Anticipating touch: Haptic geographies of Grindr encounters in Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, UK

Abstract

In this article, I use a haptic geographical framework to explore the embodied, material and spatial anticipations of offline Grindr encountersor hook-upsthat happen in users homes. I bring haptic geographies in conversation with geographical work on sexuality and the digital to explore how a desire to touch is reconfigured when people meet in 'the flesh'. Grindr is a location-based dating/hook-up app that is used mainly by men looking for encounterssexual, romantic, friendships, dates, online and offlinewith other men. I draw on 30 semi-structured interviews and four participant research diaries from Grindr users in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in North East England. By using haptic geographies, I examine gender and sexuality at the bodily and domestic scale. I explore how touch and place are co-constituted, arguing that men who use Grindr are learning how to negotiate their erotic Grindr practices through anticipations, identities and places that encounters are situated. Focusing on the embodied and spatial anticipations enables an understanding of the ways corporeal and digital practices are co-constituted. K E Y W O R D Santicipation, digital geographies, feminist methodology, geographies of sexualities, haptic geographies, home | INTRODUCTIONWhen people meet someone "in the flesh" from a dating app, they often question and wonder "what are they going to be like." People build up expectations, imaginations, and anticipations of the people they meet after sharing pictures and texting. These anticipations can be reconfigured when people meet in the flesh, especially when platforms may not allow for voices to be heard and movements to be observedand we are not able to smell, taste, and touch bodies and places through our dating apps. Grindr is a digital dating app that is mainly used by queer men and has become a popular way of "hooking up." When these men organise their hook-ups, they often describe what they want to "do" to one anotherthe ways they will touchand share erotic pictures which lead to the formation of anticipations. When users do meet in the flesh and their bodies kiss, lick, bite, see, listen, smell, and touch, their anticipations, expectations, and imaginations are often remade and with it the desire for erotic touching. Grindr users, then, must negotiate these encounters differently than expected, often learning ways to do so.This paper explores the erotic encounters that Grindr users have in their homes as a way to examine how sexual and embodied practices emerge as people learn how to use digital dating apps. I focus on the embodied, material, and spatial anticipations, and the importance of domestic spaces in shaping how encounters are negotiated. I adopt a feminist corporeal

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‘Cute face and quiet … but her look don't match her personality’: Commodifying flesh, shaping labour expectations and domestic workers' treatment in Singapore

“…Building on the arguments of Grosz (1994) and others, geographers have furthered understandings of corporeality by thinking about how it relates to: medical care/procedures (Davies, 2006); race and racial divisions (Slocum, 2008); embodiment and public health (Evans et al, 2011); consumption (Valentine, 1999); touch/haptic geographies (Bonner-Thompson, 2021); and national identity (Radcliffe, 1999), amongst other subject matters.…”