Still getting it on online: Thirty years of queer male spaces brokered through digital technologies

Abstract

Research across the social sciences testifies to an ongoing relationship between queerness and digital technology. This article tracks how different online spaces for queer men 1 have changed as the internet has developed over the past 30 years. It argues that queer spaces have become increasingly dominated by, and predicated on, internet technology. I review early interpretations of cyberspace as a liberatory space freed from heteronormativity and later more critical assessments of its potential, positioning arguments for and against the internet's status as a protective space. I then evaluate the huge popularity of mobile phone-based dating and hook-up apps such as Grindr and Tinder. These platforms have developed from static desktop offerings including Gaydar and PlanetRomeo, but emphasise a distinctly hybridised socio-technical experience in partner seeking.Finally, I consider the impact of locative media on more traditional queer concepts of cruising and community, concluding that contemporary apps refigure both structures in distinctive ways reflecting larger changes in sexuality and space studies.

Discursive representation of masculinity and femininity in Tinder and Grindr: Hegemonic masculinity, feminine devaluation and femmephobia

“…Over the last decades, theories of gender have attempted to conceptualise gender in general and hegemonic and alternative gender performances in particular (Barber, 2014; Berg and Longhurst, 2003). These attempts have mainly revolved around (1) advancing critical geographies of masculinities (Hopkins and Noble, 2009; Miles, 2018); (2) understanding the multidimensional nature of masculinity and conceptualising femininity in relation to masculinities (Eguchi, 2011; Paechter, 2018; Schippers, 2007); and (3) highlighting the complementary nature of masculinity and femininity (Budgeon, 2014) and its hierarchical relationship (Schipper, 2007).…”

Let’s (not) Go Outside: Grindr, Hybrid Space, and Digital Queer Neighborhoods

“…The location-based media landscape is continually evolving, and industry behemoths such as Grindr and Tinder that dominate today may in the near future be replaced by competitors, which will themselves be replaced over time by yet newer upstart platforms. Technological research is characterized by seemingly ever-changing developments, but the wider analyses offered in this chapter of how contemporary digital platforms impact on gay neighborhoods will hold true for technologies of the future, much as the patterns I explore here themselves echo interactions with desktop programs of the 1990s, from Yahoo listservs to Gaydar and PlanetRomeo, seen at the time as pioneering technological offerings (Miles 2018;Mowlabocus 2010). Understanding today's platforms and how they function for users usefully informs exploration of related (and indeed seemingly unrelated) technologies of the present and future, even as the products themselves change.…”

“…Location-based media-that is, products that utilize the GPS location-sensing technologies offered by today's smartphones 1 -now comprise the dominant platform for partner seeking across the global North. Male-male offerings including Grindr, Hornet, Scruff, and Blued, and female-female platforms including HER and Lex, as well as more mainstream apps increasingly utilized for same-sex searching such as Tinder and Badoo, have proven popular for both socialization and sexual encounter (Ahlm 2017;Ferris and Duguay 2020;Mearns 2020;Miles 2018).…”

Queer geographies of spatial media

“…Geographers are theorising these meldings of software, data, people, and places as “cyberplaces,” “digiplaces,” “neogeography,” and “code/space” (Kitchin & Dodge, ; Lin, ; Malecki, ). Geodating, propinquitous networking, and “hook‐up” applications (Tinder, Foursquare, and Grindr) are more obviously spatial media as these embed geographical information systems (GPS) into core features, including listings of nearby people (Miles, ). However, GPS is now common across various digital media (Miles, ).…”

“…Geodating, propinquitous networking, and “hook‐up” applications (Tinder, Foursquare, and Grindr) are more obviously spatial media as these embed geographical information systems (GPS) into core features, including listings of nearby people (Miles, ). However, GPS is now common across various digital media (Miles, ). Mainstream digital networks not explicitly designed by or for LGBTIQ people (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) embed geographical information (coordinates, altitude, bearing, and distance) in the content created and/or published through their servers (Kitchin, Lauriault, & Wilson, ).…”