Laud Humphreys Tearoom Trade free essay sample

Review and critique of Laud Humphreys book, `Tearoom Trade .` This paper critiques Laud Humphreys Tearoom Trade book. The author finds fault with the book most noticeably in the form of sampling methods. Laud Humphreys book Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places examines the homosexual acts between strangers meeting in public restrooms in parks, called tearooms by those who use them for this purpose. Typically, the tearoom encounter involved three people: the two men actually engaged in the homosexual act and a lookout or watchqueen. Humphreys work focuses on the social organization of same-sex sexual encounters in public places. He found a collective action in tearooms, a silence of interaction and a ritual of non-coerciveness and non-commitment. This collective action includes flexible roles and rules like a game. Collective actions include: positioning, signaling, contracting, foreplay, and payoff. Tearoom Trade . . . also reveals that 54 percent of the men involved were married and 42 percent were Catholic, while 32 percent were politically and socially conservative. We will write a custom essay sample on Laud Humphreys Tearoom Trade or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Humphreys declares that closeted men hid behind a moral shield and created a self that was presentable and respectable. The book reveals that a thrill was gained from risky, public sex. Humphreys work raised questions of social control of sex behavior and policy. Police were often harassers out to destroy these mens reputations.