"Be a Good Bottom": Networked Technologies as Sexual Pedagogical Sites for Young Black Queer Males

• In Event: 72.039 - Queeruptions: Queer of Color Analysis as a Basis for Radical Action and Education Reform

Abstract

This paper explores young Black queer males’ (YBQM) use of networked technologies (i.e. technologies operating through networked connections) to learn about sex and negotiate their sexual identities. By disrupting—or “queerupting”—sexphobic discourses on youth engagement of sexually explicit online media, dating websites, and smartphone hook-up apps, this paper considers how these technologies can afford access for YBQM to queer-inclusive sex education.

Longstanding constructions of queer sexualities as deviant and predatory have prevented many queer youth nationwide from accessing queer-affirmative sex education in P-12 schools (Greytak & Kosciw, 2013; Rofes, 2005). By contrast, the proliferation over the past decade of queer male-targeted sexually explicit online media, dating websites, and smartphone hook-up apps has afforded increased access to queer male sexual networks and depictions of queer male sex. This paper draws upon danah boyd’s (note: author uses lowercase) framework of “networked publics” (boyd, 2010) which asserts the need to analyze how the ever-evolving socio-technical contexts created by networked technologies reshape how we construct our identities and participate in social collectivities. boyd’s framework helps to illuminate the pedagogical possibilities of the networked publics forged by YBQM.

This paper draws upon data from a mixed-method study of the sexual engagements of networked technologies by 22 YBQM in the northeast US. Data collection included a survey on sexual behaviors, HIV knowledge, and sexually oriented use of networked technologies, followed by one-on-one interviews in which participants described their use of networked technologies in greater detail. iPads allowed participants to actually demonstrate how they used various websites and apps for sexually related purposes, and screenshots were captured as digital artifacts.

Three themes emerged from an analysis of study data. The first theme is the role of networked technologies as sources of sexual education. Both survey and interview data repeatedly confirmed that study participants turned to sexually explicit online media for information about queer sexual encounters, especially since such information was inaccessible from other potential educational sources. The second theme is how participants’ diverse identities and lived experiences mediated their use of various platforms. HIV statuses, racial self-awareness, and varied gender expressions significantly influenced how participants sorted through content and negotiated connections with other users. The third theme is participants’ negotiations of social and sexual networks via technological platforms. While most participants met sexual partners via various sites, they also developed romantic and platonic relationships that pointed to dynamic and multifaceted communal networks—or networked publics—fostered via networked technologies.

By using boyd’s framework to analyze study participants’ sexually oriented use of networked technologies, this paper not only disrupts—or “queerupts”—sexphobic silences surrounding how YBQM learn about sex, but it also creates opportunities to consider how various stakeholders can support YBQM to manage their sexual identities and desires in safe and authentic ways as they participate in their networked publics. This paper will conclude with considerations of these pedagogical possibilities.

Author

• Edward Brockenbrough, University of Pennsylvania