ABSTRACT

Nightclubs and their surrounds provide the structural conditions for rethinking the relationship between bodies and sex and explore intimacy and sexual agency outside the moral codes of villages and settlements. The term qauri is frequently used as a collective noun in popular discourses to describe all male-bodied, non-heteronormative individuals in Fiji, In reality, the term can include a wide array of different gendered and sexual identities, ranging from transvestites and drag queens to ostensibly straight' men who perform effeminate jobs or social roles. Driven largely by tourist demand, though probably frequented just as much by locals, there are established strips in Nadi, Lautoka and Suva as well as smaller regional centres that are readily identified as places where one can regularly solicit sexual favours, and 'money girls' as well as male-bodied qauri are frequently identified in and around nightclubs and bars.