[Dancecult-l] New book: Risky Pleasures? Club Cultures and Feminine Identities

[Graham St John]

Fiona Hutton. 2006. Risky Pleasures? Club Cultures and Feminine 
Identities. Aldershot: Ashgate.

In this book Fiona Hutton provides a fascinating insight into women's 
experiences of clubbing. Based on a rich ethnographic account of the 
Manchester club scene, Risky Pleasures? is set within the context of 
the theoretical literature on youth subcultures, female friendship, 
consumption, risk and the city.

The work highlights both the producers of club scenes - promoters, 
DJs, dealers - and the consumers - women negotiating pleasure and 
risk in club spaces and in the city at night. It explores the range 
of club spaces, developing a typology of 'mainstream' and 
'underground' clubs, and considers how different types of 
participants are attracted to different 'scenes'. It examines women's 
recreational drug-use within a club context and discusses issues of 
sexuality, tolerance and the importance of 'attitude' in terms of 
women's feelings of safety.

Revealing the important role of different spaces and different 
atmospheres in how women participate in club scenes, Fiona Hutton 
argues that drug taking and sexual pleasure are always contextualized 
within the environments created in different spaces, and that the 
risk and danger negotiated by women clubbers are counterbalanced by 
fun and pleasure - and ultimately empowerment.


Contents
Introduction; The invisible woman? The participation of women on club 
scenes; Gendered experience of club spaces; Negotiating the night 
time economy: women as drug dealers, DJs and club promoters; Pleasure 
and risk: drug use and club scenes; Safety, sexuality in the club and 
in the city; Consuming and producing club spaces: the negotiation of 
risk and pleasure by clubbing women; Bibliography; Index.

Reviews
'Risky Pleasures? is a groundbreaking book, which foregrounds women's 
experience of Manchester's contemporary club spaces. Situated within 
a detailed discussion of risk, pleasure, drug use and sex, Hutton 
draws on interview material, highlighting the ways women negotiate 
tension and conflict. An exciting read which provides a new and 
relevant agenda for the discussion of women in club spaces.' 
Professor Sheila Whiteley, University of Salford, UK

'This ground-breaking book uses the voices of young women to address 
the everyday gendered negotiation of risk and pleasure in clubbing. 
It makes both an important contribution to the risk thesis literature 
and to setting an innovative feminist agenda for exploring sexual and 
drug-based behaviour in club cultures.' Jenny Ryan, Manchester 
Metropolitan University, UK

https://www.ashgate.com/shopping/title.asp?key1=&key2=&orig=results&isbn=0%207546%204424%203
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