243 - Oil and Intimacy (feat. Chelsea Schields)

Cymene and Dominic recount a pleasant business trip to New Orleans including a mild bout of Satanic panic. Then (9:10) we are joined by the delightful Chelsea Schields to talk about her recent book, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean (U California Press, 2023). We begin with how research in Aruba and Curacao led her to contemplate the ubiquity of oil's presence in the Caribbean and to shine a spotlight on refineries alongside sites of extraction. We talk about how the management of sexuality and desire became key to the organization of oil labor in the region as well as to the protection of middle-class whiteness and its nuclear family model. We discuss the impact of what Chelsea calls "the offshoring of sex" through sex worker recruitment and then turn to the impact of automation on oil labor. Finally, we circle back to what happened after the oil industry went bust in Aruba and Curacao and when the islands became reimagined as energy-intensive tourist paradises. Hang in there, everyone, peace and love.