Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 13:2 (2024) ► pp.154–177

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Examining gay male discursive practices in hook-up apps

A study on mediated intimacies and aggressive sexual behaviours

 | University of AlcaláMadrid, Spain
Published online: 12 July 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.00035.gar
Abstract
Whilst there is a growing body of literature on the normalisation of abuse in youth digital sexual image exchange (Ringrose, Jessica, Regehr, Kaitlyn & Whitehead, Sophie. 2021. Teen girls’ experiences negotiating the ubiquitous dick pic: Sexual double standards and the normalization of image based sexual harassment. Sex Roles 85(9): 558–576. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), mediated intimacies and sexual harms among men who have sex with men (MSM) in online contexts still remain largely neglected (Dietzel, Christopher. 2021. “That’s straight-up rape culture”: Manifestations of rape culture on Grindr. In The Emerald International Handbook of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse, Jane Bailey, Asher Flynn & Nicola Henry (eds), 351–368. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The present study builds on Russell, Eric Louis. 2021. Alpha Masculinity: Hegemony in Language and Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar study on male discursive practices and investigates sexual and gendered ideologies in 600 online dating profiles gathered from Grindr and Wapo. The discourse analysis of these profiles, on the one hand, sheds light on the existing violent nature of gay Alpha imaginaries in the short-term sexual encounters that these dating apps facilitate and, on the other hand, gives evidence of how discourses of hegemonic heteronormativity, and rape culture, seem to inform MSMs dating app profiles.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.(Gay) masculinities, sexuality and mediated intimacies in dating apps
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Grindr and Wapo
    • 3.2Sample data and participants
    • 3.3Analytical and ethical position
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Sexualized organs: Objectifying Self- and Other-Bodies
    • 4.2AlphaGay sexuality: Constructing hegemonic understandings of violence
    • 4.3Feminine enactments: Competing discourses of gender and sex
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (55)
References
Altman, Dennis. 2013. The End of the Homosexual? St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Paul. 2005. Public Discourses of Gay Men. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barker, Meg-John, Gill, Rosalind & Harvey, Laura. 2018. Mediated intimacy: Sex advice in media culture. Sexualities 21(8): 1337–1345. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bogetić, Ksenia. 2021. Co-opting the neoliberal manhood ideal: Masculinity, normativity, and recursive normalisation in Serbian gay men’s digital dating profiles. Language in Society 50(1): 93–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cama, Elena. 2021. Understanding experiences of sexual harms facilitated through dating and hook up apps among women and girls. In The Emerald International Handbook of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse, Jane Bailey, Asher Flynn & Nicola Henry (eds), 333–350. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Candelas de la Ossa, Abigaël. 2016. ‘Talk, listen, think’: Discourses of agency and unintentional violence in consent guidance for gay, bisexual and trans men. Discourse and Society 271: 365–382. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Connell, Robert Williams. 2005. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davis, Dane Anthony. 2018. Understanding the Motivations Behind Dating Applications: Exploring Future Predictions. Master’s Thesis, Kansas State University.
Degen, Johanna & Kleeberg-Niepage, Andrea. 2022. The more we Tinder: Subjects, selves and society. Hu Arenas 51: 179–195. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dekker, Arne, Wenzlaff, Frederike, Daubmann, Anne, Pinnschmidt, Hans & Briken, Peer. 2019. (Don’t) look at me! How the assumed consensual or non-consensual distribution affects perception and evaluation of sexting images. Journal of Clinical Medicine 8(5): 706. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dietzel, Christopher. 2021. “That’s straight-up rape culture”: Manifestations of rape culture on Grindr. In The Emerald International Handbook of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse, Jane Bailey, Asher Flynn & Nicola Henry (eds), 351–368. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. The three dimensions of unsolicited dick pics: Men who have sex with men’s experiences of sending and receiving unsolicited dick pics on dating apps. Sexuality & Culture 26(3): 834–852. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2024. Clickable consent: How men who have sex with men understand and practice sexual consent on dating apps and in person. Journal of Sex Research 61(3): 481–494. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dobson, Amy Shields & Ringrose, Jessica. 2016. Sext education: Pedagogies of sex, gender and shame in the schoolyards of Tagged and Exposed. Sex Education 16(1): 8–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farrell, Anee-Maree, Shackleton, Nicole, Agnew, Elizabeth, Hopkins, Samantha & Power, Jennifer. 2023. Regulating tech-sex and managing image-based sexual abuse: An Australian perspective. Information & Communications Technology Law 32(2): 189–206. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fileborn, Bianca. 2016. Doing gender, doing safety? Young adults’ production of safety on a night out. Gender, Place & Culture 23(8): 1107–1120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García-Gómez, Antonio. 2020. Discursive representation of masculinity and femininity in Tinder and Grindr: Hegemonic masculinity, feminine devaluation and femmephobia. Discourse & Society 31(4): 390–410. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gavey, Nicola. 2005. Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gillett, Rosalie. 2019. Everyday Violence: Women’s Experiences of Intimate Intrusions on Tinder. PhD dissertation, Queensland University of Technology.
Ging, Debbie. 2019. Alphas, betas, and incels: Theorizing the masculinities of the manosphere. Men and Masculinities 221: 638–657. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, Sadie E. & Ojeda, Tomás. 2018. Acceptable femininity? Gay male misogyny and the policing of queer femininities. European Journal of Women’s Studies 25(3): 310–324. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, Kira, Levon, Erez & Milani, Tommaso M. 2019. Navigating normativities: Gender and sexuality in text and talk. Language in Society 48(4): 481–489. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hasinoff, Amy A. 2014. Blaming sexualization for sexting. Girlhood Studies 7(1): 102–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2019. Image-based sexual abuse: It’s not ‘revenge’ and it’s not ‘porn’. In The Dark Side of Media & Technology: A 21st Century Guide to Media and Technological Literacy, Edward Down (ed), 142–153. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henry, Nicola & Powell, Anastasia. 2014. Preventing Sexual Violence: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Overcoming a Rape Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, Dave, O’Byrne, Patrick & Gastaldo, Denise. 2006. Raw sex as limit experience: A Foucauldian analysis of unsafe anal sex between men. Social Theory & Health 41: 319–333. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoskin, Rhea A. 2017. Femme theory: Refocusing the intersectional lens. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice 38(1): 95–109.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2019. Femmephobia: The role of anti-femininity and gender policing in LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of discrimination. Sex Roles 81(11): 686–703. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoskin, Rhea A. & Hirschfeld, Katerina L. 2018. Beyond aesthetics: A femme manifesto. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice 39(1): 85–87.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levon, Erez. 2012. The voice of others: Identity, alterity, and gender normativity among gay men in Israel. Language in Society 4(1): 187–211. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Llovet-Rodriguez, Carmen, Carcelén-García, Sonia & Díaz-Bustamante, Mónica. 2021. Children’s sexualization on the Internet: Kids’ perceptions of digital images. Icono 19(2): 339–362.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ludeman, Kate & Erlandson, Eddie. 2004. Coaching the alpha male. Harvard Business Review (May 2004): 2–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McKie, Raymond M., Davies, Adam W., Nixon, Kevin D. & Lachowsky, Nathan L. 2019. A theoretical examination using governmentality to understand gay men’s risk and sexual behaviours. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 28(3): 343–354. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Messerschmidt, James W. 2018. Hegemonic Masculinity: Formulation, Reformulation, and Amplification. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Migliaccio, Todd. 2014. Typologies of men’s friendships: Constructing masculinity through them. Masculinities & Social Change 3(2): 119–147. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milani, Tommaso. 2014. Theorizing language and masculinities. In Languages and Masculinities: Performances, Intersections, Dislocations, Tommaso M. Milani (ed), 8–33. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mortimer, Shaez, Powell, Anastasia & Sandy, Larissa. 2019. ‘Typical scripts’ and their silences: Exploring myths about sexual violence and LGBTQ people from the perspectives of support workers. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 31(3): 333–348. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Naezer, Marijke & van Oosterhout, Lotte. 2020. Sexting ist für Schlampen: Sexuelle Standards in der digitalen Zeit. Betrifft Mädchen 31: 112–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Papageorgiou, Alana, Colleen, Fisher & Crossa, Donna. 2023. “It just sends the message that you’re nothing but your body”: A qualitative exploration of adolescent girls’ perceptions of sexualized images on social media. Sexuality & Culture 27(2): 462–481. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ringrose, Jessica, Regehr, Kaitlyn & Whitehead, Sophie. 2021. Teen girls’ experiences negotiating the ubiquitous dick pic: Sexual double standards and the normalization of image based sexual harassment. Sex Roles 85(9): 558–576. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ringrose, Jessica & Regehr, Kaitlyn. 2023. Recognizing and addressing how gender shapes young people’s experiences of image-based sexual harassment and abuse in educational settings. Journal of Social Issues 79(4): 1251–1281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Russell, Eric Louis. 2021. Alpha Masculinity: Hegemony in Language and Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Said, Iman & McNealey, Rachel L. 2023. Non-consensual distribution of intimate images: Exploring the role of legal attitudes in victimization and perpetration. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 38(7–8): 5430–5451. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sarson, Charlie. 2020. ‘Hey man, how’su?’: Masculine speech and straight-acting gay men online. Journal of Gender Studies 29(8): 897–910. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Setty, Emily, Ringrose, Jessica & Regehr Katilyn. 2022. Digital sexual violence and the gendered constraints of consent in youth image sharing. In Rape: A Challenge to Contemporary Thinking – 10 Years On, Miranda A. H. Horvath & Jennifer Brown (eds), 1–17. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shefer, Tamara, Stevens, Garth & Clowes, Lindsay. 2010. Men in Africa: Masculinities, materiality and meaning. Journal of Psychology in Africa 20(4): 511–517. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simon, William & Gagnon, John H. 1999. Sexual scripts. In Culture, Society and Sexuality: A Reader. Richard Parker & Peter Aggleton (eds), 31–40. London: University College London Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stern, Alexandra Minna. 2019. Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right Is Warping the American Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tranchese, Alessia. 2023. From Fritzl to #metoo: Twelve Years of Rape Coverage in the British Press. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsui, Amy B. M. 1994. English Conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ullman, Sarah E. 2023. Talking About Sexual Assault: Society’s Response to Survivors. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waling, Andrea. 2023. ‘Pay close attention to what my eyes are saying without having to spell it out’: Heterosexual relations and discourses of sexual communication in #MeToo commentaries. Sexualities 26(1–2): 140–161. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whitehead, Sophie. forthcoming. ‘The culture is disgusting’: Analysing continuities and differences in experiences and perceptions of youth rape culture through cross-generational testimonies online. Journal of Gender Studies.
Wright, Paul J. 2011. Mass media effects on youth sexual behavior: Assessing the claim for causality. Communication Yearbook 351: 343–386.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zervoulis, Karyofyllis, Smith, David S., Reed, Rhiannon & Dinos, Sokratis. 2020. Use of ‘gay dating apps’ and its relationship with individual well-being and sense of community in men who have sex with men. Psychology & Sexuality 11(1–2): 88–102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue