CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Atuk, Hasan Tankut |
|---|---|
| Title | Cruising In-Between Immunity and Community: an in-app ethnography of virtual cruising in Istanbul |
| Summary | Community and cruising have been salient topics in the past of the queer and LGBTQI studies and politics. Since the beginning of 1990s, as a result of the rapid virtualization of social relationships, this time many scholars intended to explore the new status of the community and cruising in relation to virtuality. Especially after the introduction of the first Geosocial Networking Application (commonly known as “dating/hook-up app” or GNA), Grindr, for gay men in 2009, the discussions on the virtual community and virtual cruising became very popular both amongst scholars and within the LGBTQI “community” itself. Nevertheless, the existing literature on these topics could not go beyond establishing an unfruitful dichotomy: cruising virtually and forming a virtual community by means of GNAs are either celebrated uncritically or denounced moralistically. By drawing on Roberto Esposito, this thesis reveals the inseparable relationship between cruising and community, provided that community is understood as a relation that breaks people free from their boundaries. In addition, it shows that virtual cruising and virtual community are always threatened by homo- and heteronormative “immunization” of GNA users. By analyzing 300 online user profiles and conducting 40 in-app interviews, this thesis demonstrates in which ways a particular GNA, Hornet, simultaneously strengthens and undermines the emergence of a virtual community, i.e. a virtual relation, which is capable of decreasing the isolation and solitariness of gay men, bisexual men, trans* women and (MTF) cross-dresser individuals in Istanbul, Turkey. Hence, this study contributes to the literature by revealing the intricate and paradoxical operation of GNAs and by elucidating the agential potentials of a non/human actant in re-shaping socio-cultural reality. |
| Supervisor | Barat, Erzsebet |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/atuk_tankut.pdf |
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