Gay Online Research Articles

Carefully Unmaking the “Marginalized User:” A Diffractive Analysis of a Gay Online Community

Carefully Unmaking the “Marginalized User:” A Diffractive Analysis of a Gay Online Community

Sexual Behaviors and Aggression in Gay Pornography

ABSTRACT Previous studies have suggested a substantial number of men who have sex with men (MSM) have consumed and used pornography to learn about same-sex sexual behaviors. Yet, past research has focused almost exclusively on condom-use in the category of Gay pornography and ignored the types of sexual behaviors and aggression depicted within the content. This study examined aggression and sexual behaviors depicted in Gay online pornography (N = 415). We found fellatio and anal sex were the most common behaviors, occurring in roughly two-thirds of scenes, while kissing occurred in less than a third of scenes. Additionally, sexual aggression occurred in 31% of scenes, with spanking being the most common, occurring in 20% of scenes. Anal sex and forced fellatio were found to be predictors of physical aggression. These findings point to normalization of aggression and narrow sexual behaviors in Gay pornography, which may have implications for MSM’s norm perceptions related to sexuality.

Loving strangers, avoiding risks: Online dating practices and scams among Chinese lesbian (lala) women

The proliferating online social networking sites have created opportunities for Chinese queer women to meet new friends and lovers; yet, research on lesbian online dating in mainland China is scarce compared to heterosexual and gay online dating. This article investigates lesbian/ lala women’s online dating experiences in the context of economic reforms and the trust crisis in urban China. It is based on 16 in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in Guangdong from June 2018 to July 2019. It focuses on two digital platforms: Douban Group and WeChat. This article explores how online anonymity and stranger sociality shaped queer women’s moral practices regarding turning virtual strangers into real-life partners. Queer women in this research expressed concerns about being cheated by low quality( suzhi) lovers, swindlers, and married women. This article suggests that the emerging online stranger sociality has both enabled and constrained lesbian/ lala women’s practice of seeking loving relationships, while they must internalize the potential risks by themselves.

MEDICALIZED MASCULINITIES

While studies of masculinities often trace processes of either medicalization or mediatization, few interrogate masculinities at their very intersection. Doing so is the main contribution of this panel, which brings together cases that illustrate the effects these large-scale changes in digital and medical technologies have on masculinities today. Theoretically, the panel is based on the notion that society and everyday life are increasingly intertwined with and enrolled in both the logics of the health and pharmaceutical industry and in communication technology and media. Femininities have long been the subjects for the (bio)medicalizing, and conversely, up until the release of Viagra, privileged or hegemonic masculinities were left seemingly unaffected. At the same time, to understand masculinity today we must also consider how media technologies take part in the negotiation, practice, and affect of masculinities. To do so the panel presents four cases of mediatized and medicalized masculinities: Mie Birk Jensen uses analyze thousands of spam emails for their affective and normative production of virile masculinity; Tobias Raun and Michael Nebeling Petersen use ethnographic archive analysis of Youtube communities to understand peer learning and monetization of hair-loss products; and Kristian Møller uses participant observation to capture the sexual intensification in an online gay drug scene.

MIND, SELF, AND SOCIETY IN THE ONLINE GAY COMMUNITY: Study on Grindr Apps

Self-identity is a unified thing with someone's self-concept. The experience that is owned by someone is personal knowledge from experiencing and having various moments and references. The advancement of information technology in the Industry 4.0 era is now facing 5.0, opening up the opportunity to youths especially generation Z (Gen Z) who much more cares about freedom, having high self-confidence, and capability to quickly adopt various applications across internet media outlets. Nevertheless, they lack eagerness to dig deeper into something. Those factors have influenced the development of their self-concept through internet media. Grindr has known as an online gay-dating application, where a homosexual male exposes himself to what he wants to be seen by other users. This article focused on the review and describe how the self-concept development process of gen Z in using the application. Analyze the research using Mead's symbolic interactionism theory, furthermore to find out what factors that influence self-concept development of the application active users in their daily life. This research using virtual ethnography to four homosexual men in the age of 16-23. The results indicated that through the online application, a homosexual male is capable to develop his self-concept that wants to be seen on that medium. Moreover, the close read of data also uncovered at least ten types of aforesaid application users based on the self-concept that they form To cite this article (7 th APA style): Pranata, R. H. and Putri, D. M. (2020). Mind, Self, and Society in the Online Gay Community: Study on Grindr Apps. Journal Communication Spectrum: Capturing New Perspectives in Communication, 10 (1), 68-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.36782/jcs.v10i1.2007

Law, Privacy, and Online Dating: “Revenge Porn” in Gay Online Communities

Nonconsensual pornography, commonly known as “revenge porn,” is the dissemination of another’s sexually explicit images or videos without their consent. This article explores this phenomenon in gay and bisexual male online communities. The first part reviews the current sociological and legal literature on online dating, gay culture on the Internet, and revenge porn. Then, based on a survey of gay and bisexual male dating app users, ethnographic interviews, and an analysis of platform content moderation policies, the next part makes three related points. First, it shows that gay and bisexual men who use geosocial dating apps are more frequently victims of revenge porn than both the general population and the broader lesbian, gay, and bisexual community. Second, it shows that geosocial dating apps create powerful norms of disclosure that make sharing personal information all but required. And third, it describes how gay and bisexual male users engage in privacy navigation techniques with the goal of building trust and enhancing safety. The final substantive section then shows how inadequate protections for online privacy and inadequate legal incentives for safe platform design contribute to the problem of revenge porn. The article concludes with a summary and avenues for future research.

Self-reported sexual orientation, relationships pattern, social connectedness, disclosure, and self-esteem in Indian men who use online gay dating website

Self-reported sexual orientation, relationships pattern, social connectedness, disclosure, and self-esteem in Indian men who use online gay dating website

Self-testing, communication and information technology to promote HIV diagnosis among young gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in Brazil.

Self-testing, communication and information technology to promote HIV diagnosis among young gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in Brazil.

Gay porn networks

Gay porn networks offer audiences diverse pornographies under a single offering. This article considers how specialist, online gay pornographic sites are made viable via networks, providing an overview of the 10 most popular gay porn networks currently in operation, and making connections between them via qualitative reading. By recognizing the potential for alternative pornographies within these networks, yet not reifying gay porn networks to the production of solely non-mainstream offerings, the article invites a more nuanced assessment of the complexity of the online gay porn commercial environment. Encompassing a total of 50 sites across 10 networks, the study’s broad approach allows for an overview of the most successful networks currently available, with a particular emphasis on branded identity, themes and the construction of studio vs network identities.

The Prevalence and Gratification of Nude Self-Presentation of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Online-Dating Environments: Attracting Attention, Empowerment, and Self-Verification

This study builds on research about the importance of body presentation among men who have sex with men (MSM) by exploring the phenomenon of nude body presentation in online dating environments. In a quantitative survey of N = 9,235 MSM users of a gay online dating site (ODS) in Germany, the prevalence of nude pictures and gratifications sought while displaying them were investigated. About two-thirds of the participants declared that they use nude pictures in their dating profiles, with only small differences in prevalence between members of different ages, education levels, and sexual orientation. Furthermore, the results indicate that the use of nudity is driven by three underlying gratifications: (1) Attracting attention, meaning that nudity is used to accelerate sexual outcomes from online dating use; (2) empowerment, meaning that nudity online serves as an environment for otherwise and elsewhere inhibited forms of body presentation; and (3) self-verification, whereby nudity is used as a means of receiving affirmation from others. Regression analyses are used to investigate associations of these gratifications with sociodemographics and online dating behavior. Findings are discussed in relation to earlier research on self-presentation as well as theories of body importance among gay men. While earlier research has mainly focused on the negative implications of body presentation (e.g., self-objectification; reinforcing standards of beauty), the findings of this study hint that ODS may provide a platform for acts of nude body presentation that are not possible elsewhere and are thus accompanied by empowerment and self-verification.

Chemsex Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: a Sexualized Drug Use Survey Among Clients of the Sexually Transmitted Infection Outpatient Clinic and Users of a Gay Dating App in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Chemsex (i.e., drug use during sex) is practiced by some men who have sex with men (MSM) and is associated with high-risk behavior. In a cross-sectional study at the sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic of Amsterdam, we explored chemsex practices, risk behavior, and STI prevalence. A survey on chemsex (γ-hydroxybutyrate, crystal methamphetamine, and/or mephedrone) was offered to clinic clients during routine STI screening and to Amsterdam users of a gay online dating app. Associations were assed using χ test and multivariable regression. Chemsex in the past 6 months was practiced by 866 (17.6%) of 4925 MSM clients and by 159 (1.5%) of 10857 non-MSM clients. Among gay dating app users, the proportion that reported chemsex engagement was higher than among MSM visiting the STI clinic (29.3% [537/1832] vs. 17.6%; P < 0.001). Chemsex was a significant risk factor for bacterial STI in HIV-negative MSM visiting the STI clinic (adjusted odd ratio, 1.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-1.8), but not in HIV-positive MSM. A majority practiced chemsex once a month or less, and 87.0% reported sex without drug use in the past month. In Amsterdam, chemsex is frequently practiced and significantly associated with bacterial STI in HIV-negative MSM but not in HIV-positive MSM. Future prevention strategies to reduce STI incidence should especially target HIV-negative MSM engaging in chemsex.

Gag the Fag, or tops and bottoms, persons and things

ABSTRACTScholarly studies of pornography since the advent of Linda Williams’ Hard Core have typically assumed that pornography is a genre which pursues the secrets of sexual pleasure. But much recent online gay pornography, far from imagining a ‘pornotopia’ in which free agents endlessly pursue their mutual pleasure, stages a radical dichotomy between tops and bottoms, in which the bottom is rhetorically transformed into what Catharine MacKinnon once described as a ‘thing for sexual use’. Examining recent online French pornography and the popular US series Gag the Fag, this article argues that neither the rubric of ‘pleasure’ nor the diagnosis of misogyny provide an adequate framework for gauging what is at stake in these theatricalized and mediatized scenes of domination. At first glance, such pornography appears to confirm the most damning pronouncements of anti-pornography feminists, reducing sex to a relation of instrumentalization. I argue, however, that it is not exactly clear who is instrumentalized and for whom: both top and bottom labour in the service of what appears to be something like a law, a principle of abstract differentiation not reducible to anatomical sex. At the same time, it is precisely the body’s inability to fully submit to the requirements of this law, or to the idealization it requires, that this pornography solicits, exposes, and celebrates. This dynamic cannot be reduced to confessions of the body’s ‘pleasure’, and its formalization as a genre also raises the troubling thought that pleasure is not what lies at the heart of sex.

Taking Chances for Love? Reflections on Love, Risk, and Harm Reduction in a Gay Slamming Subculture

With the recent legalization of gay marriage in France, the couple has become the most valued social unit in the gay community. The emergence of the “chemsex” and “slamming” subculture—which involves injecting drugs during sexual encounters—on the fringes of the gay online dating scene has thus aroused new fears and anxieties. While slamming is often portrayed as a risky, extreme, and deviant practice divorced from the sentimental norms of stable relationships, this article aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of how practices of injecting drug use—and significantly, attendant practices of managing risks and harms—are entangled with the search for love and willingness to build lasting emotional bonds among young gay men. Drawing on ethnographic immersion on two gay dating sites and 25 life story interviews with gay men who inject drugs in Paris and Lyon, I argue that the link between romantic relationships and injecting drug use is anything but straightforward. The suffering and loneliness that follow romantic breakups can trigger uncontrolled drug use while feelings of “love fusion” between “slammers” can encourage further risk-taking. But romantic relationships can also provide crucial symbolic and material support to place limits on drug use in ways that reduce harm.

Identifying undiagnosed HIV in men who have sex with men (MSM) by offering HIV home sampling via online gay social media: a service evaluation

BackgroundAn estimated one in eight men who have sex with men (MSM) in London lives with HIV, of which 16% are undiagnosed. It is a public health priority to minimise...

Urban encounters and sexual health among gay and bisexual immigrant men: perspectives from the settlement and aids service sectors

Gay men's health researchers in North America have recently attended to sexual and mental health issues affecting ethnic minority men, many of whom are also immigrants. Most of this work is grounded in epidemiological models that focus on relationships between individual risk and sexual behaviors. Consequently, they the frame the sexual health of gay and bisexual immigrants as the product of cultural issues (for example, family and religious homophobia, lack of health education) or gay community issues (prevalence of drug use and casual sex) that lead to self‐devaluation, depression, and unprotected sex with multiple partners. Few studies, however, examine these phenomena through the lens of migration and resettlement. Using the narratives from twelve in‐depth interviews with settlement and AIDS Service Organization (ASO) workers in Toronto, Ottawa, and London, Ontario, Canada, this article examines four types of post‐migration urban encounters that influence sexual health: negotiations of resettlement‐related stress, encounters with the urban gay community, encounters with the online gay community, and encounters with sexual health promotion itself. The findings suggest that these encounters are important intervening events that mediate the relationship between the attributes of the immigrant and his sexual health behaviors and outcomes.

Screening Shirtless AZN Men: The Full Frontal Power of Intimate Internet Industries

For the first heterosexual male porn star of Asian descent in the West, Keni Styles's tumblr project shows the full frontal power of the face so as to increase the representations of diverse Asian and Asian American male sexualities online. In his new video Look, I'm Azn!, filmmaker and scholar Nguyen Tan Hoang gathers the ways in which Asian men use online gay cruising sites such as grindr to play with the visibility of their racial identity in relation to the sexual practices and partners they desire. This article explores how Asian/American men use the Internet to register one's racial visibility and the particularity of one's desires to explode their usual ascription as asexual, passive, and undesirable.

Mercado da/de carnes: corpos imprevistos na biopolítica

Resumo A fim de pensar sobre regimes de visibilidades e de verdades corporais no terreno da biopolítica de face neoliberal, o artigo articula conceitualmente discussões realizadas em dois campos distintos de pesquisa: o Manhunt, um site de relacionamentos direcionado para homens gays na internet, e um Centro de Atenção Psicossocial para Álcool e outras Drogas (CAPS-ad). Embora tratando-se de duas pesquisas realizadas em campos radicalmente diferentes, a categoria “Mercado da/de Carnes” emergiu como articuladora das análises, possibilitando a aproximação empírica e teórica sobre a produção de arranjos corporais focando em performatividades de masculinidade no território de um CAPS e em um site de relacionamento. Baseado em descrições etnográficas do CAPS e do site Manhunt, bem como em entrevistas semi-estruturadas com seus respectivos usuários, o presente artigo constrói a intersecção teórica e política das normas de gênero na contemporaneidade, apontando (re)existências corporais possíveis no mercado biopolítico para os sujeitos participantes das pesquisas.

Image Text Ithaca

ITHACA COLLEGE ITHACA, NEW YORK JULY 9-10, 2015 The second annual Image Text Ithaca (ITI) symposium brought together thirteen ITI workshop fellows and several invited guests for public presentations on campus of Ithaca College over course of one evening and next day, following a workshop during which this year's fellows worked on new image and text projects. The brief public event began with a talk by Jason Fulford, a fellow from 2014 workshop, and Tamara Shopsin. They shared individually produced works such as Fulford's photo book Hotel Oracle (2013) and Shopsin's illustration work for New York Times, as well as inspirations (which range from semiotics to poetic ambiguity) for joint book projects including absorbing image-only monograph This Equals That (2014). Other invited speakers included Federica Chiocchetti, who spoke about website she founded, The Photocaptionist, on which are paired visual and text-based works (either found or commissioned) to promote the practice of concubinage between photography and literature, images and words. Chiocchetti also shared several projects she has worked on for Victoria and Albert Museum. Maria Damon of Pratt Institute offered a hypnotic essay moving between cross-stitching, alphabetics, and novels of Kathy Acker, weaving a linguistic thread through a rich cultural history. Matvei Yankelevich, another 2014 fellow, utilizing images and found text from throughout twentieth century (from works by poet Laura Riding to writings by philosopher Vilem Flusser), examined foundational space and structure of books and their elements, recommending how they should be read. This year's ITI fellows (five senior fellows and eight junior fellows) participated in a four-day workshop in days preceding symposium. Since most came from either photography or writing backgrounds, this was first time many had worked in image and text combinations. Daniel Augscholl and Anya Jasbar, cofounders of Ahorn Magazine, an online publication dedicated to contemporary photography, presented a photo essay on theme of desire, combining text and landscape photographs. Photographer Ben Alper presented a screening and audio performance of a project he began during this year's workshop session and had wrapped up that very morning (Thursday). Titled In event of misinterpretation or human error, piece uses found text and photographs from decades-old Popular Mechanics magazines to explore meaning within randomness. Writer Christine Hume used same source material, commenting on white privilege by augmenting text, which she read aloud as images she had selected from magazines were projected. On Friday, Hume presented an original spoken text with an underlayer of found audio of a 911 call and supplemental stressed breathing to heighten tension. Photographer Andre Bradley shared a photographic project with a spoken personal narrative about history, memory, learning, and identity. [Ed. note: See Bradley's Portfolio in this issue of Afterimage.] Author John Keene read text from two short projects, one about online dating (with facially redacted profile photographs culled by ITI co-director Nicholas Muellner from gay online dating archives) and other concerning slavery and based on work of Kara Walker. …

“Personal Preference” as the New Racism

In this article, I examine how race impacts online interactions on one of the most popular online gay personal websites in the United States. Based on 15 in-depth interviews and an analysis of 100 profiles, I show that the filtering system on this website allows users to cleanse particular racial bodies from their viewing practices. I use Patricia Hill Collins’s concept of the “new racism” and Sharon Holland’s ideas on everyday practices of racism within one’s erotic life to explain how these social exclusionary practices toward gay men of color in cyberspace are considered not to be racist acts. Specifically, I show how the neoliberal discourse of “personal preference” effaces the larger cultural assumptions that are influencing people’s interpersonal and psychic racial desires, furthering an erotic new racism in this digital age. By also turning to a queer of color analysis, I posit that the practices that gay users engage in lead to the remarginalization of all nonheterosexual individuals, though in qualitatively different ways.

Bodies under Glass: Gay Dating APPS and the Affect-Image

There is a rise in the popularity of gay dating apps for smartphones that depict bodies under the glass of screens. The application Grindr is one such system, as well as Hornet, Scruff, Jack'd and many others. Recent literature draws attention to how Grindr perpetuates reductive stereotypes fetishised and consumed by a narcissistic homosexual market. Through Gilles Deleuze's concept of affection-image, I think through how images of bodies on these apps are transmitting or receiving affect. I then discuss some of my own artwork in light of this inquiry, in which I particularly consider the role of judgemental swipe-gestures and how they parallel the treatment of individuals' bodies as objects: disposable, manipulable and exchangeable. Through this artwork and its discussion, I aim to extend critical discourse concerning the treatment and reception of other subjects in gay online communities, as well as the examination of bodies, fetish and sexuality by artists of contemporary media more generally.