Presents a study of designated gay service environments. Conceptually, the study draws together ideas and frameworks from the consumption literature and from the study of service environments. Analyses issues surrounding gay cultural socialization and its effect on consumption patterns and expression through service environments. The study of the interplay between gay subculture and servicescapes is grounded in qualitative and observational data through field work conducted in the Manchester “gay village”. Findings indicate that communitas, individualism and diversity are key facets of the subculture, with bars being used as individual expressions of identity, moods and emotions. Other influences on consumption patterns include interpersonal interaction with friends, the hetero‐ and homosexual cultural interface, and the ambience of the service environment. Discusses implications for the service marketer, such as the application of marketing models to the creation of servicescapes which reflect and suit the subcultures they are designed for; and raises issues for marketing methodology by noting the value of consumption‐based research in creating a picture of the “gay” lifestyle.

In recent years, some political commentators and mainstream media outlets in the United Kingdom have pejoratively labelled young people, especially university students, a ‘snowflake generation’ – a term used to mock their perceived intolerance and over-sensitivity (Fox, 2016; Gullis, 2017; Slater, 2016; Talbot, 2020). This article challenges this discourse by drawing on findings from a large-scale study ( N = 810) conducted on a university campus in England that critically examined student’s perceptions of and attitudes to different forms of online harassment, including abusive, offensive and harassing communications, using survey and interview data. Key findings indicate that online harassment is so pervasive in digitised spaces that it is often viewed as the ‘norm’ by the student population who appear willing to tolerate it, rather than take actions to address it, which challenges pejorative claims that they are intolerant and easily offended ‘snowflakes’. Respondents who identify as female and transgender are more likely to be targeted by online harassment. We argue that the label ‘snowflake generation’ is diverting attention away from student’s everyday experiences of online harassment and its adverse effects, particularly on women and transgendered people, which has the potential to create a gender-related digital divide (Jane, 2018). The implications of these findings for the higher education sector will be outlined.

This article draws upon data from Reaching Out Online, a collaborative research project that explored the need for, and development of, a digital health outreach service for gay, bisexual men and men who have sex with men (MSM) in London and Brighton, United Kingdom. It identifies the challenges that commercial hookup apps and other digitally based dating and sex services pose for conventional forms of gay men's health promotion. It then moves to explore the opportunities that these same services offer for health promotion teams. Chiefly, the discussion highlights the potential that commercial platforms offer to peer educators in terms of reaching local cohorts of men, together with the constraints placed upon this form of outreach as a result of the commercial imperatives that underpin these digital services.

No abstract

No abstract