In offering a ‘gendered’ analysis of ‘Chemsex’, this essay will focus on the use of ‘bodies’ in the documentary, asserting that an amalgamation and syncretic reading of primarily two psychoanalytic theoretical frames is required. Focusing on pornographic depictions of the act, it seeks to present itself as a ’neutral’ examination of the rise of chemsex while at the same time giving space for heavily medicalised and pathological arguments for its desirability among urban gay men. The documentary ‘Chemsex’, is a particularly famous example of such sensational coverage. The intense medical and media focus on the practice of gay sex with drugs has led to numerous reports, sexual health strategies and sensational coverage on the practice, which has in part led to the theoretical consolidation of the subculture and the growing entanglement of sex and drug taking in the ‘urban’ gay male community. Since then, a relatively new term has taken the place as the ‘new frontier’ for the study of gay sexual risk: chemsex. In 2009, psychoanalyst and queer theorist Tim Dean released Unlimited Intimacy, an anthropologically-tinged yet creatively psychoanalytic account of the bareback and bug-chasing subculture(s).
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