Deficiències en conductes comunicatives no verbals utilitzades en la interacció social

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I watch the boy fill out his Grindr profile after uploading a picture of himself on a beach lounger, wearing his favourite pair of sunnies. His ‘About Me’ says, “Puerto Rican social butterfly with quick whit, charm to match & a great pair of legs to take me places.” He continues:

Profile name: REX..

Age: 27.

Ethnicity: Latino.

Relationship Status: Single.

Height: 5’8”.

Weight: ... “Maybe leave that one blank,” he decides.

“One reason the city is so accommodating for the exploration of identity is that it is a place of doubles, where the individual can be both self and other, where he can become an underground man and go unnoticed, and where his secrets can remain secrets.”

-Mark W. Turner, 2003

Introduction

Released in the United States in March 2009, Grindr is advertised as the world’s largest and most popular all-male location-based social network. In the gay community, Grindr is known to be used as a digital substitute for cruising—the act of walking or driving in particular areas looking for a sex partner. Since its launch, the app has had over 10 million downloads in 192 countries. The US is reported as the most active country, with 2.97 million users, and is followed by the UK with 1.23 million users. London currently ranks as the city with most active users per month (947.3k), making the app an appealing subject of study for this dissertation, particularly because of its relation to urban space and histories of gay culture in London. ¹

Referencing urban histories of men who partake in sexual or intimate activities with other men is important to this study, and so, the chapter looks to gay culture and queer practices in the city to help situate the use of Grindr and its impact on spatial practices. Queer theories by architectural ² critic Aaron Betsky in his book Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire (1997) as well as gay cruising theories by media studies researcher Sharif Mowlabocus in his book Gaydar Culture: Gay

These figures are based on the reports the company has posted on their website’s ‘Press’ sec9on, where a fact

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sheet is downloadable. The data being quoted in this disserta9on is current as of July 2013, which is the last report Grindr made public.

It is necessary to clarify that the subjects involved in this study cannot be marked as gay, bisexual or transgender

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merely because they use Grindr. Although several of them labeled themselves as gay throughout the interviews and others spoke about having sex with other men, it would be incorrect to, as a group, label them as

homosexual or bisexual (furthermore, asking them to disclose their sexual iden9ty was not a part of the interview process).

Although none do it in term of the use of Grindr or mobile technology, there is a body of literature that has already studied the histories and spa9al prac9ces of queer men in London and other ci9es. See MaP Cook London and the Culture of Homosexuality, 1885-1914 (2003), MaP Houlbrook Queer London: Perils and pleasures in the sexual metropolis, 1918-1957 (2005), Johan Andersson “Consuming Visibility: London’s New Spaces of Gay Nightlife” Ph.D. diss. (2008), José Esteban Muñoz Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (Sexual Cultures) (2009) and MaP Cook and Jennifer V. Evans (Eds) Queer CiHes, Queer Cultures: Europe since 1945 (2014).

Men, Technology and Embodiment in the Digital Age (2010), provide place-based, situated ideas to understand non-heteronormative behaviour of men in cities—particularly in London. Their understanding and discussions on the male body and queering of space, similarly, inform the construction of the arguments in the chapter. The term ‘queer’ will be used throughout ‘Strolling/

Scrolling’ to discuss subjects that are either heterosexual or partake in activities that are non-heteronormative. The use of Grindr, in this chapter, is considered a queering of space. ³ Understanding that the term is loaded with a wide range of complexities, ‘queer’ here is proposed as an umbrella for sexual identities and subjects which deviate from heteronormativity and patriarchal norms. ⁴

By conducting in-depth interviews with 20 Grindr users, the evidence helps to revise the highly sexualised connotations the app possesses, showing that it instead facilitates a variety of ways of using, experiencing and relating to public space, as well as giving insight into how users relate to its interface and technology. Though not all gay subjects are the same in terms of class, ethnicity and gender, historically, they have found themselves to be placeless; Grindr constructs alternate spatial relations between these users and the city by enabling them to explore new ways of performing a queer identity in physical and/or digital space. ⁵

In the chapter’s first section, ‘Get ready to Grindr’, a brief introduction to Grindr is presented. It acknowledges the spatial relevance of Grindr, framing it as an app that holds a pivotal relationship to time and space. The second section, ‘Placelessness’ aims to situate Grindr within a larger historical and social context. By referencing Mowlabocus and Betsky’s theories on the emergence of cruising spaces, cottaging and digital cruising, it briefly addresses queer histories in the city, discussing them as placeless identities that have always appropriated strategic spaces and tools in order to perform.

It is important to clarify that the term ‘queer’ may be appropriated by men and women who are heterosexual.

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In this sense, ‘queer’ is not an indica9on of a par9cular sexual inclina9on. Similarly, as previously stated, the par9cipants themselves have not and may not iden9fy as queer; none of the par9cipants were asked to label themselves according to their sexual preferences.

Also see Adam Green “Gay But Not Queer: Towards a Post-Queer Study of Sexuality” in Theory and Society 31 (2002).

Queer theory builds on feminist, lesbian and gay studies as a way to challenge and interrogate hegemonic

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structures. See Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Between Men (1985) and Epistemology of the Closet (1990), Teresa de Laure9s Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay SexualiHes (1991), William B. Turner A Genealogy of Queer Theory (2000) and Mimi Marinucci Feminism is Queer: The InHmate ConnecHon Between Queer and Feminist Theory (2010).

The acts of cruising and coPaging will be discussed later on as key urban, place-based queer performances.

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These will then be correlated to how they translate, adapt and differ when the Grindr interface is at play.

From the early 1990s, queer theories provided new frameworks for studying architecture and space, par9cularly through the work of Beatriz Colomina in her book Sexuality & Space (1992) which has informed a series of key texts looking at architecture, gender an sexuality from a queer perspec9ve such as Aaron Betsky Building Sex (1995), Diana Agrest et al. The Sex of Architecture (1996), Debra Coleman et al. Architecture and Feminism (1997), Jane Rendell et al. Gender, Space, Architecture (1999) and Louise Durning and Richard Wrigley Gender and Architecture (2000).

‘Use and Experience’, introduces the conversations with the Grindr Guys—the participants interviewed for this research. Although Grindr is an app intrinsically related to cruising, the section discusses the different functions its users have assigned to it. The section also details a descriptive account of the app’s interface. The following section, ‘Density/Saturation’, counterposes Grindr CEO Joel Simkhai’s description of Grindr with journalist Jaime Woo’s discussion in his book Meet Grindr:

How One App Changed the Way We Connect (2013). The section discusses the app’s relation to user-density, how it creates alternate mental constructs of space and distance, and how social and cultural variations begin to show through.

‘Cruising/Grindring’, the following section, contrasts and compares the visual play between bodies in movement and bodies which are immobile. The power of the gaze is pivotal to both practices, and queer theorist Mark W. Turner’s idea of the ‘backward glance’, in Backward Glances:

Cruising the Queer Streets of New York and London (2003), as a form of confirmation of queer identity is contested as Grindr provides a ‘downward glance’. The section then goes on to problematise what it means to be seen on Grindr, using sociologist Erving Goffman’s theories on stigmatisation as discussed in Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963).

‘Body/Screen’ discusses Mowlabocus’s theories on ‘cybercarnality’. By portraying the process of choosing a digital body as an act of self-assessment and introspection, the discussion makes reference to Hansen’s theories of image-filtering. The following section, ‘Biographies’, explores embodiment beyond depictions of the body via an image. Parting from the question ‘How do I want to be perceived?’, it discusses how embodiment on Grindr is not solely visual but multilayered—from the construction of a blurb, to the voice a Grindr Guy uses while interacting with others. The section uses Goffman’s idea of ‘misrepresentation’ and subversion as a form of constructing an identity, with varying degrees of empowerment for the user, while discussing what happens when both

‘biographies’ clash upon a Grindr meet-up. ⁶

The element of reward is then discussed, as ‘Gamification’ explores the qualities of Grindr’s interface and design that make the user experience it as game-like and ‘addictive’. The gamification of Grindr is also fortified by the displaying of users on the grid who are not online any longer—the primary focus of next section, ‘Trails/Residue’. The section discusses how this splitting of embodiments enhances the potential for establishing connections with others, increasing the chance for spontaneous interactions, while creating problems regarding privacy. The section then makes a

See also Erving Goffman The PresentaHon of Self in Everyday Life (1959), Kenneth J. Gergen The Concept of Self

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(1971), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of IdenHty (1990) and “Imita9on and Gender

Insubordina9on” in D. Fuss (Ed) Inside/Out: Lesbian theories, gay theories (1991), Stephen David Ross The Ring of RepresentaHon (1992) and Chris Brickell “Masculini9es, Performa9vity, and Subversion” in Men and MasculiniHes vol.8 (2005).

correlation between Grindr and the ephemerality of queer spaces in urban settings, as described by Betsky. ⁷

Expanding on the idea of community, ‘Finding Others/Digital Citizenship’ discusses how the presence of other bodies on the app’s interface helps users construct a sense of self-acceptance and communal belonging. Finally, in line with Braidotti’s call for the construction of figurations, the section then highlights how new terminology and definitions must be brought forth in order to accurately represent the new socio-spatial constructs enabled by apps like Grindr.

Queer spaces here are discussed through Aaron Betsky’s defini9on, as described in the introduc9on of his book

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Queer Space (1997). He writes that a queer space is “a space of spectacle, consump9on, dance, and obscenity. It is a misuse or deforma9on of a place, an appropria9on of the buildings and codes of the city for perverse purposes. It is a space in between the body and technology, a space of pure ar9fice.”