Queer geographies of spatial media

Abstract

Digital media scholarship is burgeoning. However, there remains a paucity of queer geographies accounting for hybridity and multi‐directionality of coexisting, variegated and embodied spaces produced through spatial media nor the technologies that enable these media (smartphones, tablet computers, and self‐tracking devices). Bringing together literatures on sexuality and the first and second iterations of the internet, this article extends debate about the uneven and paradoxical queer geographies of location‐aware applications (Tinder and Grindr) and other spatial media now often taken as “composite” of queer cultures globally. The article encourages those with interest in the interrelationships between sexualities and space to emphasise further the historical, cultural, and political specificities of the places in which these diverse media are designed, developed, and consumed. The purpose of doing so, I contend, is to deepen knowledge of heightened commercialisation whilst unravelling complex questions of data ownership, privacy and cultural norms that could exacerbate disparities in sexual citizenship.

Let’s (not) Go Outside: Grindr, Hybrid Space, and Digital Queer Neighborhoods

“…Location-based media-that is, products that utilize the GPS location-sensing technologies offered by today's smartphones 1 -now comprise the dominant platform for partner seeking across the global North. Male-male offerings including Grindr, Hornet, Scruff, and Blued, and female-female platforms including HER and Lex, as well as more mainstream apps increasingly utilized for same-sex searching such as Tinder and Badoo, have proven popular for both socialization and sexual encounter (Ahlm 2017;Ferris and Duguay 2020;Mearns 2020;Miles 2018).…”