Cruising as Contact (at a Distance)

Abstract This essay draws on a range of theoretical, sociological, and creative texts—including two books by John Rechy and a film by Frank Ripploh—to theorize the perceptual phenomenology of cruising, or the practice of seeking out and engaging in semipublic sex with strangers. I argue that cruising involves a haptic mode of looking, one that facilitates a kind of erotic contact at a distance. This understanding of cruising helps to explain certain aspects of the phenomenon that are often overlooked in scholarly work on cruising, such as its connection to the erotics of the gaze, its association with compulsivity, and its potential to foster selfish forms of sexual experience. I suggest that an attention to the optical mechanics of cruising might not only help to cultivate a clearer understanding of the phenomenon itself but also push back against the prescriptivist tendencies of much cruising scholarship.