Filtering Black Queer Fantasy: Race, Networked Technologies, and Constructions of Desire

• In Event: Writing Desire in Queer Qualitative Research

Abstract

Objectives/Purposes
This paper explores how categorical filters and keyword searches on networked technologies, namely internet porn sites and smartphone hook-up apps, mediated the desires of young Black queer males (YBQM). Since these platforms may function as primary pedagogical sites on sex and sexuality for many YBQM, their categories and tools for identifying what is desirable have important potential implications for culturally responsive, queer-inclusive sexual health education for Black queer male youth.

Perspectives
As context, 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” (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 challenges and possibilities of the networked publics forged by YBQM.

Methods
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.

Results and Significance
To make the presentation of study findings manageable within session time constraints, this paper will highlight data from three participants. Two key themes emerged across the data on these focal participants. First, the predetermined categorical filters, keyword search tools, and suggested thumbnails on the porn sites and hook-up apps used by these participants reproduced limited notions of desirability. Specifically, hypermasculine and hypersexual constructions of Black maleness were embedded in these platforms and played a significant role in shaping study participants’ navigation of these sites. Second, these participants developed strategies for working around, or queering, the dictates of desire on these platforms. In particular, participants used filters and keywords that contradicted the suggested viewing generated by site profiling of them as YBQM, and they nurtured queer reading strategies that allowed them to find intimacy in the hypersexual texts and artifacts on these platforms.

Given the heavy potential impact of internet sites and smartphone apps on YBQM’s emerging sexual sense of self, developing a deeper understanding of how they perceive, accept, and/or subvert constructions of desirability is crucial for stakeholders who wish to support these youth’s pedagogical experiences on sex and sexuality. This paper will conclude with considerations of how educators might facilitate those pedagogical experiences.

Author

• Edward Brockenbrough, University of Pennsylvania