Author: Greggor Mattson

• January 18, 2016

  Guest essayist on Policy Trajectories

  Today I’m the featured essayist on Policy Trajectories, the official organ of the Comparative-Historical section of the American Sociological Association. The essay is about how prostitution policy presaged the unraveling of the European Union. Read it out here, and check out the company I’m in! Seriously star-struck.
• January 14, 2016

  1/3 Whatever happened to obscene phone calls?

  Hello? You never hear about obscene phone calls anymore, despite everyone having a phone in their pocket. Yesterday’s item about the guy who was issued Sir Mix-A-Lot’s old phone number treats it as a joke, but I remember being taught in school around 1984 about the danger of “heavy breathers.” At the same time, Barry…
• January 8, 2016

  How do Black Finns celebrate hockey victories?

  By screaming, stripping in -10°F, and sauna, of course: the same as everyone else: From Dosdela‘s Instagram. On January 6th, Finland’s Young Lions won the 2016 World Juniors Hockey championship over Russia in overtime before a home audience. The title comes on the heels of the National Ringette Team winning its world championship the day…
• January 4, 2016

  Against moral panic (for cultural politics)

  Pundits, sociologists, and activists frequently use the term “moral panic” to describe what they perceive as a public overreaction to an issue (or non-issue). Examples include “Prostitution and Human Trafficking – The Anatomy of a Moral Panic,” “What’s Flakka and is it Real? A Guide to the New Moral Panic Drugs,” From Miasma to Ebola:…
• December 25, 2015

  Christmas in a gay bar

  I haven’t yet told you why I go to gay bars to get loaded on Christmas Day. I go to hear the stories. You haven’t heard anything until you’ve gone to a gay bar on Christmas Day and heard the stories… I have discovered that among those of us hanging out in bars on Christmas…
• December 25, 2015

  Chapter: Sociologies of (in)security

  This chapter was written with Lisa Stampnitzky for the edited volume by Philippe Bourbeau. Preprint available here. “In contrast to other disciplines, “security” has not traditionally been a central focus of sociological research. This is not to say that sociologists have not studied problems, sites, interactions, and discourses that are relevant to what has elsewhere…
• December 17, 2015

  International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

  December 17th is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Pause a moment today to consider how the stigma against the women and men called whores and sluts endangers their lives, and the ways in which those everyday insults justify violence from police, partners, clients, strangers, and family members. International Day to End…
• December 8, 2015

  The fate of rust belt gay bars

  Nothing dramatizes the collapse of the Cleveland gay bar scene than this list of nominees for best gay bar from 2010. Seven of 10 have closed (n.b.: Bounce reopened): No new gay bars have opened between 2010 and 2015 that weren’t replacing an existing gay bar, so the failure of 7/10 isn’t a function of…
• December 7, 2015

  Most downloaded, now Free: The Modern Career of the Oldest Profession

  My article on metaphor theory and the history of the phrase “oldest profession” was the second “most downloaded” social science article for Palgrave in 2015. Now it’s FREE for everyone! I wrote about it here. I’m going to credit the bump from the ‘students’ of Hot Dog University, a collaboration between Belt Magazine and Happy…
• November 30, 2015

  Book: How prostitution presaged the failure of Europe

  My book The Cultural Politics of European Prostitution Reform: Governing Loose Women was published by Palgrave in 2016. Is the European Project Falling Apart? asks one of several headlines as the European refugee crisis moves into chronic mode. Where the Greek debt crisis exposed the problems of the Eurozone currency union, the refugee crisis shows how…