scholarly journals Domesticating Gay Apps: An Intersectional Analysis of the Use of Blued Among Chinese Gay Men

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weishan Miao ◽  
Lik Sam Chan
Keyword(s):  
Gay Men ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Intersectionality Theory ◽  
Intersectional Analysis ◽  
Dating Apps ◽  
Domestication Theory ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Unique Relationship

Abstract Drawing on domestication theory and intersectionality theory, this study explores the multiple roles dating apps play in Chinese gay men’s lives amid changing personal and social circumstances. We present in-depth narratives of three Blued users from different generations and classes with unique relationship statuses. The app’s geo-locative features strengthened the gay capital of our younger participant but threatened our middle-aged, closeted participant. Although coming from a homophobic generation, our senior participant had no issue becoming an online celebrity on the app because his wife had passed away, pointing out the intersectional influence of generational and relational backgrounds. Our participants’ socio-economic positions also shaped whom they would interact with on Blued and how these interactions took place. These observations illustrate the relationship between users’ intersectional positions and their domestication of Blued, complementing existing dating app studies that skew toward younger users and focus only on certain elements of app use.

scholarly journals Domesticating dating apps: Non-single Chinese gay men’s dating app use and negotiations of relational boundaries

2020 ◽  
pp. 016344372097424
Author(s):  
Shangwei Wu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Gay Community ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Dating Apps ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Domestication Theory

Dating app use is prevalent among non-single Chinese gay men. Applying domestication theory, this study explores how dating apps can be accepted in gay romantic relationships. The author argues that the domestication of technological artifacts unfolds on four dimensions: the practical, the symbolic, the cognitive, and the relational. Findings show that dating apps serve a dual role: a pool of sexual or romantic alternatives and a channel to the gay community. Although the former constitutes a threat to monogamy, the latter leaves room for a couple’s negotiation for acceptable but restricted uses. This negotiation is in tandem with the negotiation of relational boundaries, which leads to either the reinforcement of monogamy or the embrace of non-monogamy. Meanwhile, one can perceive dating apps to be as unremarkable as other social media platforms. This is achieved through a cognitive process where gay men learn to debunk the arbitrary association between dating apps and infidelity. Monogamous or not, they put faith in user agency, not perceiving dating apps as a real threat to romantic relationships.

The voice of others: Identity, alterity and gender normativity among gay men in Israel

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erez Levon
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Male Sexuality ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Voice

AbstractThis article presents an analysis of a slang variety, called oxtšit, as it is described and used by a cohort of gay men in Israel. Unlike many previous analyses of gay slang, I argue that the men described do not use the variety to help construct and affirm an alternative gay identity, but rather that they use it as a form of in-group mockery through which normative and nonnormative articulations of Israeli gay male sexuality are delineated. It is suggested that this discussion has implications for sociolinguistic understandings of “groupness” more broadly, and particularly the relationship between macro-level social categories (like “gay”) and individual lived experience. (Gay slang, Israel, vari-directional voicing, identity/alterity)*

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