Sex panics, sex publics, sex memories

C. Castiglia

Sex panics are outgrowths of restrictive changes in cultural consciousness, of which the crackdowns on nonnormative sexual spaces by the police or by zoning boards are only late manifestations. In particular, sex panics cannot take place without a systematic assault on memories that associate sex and subjectivity in ways that challenge normative regimes. Different acts of memory generate and justify different sexual consciousnesses, which in turn shape divergent theories of the relationships sexual subjects-specifically urban gay men-have to social protest and organization.