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THE SOFT CITY THE SOFT CITY SEX FOR BUSINESS AND PLEASURE IN NEW YORK CITY terry williams COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup . columbia . edu Copyright © 2022 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Disclaimer: All names have been changed in the interest of privacy. All writers of field notes are anonymized. Consent to use notes in the text has been given and permissions granted. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Williams, Terry M. (Terry Moses), 1948– author. Title: The soft city : sex for business and pleasure in New York City / Terry Williams. Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021046704 (print) | LCCN 2021046705 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231177948 (hardback) | ISBN 9780231177955 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780231555012 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Sex- oriented businesses— New York (State)— New York. | Sex— New York (State)— New York. Classification: LCC HQ146.N7 W55 2022 (print) | LCC HQ146.N7 (ebook) | DDC 306.7409747— dc23/eng/20211006 LC record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2021046704 LC ebook record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2021046705 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid- free paper. Printed in the United States of America Cover design: Julia Kushnirsky Cover photograph: GettyImages / Ted Thai Contents Introduction 1 1. Soft City Encounters 8 2. Topless and Bottomless Bars 27 3. Gender Play 56 4. Peep Shows 80 5. Escorts and Clients 93 6. Smell, Touch, and Participation 131 7. Sadomasochism and Bondage 166 8. Orgies and Swinger Events 197 9. Lesbian and Gay Spaces 224 10. The Future of the Soft City 260 Acknowledgments 265 Appendix: Methodological Ethics 267 Glossary 275 Notes 277 Bibliography 283 Index 291 THE SOFT CITY Introduction I arrived in New York City in 1964 after traveling across the country by Grey- hound bus, from the dirt roads and pine trees of Mississippi, over the rolling hills of Tennessee, through the flatlands of North Carolina, past the mar- ble sculptures of Washington, DC, and, a few hours later, into Manhattan. As we drove through Times Square, I saw through my window the throngs of people, bright lights, and sights and sounds of the big city, which I was visiting for the first time. Where were all these people going, and where did they all come from? I would later recall how naive these questions were but, also, how Times Square would eventually become a central part of my intellectual life. A decade later, Professor William Kornblum at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York was teaching ethnography, a brand of Chicago School sociology that was just right for engagement with the city, whose heart was Times Square. But by 1974, this was a different Times Square. I had taken an interest in sociology, particularly its ethnographic method of going out into the world, because it fit with my life at the time: adventuring, hearing and telling stories, writing notes, and discovering new worlds. I had a negative opin- ion of the discipline of sociology at that time and wanted to go beyond what I felt was merely academic voyeurism and into an honest engagement with the different people I met and larger worlds I encountered. I became enthralled with the darker, seedier sides of Times Square and other parts of the city and the alternative cultures that fed them and into them. I lived at night and slept by day, got up at sunset, roaming the city from Harlem to Greenwich Village. I remember hanging out with a university colleague at a bar on West Forty- Third Street. On the surface it looked like any other bar, but after a few minutes, nuances of the “pimp” and “ho” game became apparent to my trained eye. I had