” city marketing, overt attempts to court LGBT consumers and investors have been made not solely through the promotion of lesbian and gay arts festivals, pride celebrations and “specialised” cultural events, but also through “mainstream” mega-events. This paper explores this with reference to London's 2012 Olympics, an event which welcomed LGBT spectators, volunteers and participants through a series of initiatives proclaiming the Games as distinctively “gay friendly”. Considering this in the light of queer critiques—particularly those concerning homonationalism—we argue that this marketing of London as sexually diverse relied on the effacement of certain sexual practices and spaces not easily accommodated within normative, Western models of sexual citizenship, tolerance and equality. In conclusion, it is argued that the Olympics represented a moment when particular ideas of sexual cosmopolitanism were deployed to regulate, order and normalise the variegated sexual landscapes of a world city.

Text
Hubbard_et_al-2015-Antipode.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
Download (155kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 16 January 2014
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 February 2014
Published date: 20 June 2015
Keywords: sexuality, sex work, world cities, tolerance, homonormativity
Organisations: Geography & Environment

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 372499
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/372499
ISSN: 0066-4812
PURE UUID: 9ec97e50-08fc-4b77-a934-d77b6f6da806

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Dec 2014 13:32
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 18:37

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Phil Hubbard

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×