ABSTRACT

Transformations in intimacy have occurred as cultures touch and brush against one another, travelling further than ever before. Boundaries of intimate behaviours, sexual values and concepts of acceptance, consent and access are being reshaped as they move across and between countries in physical and virtual ways. One of the concomitant effects of deterritorializing sex is that sex has also become denaturalized and this has had ramifications for legislation, cultural denotation, academic discourse and activist engagement. As intimacy and sexual subjectivity have become embroiled in a global marketplace, increasing attention has been given to a political economy of sex. The global discourses relating to sexual rights have taken different forms, historically gaining momentum in the sphere of pornography in the mid-1980s from feminists decrying its decensorship and promotion of violence. As borders open up around the world, sex tourism and sex trafficking have flourished in a multi-million-dollar industry that invites exploiters to move freely from one country to another.