Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (Sexual Cultures)
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: April 1, 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 208
ISBN-13: 9780814719190
Subjects: Cultural studies; Gender studies; Urban communities; Urban Renewal; Public Policy - City Planning & Urban Dev; Homosexuality, Male; Homosexuality; Sex-oriented businesses; Current Affairs; Politics / Current Events; Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction; USA; Human Sexuality; General; United States - State & Local - General; Gay Studies; Sex customs; Times Square (New York, N.Y.); American; New York; New York (State)
Description: If one street in America can claim to be the most infamous, it is surely Forty-second Street. Once known for its peep shows, street corner hustlers, and movie houses, Forty-second Street has been overwhelmed by the quest for safety - from safe sex and safe neighborhoods to safe cities and safe relationships.

Now defined by corporate theme stores and large, neon-lit cafes, Forty-second Street has, in effect, become a family tourist attraction for visitors from Berlin, Tokyo, Westchester County, and the New Jersey suburbs.

Samuel R. Delany sees a disappearance, not only of the old Times Square, but of the complex social relationships that developed there; the points of contact between people of different classes and races in a public space. In Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, Delany tackles the question of why public restrooms, peep shows, and tree-filled parks are necessary to a city's physical and psychological landscape.

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue paints a portrait of a society dismantling the institutions that promote communication between classes and disguising its fears of cross-class contact as "family values".