Takg off the ‘Masc’: How Gay-Intifyg Men Perceive and Navigate Hyper-Masculy and “Mascg” Culture Onle – LGBTQ Policy Journal

Contents:

• 10 BT GAY DATG APPS & S FOR LGBTQ+
• TAKG OFF THE ‘MASC’: HOW GAY-INTIFYG MEN PERCEIVE AND NAVIGATE HYPER-MASCULY AND “MASCG” CULTURE ONLE
• BT GAY DATG APPS FOR HOOKUPS, RELATNSHIPS, AND EVERYTHG BETWEEN
• MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC
• UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS
• THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S
• JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY

10 BT GAY DATG APPS & S FOR LGBTQ+

View spaceQueer ArtArt & IlltratnA gatherg place for LGBTQ+ artists to share and discs their own art, whatever the medium, and spark spiratnview spaceGayt Episo EverPodstIt’s the beloved podst where we talk TV, cludg the LGBTQ reprentatn that meant somethg to spacePlant & Garng PeepsGarng Support & TipsShare pics of your plant babi or ask for advice this Space, built for begners and the green-thumbed spaceQueer Meme VltFunny Web ContentLOL at smart, silly and goofy mem … and share some that you’ve found wh the group. [5] The morn apps have been lled “hybrid media” bee they blend the offle and onle experience of ers and plite the distctn between the offle and the onle self; they provi gay men wh the possibily of turng digal sexual exploratn to physil sexual enunters. Applitns that provi men opportuni to foster relatnships that extend to the offle world have explod populary wh recent studi showg that over 75 percent of MSM (men seekg sex wh men) reported some or equent e wh datg apps and that gay men e the apps more equently than their heterosexual unterparts.

[33] The body of existg rearch on -group discrimatn wh the gay male muny reveals the prevalence of racism, sexism, classism, and ableism amongst gay men, not only physil spac but also procs such as the electn and promotn of gay polil figureheads and onle.

While there is not an abundance of rearch on patterns of discrimatn on gay datg apps, rearch that do exist reli primarily on quantative studi of ers’ behavrs based on ntent analys of their photos, “bs, ” and msagg patterns. [37], [38] The studi have found certa norms and patterns that permeate the datg app world: the high value placed on tradnal hegemonic masculy, the stigmatizatn of femy, and the sire for tradnally “straight-actg” gay men.

TAKG OFF THE ‘MASC’: HOW GAY-INTIFYG MEN PERCEIVE AND NAVIGATE HYPER-MASCULY AND “MASCG” CULTURE ONLE

Many participants discsed at length how onle platforms and social workg s facilated their own gay inty formatn and are sential to meetg other gay men, seekg potential sexual partners, and generatg a greater sense of muny wh the LGBTQ populatn as a whole. While physil spac dited to the gay muny such as gay bars and gay clubs have long provid some opportuni for mglg, onle platforms have grown far more popular due to their anonymy and accsibily, pecially for younger gay men unr the legal US drkg age. Participants overwhelmgly exprsed that onle spac had a special and heightened role wh the gay muny, and that datg apps and social media fill a ccial need that their straight unterparts do not have to the same extent.

”[47] Participants agreed that men who ed terms to dite that they were experimentg wh men but not “fully gay, ” such as “straight but experimentg” or “dl” would earn them more attentn on gay datg apps and hookup apps. If you look at profil wh the same stats—let’s jt say they’re a tall whe mascule man—if one profile says “qutng” or “haven’t really done this, ” that profile gets more attentn bee there’s a whole fantasy around maybe turng someone gay. By distancg onelf om the gay muny, Andre argu, men on apps like Grdr and Tr get more attentn bee they play to a fantasy about “turng” straight guys, a fantasy that has been heavily perpetuated and propagated by pornography.

BT GAY DATG APPS FOR HOOKUPS, RELATNSHIPS, AND EVERYTHG BETWEEN

One participant, Jse, exprsed how he tends to change the way he speaks when first msagg other match on Tr and how he tends to e more “bro-ish” language that he typilly would not e but feels a prsure to out of fear of seemg “too gay”:. While some rponnts reported alterg their profil to highlight their masculy or avoid appearg “too gay, ” many of the participants were fortable wh their masculy onle and felt that for the most part they thentilly reprented themselv onle.

MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC

[49] The attentn given to twks on apps like Grdr and Tr was seen by many participants to emphasize the enhanced eedom given to whe men and reveal how gay whe men have a wir range of genr exprsns that are seen as acceptable pared to men of lor.

The acceptance and adoratn of sknier, ls-mcular gay men was seen by many participants as the product of pop culture and films like Call Me By Your Name and Love, Simon, both of which portray and sexualize young, gay whe men who are not hyper-mascule. ” The rise of rol for “twk-ish” men Hollywood reveals how gay whe men have been given more eedom what kd of genred prentatns they n put forward while still beg able to receive posive attentn om other men, both onle and popular culture. The abily of whe men to rema sirable and powerful spe exprsg themselv as ls mascule fs wh unrstandgs of synthized masculi and how margalized men, such as gay men, are able to e their race and class to perform masculy.

While there has been a number of ntent analysis studi intifyg mascg behavr and the prsure to perform a hyper-masculy onle, there have been very few studi that engage gay men and ask them about their attus and experienc the discrimatory onle spac.

UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS

Many terviewe ced the number of recent Facebook posts they have seen om their old high school iends who are younger than them featurg same-sex upl gog to prom, younger gay boys wearg makp, and other openly queer exprsns that they thought were impossible only a handful of years ago. Alongsi other popular gay apps like PlaRomeo and Hor, Grdr appeals to s ers wh the promise that, by downloadg the app, they will be put ntact wh an unseen world of men-seekg-men that exists around them— their neighborhood, their cy, their muny—through the means of s lotn-based chat servic. In recent years, lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr, Hor, and PlaRomeo have been ployed as tools for homophobic vigilant to “hunt” gay men orr to expose their sexual orientatn, to shame gay men ont of their fai and iends, and to m homophobic acts of vlence.

In South Korea, screenshots om gay datg apps have been ed as evince ary trials implitg active-duty soldiers of illegal same-sex acts (Gzen, 2021) this chapter, I analyze a mpaign targetg gay, bisexual, and queer men Moroc which young women create fake profil on Grdr and PlaRomeo orr to expose or “out” lol men prumed to be gay. Footnote 1 In addn to facg potential crimal punishment on the basis of their sexualy, many Morocn gay men experience abe and vlence om the police, neighbors, and fay when they are perceived to challenge lol heteronormative expectatns of proper genred behavr (Ale-Ebrahim, 2019).

THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S

I argue that the sign featur of lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo allow for the possibily of both sirable nnectn and unwanted exposure for queer men Moroc, challengg the misnceptn that the apps functn as unplited “safe spac” for queer timacy and muny buildg. Multiple actors Morocn social media works, workg alongsi the sign of the apps themselv, “entextualize” (Bman & Briggs, 1990) imag and text msag shared on gay datg apps as transparent ditors of same-sex sire, a “media iology” (Gershon, 2010) that prents risks for gay app ers Moroc.

JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY

After he persistently refed to intify himself as gay spe creasg prsure om Talouni, she then displayed a photo for her viewers of what appeared to be the young man loungg at a pool wh an olr beard European man, prentg the photo as unniable evince of his homosexualy. In later social media posts, Talouni claimed that her tent wh this send livtream was to brg gay men “closer to the mastream society” Moroc by enuragg her followers to “thk of gay people as the man or woman next door and to stop the negative fantasy of who gay people are, how they look like and how they live” (Greenhalgh & Al-Khal, 2020).

” She go on to enurage her female dience to download gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo as tools to disver a salac unrworld of same-sex sire their immediate geographil vicy:Listen up, girls: Open the App Store, you’ll type [ the search bar] ‘gay apps. All you women, girls, those who wear hijab who say ‘there is no hband like me [on the apps], ’ the mother who says ‘my son is the bt’ and curs and swears about homosexuals like me, who says ‘my hband is much more mascule than you, Sofia, you loubia.