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2019
139

Place Fontainas as a border area. Urban production with respect to sexuality, gender, ethnicity and social class

Notes de la rédaction

This is the press release related to the article from Alexandre Donnen, published on October 7, 2019. Read the article.

Brussels is often presented as a mosaic city, as the diversity of its municipalities can be considerable, even within short distances. But mosaic also means a multitude of interfaces which can also be points of tension. One of them is Place Fontainas, a vast unsightly square located in the centre of Brussels, which will be redeveloped as part of the pedestrianisation of the central boulevards. This square is the junction of Boulevard Anspach and Boulevard Lemonnier, linking the neighbourhood of the Bourse and Grand'Place to the South Station.

Located at the edge of the so-called "gay" district and the Anneessens neighbourhood, Place Fontainas has been the site of many presumed homophobic acts, thus contributing to its categorisation (notably in the media) as a dangerous area, particularly for homosexual populations. This categorisation – not to say stigmatisation – takes place in an area which, in the collective imagination, is largely connected to Muslim populations, reinforcing an association between this area, a specific population and certain socially condemned characteristics such as homophobia.

But this image may be too simplistic to be faithful to a complex reality. This is what prompted sociologist Alexandre Donnen, a member of Structure de recherche interdisciplinaire sur le genre, l’égalité et la sexualité (Striges) and Atelier Genre(s) et Sexualité(s) (AGS) at Université libre de Bruxelles, to investigate the matter in the 139th issue of Brussels Studies. Based on direct observation and interviews at and around Place Fontainas, the researcher examines this area from the perspective of border rather than that of neighbourhood. Through an intersectional analysis, without considering the dimensions of fragmentation alone, he scrutinises the relationship between the social and urban mechanisms which contribute to the establishment of abrupt changes in terms of sexuality, social class and ethnicity in this particular place.

The researcher's interpretation of this space shows that the square is indeed the border of an area where heterosexuality is no longer the norm, or of a neighbourhood essential to gay sociabilisation and identity building. Some practices such as visible homosexual flirting or transgressive self-presentation take place more openly there, unlike what is seen in other areas where heterosexuality is the norm and where the possibility of transgressing gender and sexual norms is therefore associated with danger.

The study then shows that this border is confused with a border of ethnicity and class, separating a space occupied essentially by the western and well-off population in Rue du Marché au Charbon and a more impoverished space, inhabited by racialised populations, in Boulevard Lemonnier. Often thought of outside its social environment, the "gay" neighbourhood limits its access to the racialised populations which border it (often perceived as dangerous), but also to other populations – including homosexual populations (such as lesbians). The "gay" neighbourhood remains the prerogative of middle-class white gay men and conveys a normative image of homosexuality, i.e. one of the most visible and favoured types.

The researcher's interpretation is original and incisive, as it presents Rue du Marché au Charbon, Place Fontainas and Boulevard Maurice Lemonnier as areas with a continuity in masculine presence, which makes women invisible in each of these places. On the one hand, this female absence is understood  in relation to the perception of a dangerous space in which the risk is linked to a difference in gender, class and ethnicity, and on the other hand, through the dominance of male gay socialisation in the public space.

As a result, to understand how Place Fontainas functions, as well as many other areas of Brussels, it is necessary to distinguish between gender and sexuality, too often thought of together, while not forgetting to take into account ethnic and socio-economic dimensions.  Whatever the case, this analysis should be borne in mind during the imminent redevelopment of Place Fontainas.

References
Donnen, Alexandre, “Place Fontainas as a border area. Urban production with respect to sexuality, gender, ethnicity and social class”, Brussels Studies [Online], General collection, No 139, 7 October 2019. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/brussels/3760
Contact
Benjamin Wayens, Senior Editor: bwayens[at]brusselsstudies.be

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