‘What’s my score?’: the complexities of straight male Geo-Social Networking Application use

ABSTRACT

Millions of people around the world use Geo-Social Networking Applications (GSNAs) to connect with new people and potential sexual partners. Using data from a broad study of GSNA users, this paper explores GSNA use by straight men and the implications on their positionality, masculinity, and for their leisure. Straight men showed that although they speak out against traditional masculine norms in their offline lives, on GSNAs they enact and embrace hegemonic norms of dating. This dualistic (re)presentation demonstrates some of the complexities of how contemporary leisure spaces (like dating) become digitally mediated, but maintain deep human-to-human involvement and traditionalist social expectations.

KEYWORDS:

• Geo-Social Networking
• apps
• masculinity
• mobile
• sexuality
• heterosexual

Disclosure statement

The authors of this manuscript declare no conflicts of interest

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. We choose to use the term Geo-Social Networking Applications because we feel that this best represents the variety of ways these applications are employed by users, without limiting the range of apps explored, or features present. Other terms used are location-based apps and hook-up apps.

2. This research was authored prior to the onset of the widespread lockdowns implemented due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. While the landscape of meeting up through GSNAs has (temporarily) changed, we believe that the findings of this research will remain relevant as users and companies find new ways of connecting.

3. Redbytes.in, 2018, provides brief descriptions of 24 of the most popular apps, and a search of the android app store stops at 250 dating apps in a basic search including SingleParentMeet, Threesome Dating, and Veggly for vegan and vegetarian dating.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [664 ASSHRC-GSNA].

Notes on contributors

Luc S. Cousineau

Luc Cousineau is a PhD candidate in the department of Recreation & Leisure Studies, at the University of Waterloo. Luc’s research is focused on gender and power relations in work and leisure spaces, with a particular focus on quasi-anonymized online leisure and the effects of this leisure participation on masculinity. Using feminist theory, leisure theory, and new media/internet studies to ground his work, Luc’s primary focus is men’s involvement in men’s rights groups on Reddit, and uses this to look at men’s rights activism; its roots, propagation, and transition from anonymous participation to identifiable personal ideology.

Corey W. Johnson

Dr. Corey W. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo. He teaches courses on inclusive recreation, social justice, gender and sexuality, qualitative research methods, and the philosophy of science.Dr. Johnson’s theorizing and qualitative inquiry focuses its attention on the power relations between dominant (white, male, heterosexual, etc.) and non-dominant populations in the cultural contexts of leisure. His research has been published in Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, The Journal of Homosexuality and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education just to name a few. He has co-written Fostering Social Justice through Qualitative Research: A methodological guide, Collective Memory Work: Learning with and from Lived Experience and co-edited Digital Dilemmas: Transforming gender identities and power relations in everyday lives, Contemporary Issues in Leisure Sciences and Promiscuous Perspectives: Sex and Leisure. He has received substantial financial support in his efforts to create safer environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in institutional settings such as camps, secondary schools, universities and detention centers, Co-producing two documentaries, “be there for me”: collective memories of LGBTQ youth in high school, and “We exist”: collective memories of transgender, queer and questioning youth.

Diana C. Parry

Dr. Diana Parry has a Bachelor of Recreation and Leisure Studies (Brock University), Master of Arts (University of Waterloo) and a PhD in Leisure Studies (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Diana is currently a Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo. A Professor in Applied Health Sciences and a fellow in the Academy of Leisure Sciences, Diana’s research utilizes a variety of feminist theories to explore the personal and political links between women’s leisure and women’s health, broadly defined. Diana’s scholarship and activism has been recognized through accolades including the Ontario Women’s Directorate Leading Women Award.