Gamified Eroticism: Gay Male “Social Networking” Applications and Self-Pornography

Sexuality & Culture volume 19, pages759–775(2015)Cite this article

Abstract

It is taken for granted that face-to-face contact is the ultimate goal of gay male social networking applications such as Grindr and Scruff. I, however, challenge this assumption and argue that these applications have succeeded not because they fulfill their tacit promise to connect gay men, but by doubling as do-it-yourself (DIY) amateur porn platforms. Gay male social networking applications are screening tools that facilitate self-pornification through a process of gamified surveillance. I contend that the rewards for playing the game are often not the sanitized ones promoted by application creators and their public relations departments but the erotic exchanges and byproducts produced during the screening process these applications ambivalently disavow—nude images and erotic chat.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Scruff, however, has a “global” feature that provides users with a small set of randomly chosen profiles from across the globe. Scruff also allows users to “search by city, address, or business.” If the goal were interaction, why would the application program a search option that allows one to surpass the prescribed limits? While attempting to position itself as both “local” and “global,” the application undermines its tacit promise to connect users with others within their vicinity, co-opting proximity and the intimacy it entails in service of ulterior exchanges.

  2. 2.

    I recognize GMSNAs can be, and are, used by a variety of non-identifying men who have sex with men (MSM). I use “gay men” inclusively to refer to all MSM but to also prioritize self-identified and/or closeted gay men as the primary users and target of GMSNAs.

  3. 3.

    The descriptions are based off of the free 2013 version on Apple’s iPhone and not the paid version Grindr Xtra. Please note that paid versions of GMSNAs (Scruff Pro) allow users additional flexibility and access to different features.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Thomas Waugh and the blind reviewers for their generous constructive criticism, and I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues for their support, expertise, and feedback throughout the article's research, writing, and revision phases.

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  1. Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Evangelos Tziallas

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Correspondence to Evangelos Tziallas.

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Versions of this paper have been presented at the following conferences under the following titles: “Grindr and the New Medical Gaze: Neoliberalism, Gay Male Dividuality, and Databanks” at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, 2013 and “Grindr and the Formation of New Pornographic Narratives: Screening, (Dis)simulation, and Databanks” at Apps and Affect, London ON, 2013.

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Tziallas, E. Gamified Eroticism: Gay Male “Social Networking” Applications and Self-Pornography. Sexuality & Culture 19, 759–775 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-015-9288-z

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Keywords

  • Gamification
  • Gay male
  • Pornography
  • Grindr
  • Scruff
  • Surveillance