2017 Brasseur Pierre, L’invention de l’assistance sexuelle : sociohistoire d’un problème public français, PhD in sociology, Université Lille 1 et Clersé.

This dissertation explores the emergence of a public problem in France: sexual assistance to people with disabilities. Based on interviews with supporters and opponents of sexual assistance, observations during training sessions or conferences on sexual assistance, and a corpus composed of archives, journals, specialised works, and grey literature, we analyse the genesis and deployment of this new activity. In the light of the sociology of sexuality, disability, public problems and professions, this work shows that, far from being taboo, the question of ‘disability and sexuality’ has been the subject of many discourses that condition the way in which the public problem of ‘sexual assistance’ is posed today. The analysis allows us to look back at the invention of a French public problem related to sexuality issues, after years of failure. This type of questioning is only possible through the construction of the legitimacy of action. This thesis thus contributes to the understanding of the political subject ‘disability and sexuality’, but also, more broadly, to the sociology of the link between ‘sexuality’ and ‘work’.

2019 Brasseur Pierre, Finez Jean, ‘True amateurs: Camgirls or the Fantasy Sideline’ in Jourdain Anne, Naulin Sidonie (eds.), The Marketisation of Everyday Life. Commodifying Domestic and Leisure Activities, Palgrave Macmillan.

The claim of amateurism occupies a growing place in the world of pornography. This is particularly true of sexcamming, the activity of broadcasting live erotic or pornographic shows on the Internet from home for a fee. Based on an interview-based field survey, this chapter analyses the logic of engagement in the work and professional learning processes of camgirls. We show that women who start sexcamming do so for economic reasons and that those who become more involved have specific skills that can be valued in the activity. To hope to live from sexcamming, camgirls invest their time, their bodies and their emotions. As seasoned professionals, they learn to behave as ‘authentic amateurs’ by giving their shows the appearance of a side job and by weaving intimate relationships with the spectators. The economy of sexcamming is thus based on the logic of commercial valorisation of a so-called out-of-work fantasised by clients.

2019 Brasseur Pierre, Rodriguez Jacques, « Les handicapés témoins, les valides experts — actions et mobilisations en faveur du droit à la sexualité des personnes en situation de handicap », Participations, pp.139-158.

The objective of this article is to analyse the rhetoric used by the supporters of sexual assistance to set up this practice as a cause to be defended, a rhetoric that mixes recourse to emotions and figures, to lay and learned expertise. After a quick presentation of this practice, its origins and current developments, the article will focus on describing the awareness-raising devices used by advocates of the ‘sexual assistance’ cause and the place given to people with disabilities without these devices.

2014 Brasseur Pierre, ‘A vocation to love the disabled the failed mobilisation of Jean Adnet,’ Gender, Sexuality and Society, no. 11.

Since the early 2000s in France, collectives of people with disabilities have been mobilising to develop reflections on their sexuality and on what might be a ‘sexual condition’ inherent to disability. This article proposes to contribute to the archaeology of the question ‘disability and sexuality’ by bringing to light the mobilisation of a disabled person, Jean Adnet, who in the 1950s mobilised to develop a vocation to love the disabled. This case serves as a support for the description of the way in which the love and sexuality of the disabled were considered; it also makes it possible to describe a sexual claim, its course, then its failure.

2021 Brasseur Pierre, « Notice : Handicap » in Rennes J. et al (dir.), Encyclopédie critique du genre, Paris, La Découverte, p.293-305).

Disability is a new issue for the French social sciences interested in gender and sexuality. It has only recently appeared in synthesis works. The situation is different for English-speaking social sciences, which have extensively documented the issue of sexuality and gender since the 1990s and have thus examined its intersections with disability. In this notice, we favour a thematic breakdown, first addressing the intersections between disability and gender, then those between disability and sexuality, while focusing on the articulation of these different fields of analysis.

2018 Brasseur Pierre, Nayak Lucie (eds.), ‘Disability,’ Gender, Sexuality, and Society, no. 17.

The sexuality of people with disabilities has received some media attention in recent years. In this issue, we highlight the recent contributions of studies on this subject, through the texts of French-speaking authors, mainly from the human and social sciences. In the introduction to the issue, we propose an overview of studies on ‘disability and sexuality’: we trace the history of the different types of expertise on the subject, whether from medicine, law or the social sciences.

To be published Brasseur Pierre, Pour ne pas vivre seul : sociologie de l’assistance sexuelle, Lyon, Presses universitaires de Lyon.

How should sexual assistance be organised in France today? What role should politics play in this activity? Is it legitimate, in the name of what some call the sexual misery of a few, to establish a new sex work, which some people would like to see recognised by the State? These are the questions at the heart of this book. From the beginning of the twentieth century until today, groups of disabled people, politicians and feminists have demanded access to sexuality, for different reasons depending on the climate of ideas at the time. Our analysis focuses on the following questions: How did the public problem of sexual assistance arise in France? How can we explain that one of the only forms of politicisation of the question of ‘disability and sexuality’ in France is embodied by sexual assistance? How does sexual assistance work in France and abroad?