This international edited collection contributes to knowledge about the geographies of sexualities experienced and imagined in rural spaces. The book draws attention to the heterogeneity of rural contexts and the diversity of meanings about sexualities within and across these spaces. The collection examines four key themes. First, `Intimacies and Institutions' focuses on how intimate relationships are governed by societal, discursive and institutional structures, and regulated by social, political and legal frames of citizenship and belonging. The chapters present historical and contemporary case studies of the constitution and management of intimate sexual lives and relationships in rural and non-metropolitan spaces. Second, `Communities' explores how sexual identities are socially-constructed and relationally-performed in rural communities, scrutinizing the complex interplay of belonging and alienation, inclusion and exclusion, for sexual subjects and communities within rural spaces. Analyzing films, literature and interviews, the chapters examine sexuality and community, and "queer" notions of rural family and community. Third, `Mobilities' examines movement/migration at different scales. Cross-national data provides insights into similarities and differences in rural migration and homemaking for lesbians, gay men and same-sex families. The chapters consider how movement, coming out and memories of time and place inflect home, identity and belonging for rural lesbians and gay men. Fourth, `Production and Consumption' investigates the commodification of rural sexualities. The chapters interrogate the management of animal bodies and sexualities in industrial agriculture for consumer pleasure and commercial ends; how heterosexuality and sexual relations are transacted in mining communities; and the global commodification of rural masculine sexualities. This book is timely. It provides important new insights about ruralities and sexualities, filling a gap in theoretical and empirical understandings about how sexualities in diverse rural spaces are given meaning. This collection begins the processes of furthering discussion and knowledge about the inherently dynamic and constantly changing nature of the rural and the multiple, varied and complex sexual subjectivities lived through corporeal experiences and virtual and imagined lives.
Chapter 1: Geographies of Ruralities and Sexualities: An Introduction Andrew Gorman-Murray, Barbara Pini and Lia Bryant Section 1: Intimacies and Institutions Chapter 2: Respectable Country Girls Richard Phillips Chapter 3: Rural Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Equalities: English Legislative Equalities in an Era of Austerity Kath Browne and Nick McGlynn Chapter 4: Heterosexual Marriage, Intimacy and Farming Lia Bryant Section 2: Communities Chapter 5: Rural Men in Nordic Television Programs Hanna-Mari Ikonen and Samu Pehkonen Chapter 6: Documenting Lesbian and Gay Lives in Rural Australia Andrew Gorman-Murray Chapter 7: Queering the Hollow: Space, Place and Rural Queerness Mathias Detamore Chapter 8: Space, Place, and Identity in Conversation: Queer Black Women Living in the Rural US South LaToya E. Eaves Section 3: Mobilities Chapter 9: Conceptual and Spatial Migrations: Rural Gay Men's Quest for Identity Alexis Annes and Meredith Redlin Chapter 10: "It doesn't even feel like it's being processed by your head": Lesbian Affective Home Journeys To and Within Townsville, Queensland, Australia Gordon Waitt and Lynda Johnston Chapter 11: Coming Out, Coming In: Geographies of Lesbian Existence in Contemporary Swedish Youth Novels Jenny Bjoerklund Section 4: Production and Consumption Chapter 12: Screwing with Animals: Industrial Agriculture and the Management of Animal Sexuality Claire E. Rasmussen Chapter 13: Gender, Sexuality and Rurality in the Mining Industry Barbara Pini and Robyn Mayes Chapter 14: The Global Cowboy: Rural Masculinities and Sexualities Chris Gibson Chapter 15: Sexuality, Rurality, and Geography: A Conclusion Barbara Pini, Lia Bryant and Andrew Gorman-Murray
