Offline Dating Services: Interpretive Accounts of Matchmakers and Heterosexual Clients

• In Event: 308 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Gender, Sexuality, and Identity: Session III

Abstract

Faced with barriers to dating, namely limited opportunities to meet potential partners and disappointments with online dating, rising numbers of North Americans are using matchmaking services to find long-term partners. These personalized services, which provide offline introductions to clients of varying ages and backgrounds, purport to offer an efficient and highly successful strategy for long-term partnering. However, few studies have examined the process interpretively from clients’ and matchmakers’ perspectives. Using interview data from 20 matchmakers and 10 heterosexual clients, content analyses of 120 company websites and associated client comments, this study queries connections between matchmaking’s growing popularity, (un)changing institutions, and gender relations in late modernity. Analyses demonstrate that opportunities and constraints offered by the strategy are gendered, with men largely maintaining the partnering privileges they enjoy in other arenas, and women making modest gains through their moderate control as paying clients. Gendered experiences are further shaped by age, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

Author

• Sarah Knudson, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan