Introduction.
Cruising
is an old tradition among the male homosexual culture. Parks,
public toilets, side streets of the underground districts are the
most common and as well as the most acknowledged places among the gay
people. Cruising is an act. Cruising is a sexual performativity where
the places have been particularly located or chose by the
participants whom are prominently homosexual gay males. Cruising is
a one of the most important sexual activity among gays, is one of the
most prominent surviving sexul medium for the gays that the history
have witnessed over and over through the time. The male participants
of this act are after, most of the time,merely the sex. Young and
mature homosexual males wonder around the particular places such as
public parks, public toilets and so forth. We gaze, we whisper, we
feel the temper of the each other. Sometimes we just pass by the
bodies. By the certain act of bodily speeches such as blinks,
gestures or may be just the transcendence of the feelings are
sufficient for alluring the sexual enactments, and so forth.
As
Burton (1995) said;
“Cruising
and cottaging—that is to say the seeking of sexual pleasure in
public places and public lavatories respectively—are forms of
homosexual expression that seem to have an imprecise history appearing to have existed for as long as men have sought sex.”
Cruising
has enabled an opportunity to experience homosexual enactments and to
express their sexuality for individuals (Asford,2006) Many gay
people have had certain experiences on the cruising issue. However,
as much as pleasant attractiveness of the very act of cruising, it
has certain unwanted parts as well, so to speak. Namely, robbery,
verbal and physical attacks by some homophobic people, or most
considerable unwanted situation is most probably the police
intervention. In his ostensible article, Ashford(2007) depicts the
other sides of this cruising activity. Due to the fact that cruising
is held in particular places such as lavatories and public spaces,
certain negative labeling and marginalizing might be inevitable. Yet,
also for the most of the people, commentators, the most “harmful
and the wrong possible situation is the police intervention,” he
quotes to state
In
Turkey, especially in Istanbul there is a considerable cruising
activity and as well as a possibility to emerge. Gays and the men who
have sex with men(MSM) but do not identify themselves as gay or
homosexual, they are aware of the very facts that I mentioned above.
Within all the possible sides, the homosexual enactments has been
brought into the another ostensible space called “cyberspace.”
Hence, for the time being, what I want to highlight is not the
public cruising, rather I would like to address my inquiry to the
another ostensible issue, that is to say, online dating web-site or
online cruising issue.
Within
the explosion of the internet, especially lesbians and gays found
another space to close the gaps, to embody into/onto the new
discursive space, to express their sexuality, or to fulfill their
sexuality, so to speak. The internet become one of the most
prominent and ostensible medium particularly among gays. In the
information age, the internet provides considerable medium in the
course of fulfillment of sexual desires or dating issues with gays
and lesbians. Many male homosexual individuals have experienced this
unique opportunity to find sex partners, one-night stand lovers and
so forth. As Ashford, Walker and Dimalcro suggest ; “Within the
dawn of the information age, it was perhaps unsurprising that sex too
would quickly dominate cyberspace alongside e-commerce, information
and general communication. Aside from pornography,the internet has
also become the beacon for minority sexual interests incorporating a
cornucopia and of fetishes and fixication.(Ashford,2006,
Dimalcro,2003, Walker,2000) Understandably, to put in another word,
the traditional cruising activity jumped into/onto the cyberspace
indeed.
One
of the most common and old way of internet dating medium is the
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system. Most of the individuals ,
especially MSM and gays, are still using the IRC to find sex dates.
However, nowadays IRC is not that much popular especially among the
middle and upper class of Turkish gays. Because IRC has some
particular lacks, and as well as it is considered risky comparing
the online dating web-sites. The very reason of these ostensible
facts why IRC is less popular among the mentioned group, is as the
following. Lack of visual cues(Shaw,1997), namely body or face
images, are the most considerable issue that causes the IRC is less
popular nowadays.
Besides
most of the online dating web-sites provide more options such as
uploading photographs, wide-range search system according the
member's interests and preferences, as well as relatively more
privacy. According to the certain users this type of communication is
safer.
Yet,
I believe the very brief definition of the cruising activity and
the new medium that I mentioned above, enabled relatively sufficient
frame about the issue which I will draw. However, within this chapter
I will try to focus on another issue, that is, the textual identity
construction in the course of online dating,or online cruising
web-sites.
There
are several web-sites which provides online sex-dating facilities.
These web-sites are the followings: Gayromeo, PlanetRomeo,Manjam,
HadiGayri, Gabile. SheMaleTurk, HairyTurks, Gaydar,BearWWW.
Gaydar,
Gayromeo,PlanetRomeo,HairyTurks,BearWWW and Manjam, these are foreign
based/origin web-sites, and Hadigayri, SheMaleTurk, Gabile these are
local based web-sites.
There
are of course more web-sites, however I chose to classify the
aforementioned ones,
because
the mentioned ones are the most acknowledged ones among of all within
the Turkish users.
Owing
to the recent censorship regulations on the internet, most of the
LBGTQ web-sites have been banned by the reason of public morality.
Before the regulation launch, internet users were able to access to
the certain banned web-sites by changing the DNS settings. However
now users can have access the particular web-sites among the
classified ones,such as PlanetRomeo, Gabile, Manjam, BearWWW,
Hadigayri. Yet, Gayromeo, Gaydar and ShemaleTurk are the banned ones
owing to the internet regulations. Gayromeo and PlanetRomeo have same
providers, as a matter of fact these two web-sites are the same
indeed.
HairyTurks
and BearWWW, these web-sites address to the “bears” (Ayılar)
“A
Bear to me is somebody who, quote unquote, has a poty.” (Don)
“I
would say, physically I would say at least facial hair—beard,
moustache. And personalitywise—natural, down to earth.” (Larry)
“I
would say stockier, definitely hairy—either facial hair, hairy
chest, probably a little bit
older.”
(Grant)
“This
is my personal opinion, the majority of people base what a Bear is
based on, I think,
more
physical looks than anything else, obviously.” (Travis)”
Bear
traits is masculinity, a trait for which we are obviously known. The
emergence
of
a true Bear actually takes years, a culmination of experiences,
attitudes
and
self-discovery.(Hill)
SheMaleTurk address mostly to cross-dressers,
transsexuals and transvestite users.
Owing
to the fact that HadiGayri and Gabile have Turkish language option
in use, HadiGayri and Gabile have wide-range users, such as gays,
MSM, cross-dressers, transvestites. The other reason why these two
web-sites have more wide-range users comparing the other ones that
these two web-sites address to certain type of users where they can
find easily reciprocal communication on.
Those
Which Gayromeo and Manjam are comparatively more mainstream and
address to the members who are middle or upper class, know at least
English, relatively “well-educated”
Besides, among these two mentioned web-sites, Gayromeo
is the most popular one among the Turkish gays, because Gayromeo has
multiple language using options, and Turkish is one of all.
Hence, it makes Gayromeo comparatively much more
reachable particularly among İstanbulite gays. By the members,
Gayromeo creates own territorial space in the course of gender and
sexuality. Gayromeo has 919185 members around Europe, has 19481
members around Turkey .
According to the current datas on the web-sites, there
are 11442 users from Istanbul of all.
There is also another and actually the most prominent
reason why I selected Gayromeo is that I have been actively member of
the aforementioned web-site. Accordingly I have observed certain
ostensible issues on the web-sites. Some issues are very familiar
with the public sphere , and some issues are very dissimilar. All of
the observations and experiences that I have been through brought me
into this very ostensible topic, so to speak.
Click
On Me
“Cyberspace
is divided by interest rather than geography” David
F.Shaw
On
some Friday afternoon, 677 gay men are online on Gayromeo. They are
cruising for the “right person”, for “just coffee”, may be
just for a “small chat”, yet most probably for merely “the sex”
what they are hopefully, enthusiastically or desperately seeking
after.
In contradistinction
to the public cruising, in cyberspace we encounter with the text
which is composed of certain information about the online profile
that we click on, or that we just glance.
Although in the
offline world all the identities have been considered as texts as
well. According to the post-structuralists, cultural and social
theorists identities composed of “particular discourses within the
interactive relationship of certain unities and institutions ” and
of “particular process” (Foucault,1981.Hall,1996) Namely, in his
remarkable oeuvre Foucault, highlights the invention of homosexual
being and shows how the homosexual identity came into the stages, or
came into the being within the particular discursive construction
such as psychiatry, medicine and so on.(1981)
speaking
of which, yet it will be very effective to highlight an issue, that
is, according to my reading of Foucault, he does not refer an
identity in his remarkable ouevres, rather he seeks after the very
constitutive "subjects."
He
queries the subjectification process by doing the genealogical
reading. Besides,
according to Hall, “Faoucault, of course would not commit
anything so vulgar as actually to deploy the term identity, however,
with the relation to self and the constitution and recognition of
himself qua subject we are approaching something of the territory
which, in terms established earlier, belongs to the problematic”
(Hall,1996)
In
addition to this, Hall(1996) in Question
of Cultural Identity,
queries the very fictive and textuality of the identities regarding
with the constitution process of the issue. While he particularly
cites the ostensible social and cultural theorists, he emphasizes the
constructed unities of the identification process, such as “history,
language , culture, sexuality” and so on.
Within the
information age and the huge impact of the internet, of course, the
issue of identity or subjectivity has been taken into consideration.
Accordingly, regarding with the issue particular arguments within the
communication studies and cultural studies as well.
Namely,
according to Bell (2001) “by this new medium, The
fluid, fragmented
late-modern or postmodern self has a new capacity to make itself
over, to reshape and restyle elements of identity – or at least to
make choices about which aspects of its self to privilege
at any point. Again,
this might
be taken to imply freedom of choice or to given another example on
the issue"
In addition to this,
according to the some other communication and cultural theorists,
cyberspace enables more possibilities concerning with the
corporeality. Creating hybrid avatars, passing between the genders
are the issues that mostly discussed on, so to speak.
Alongside with the
possibilities, certain issues has been discussed on the topic of the
dis/embodiment. How the new discourses will shape our bodies or to
what extent they affect the embodiment process, these considerations
have been taken into account for a while.
Since
it is the new medium and in progress we will witness the certain set
of literature developments and ongoing discussions regarding within
the cyberculture reality.
However, considering
the all those mentioned discussions above, I found advantageous to
address my inquiry, that is, construction online textual identity
on Gayromeo.
All those profiles
are actually texts, images, narratives, or binary digits, data that
we interact, that we develop certain communication system through
this space and through the particular data which makes us enable to
comprehend specific identification cues, such as masculine,
feminine, top, bottom and so forth. What makes us to think so, of
course, the self and the other' own identification process and
engagements with particular identification of social and cultural
entities.
Concerning the
aforementioned respect, the one goes through the certain
identification process interactively with a set of indicative
elements, such as defining of the body parts, narration of the
preferences , photo selection according to his tentative self
presentation and so forth.
On
Gayromeo, one should constitute the online profile, if he wants to
participate in this cyberspace, or if he wants to cruise online.
There are three different membership options. One can register as a
regular member. One can register as guide and one can register as an
escort. If the one register as an escort, his profile will appear on
the escort's page. Registering as escort means, according to the
web-site' term and regulation, (The following text are extracted out
of escort profile registration page of aforementioned
web-site)“Escort profiles are
for guys who want to advertise erotic services for money. This also
includes massage, pay dates, webcam shows etc.
In addition to this web-sites warns the attendance as escort as
followings. "You must be over 18, you can have only
one escort profile and the profile must be for yourself."
Registering
as guide requires the followings. (The following texts are extracted
out of the on guide profile registeration page of aforementioned
web-site) A Guide profile works in a similar way to a
standard GayRomeo User profile. You manage your own profile, can
upload photos, contact other users and save their profiles.
Registering and administering a Guide profile is really easy and
requires no special computing knowledge. Guide Profiles are listed in
the Guide. Other members can find you there
according to the category and location where you're listed or the
keywords you have entered. Registration is permitted for companies,
the self-employed (if officially registered), and associations or
groups based in the Gay and Lesbian Community.
However,
what I would like to highlight is the regular member profile, and
what kind of identification process are required to have certain
online profile in the course of gender and sexual identity
construction in cyberspace/on Gayromeo.
When
you click on the standard member user, first thing you encounter is
definition of your location. However owing to the privacy
regulation, the stated address/location is not displayed to the
others on map. However, there is an option which is called "radar"
on the web-site, so that by the permission of the user, your location
is displayed on the users profile. If the user wants to benefit of
this option, he can make his location information visible within the
certain settings on his Gayromeo profile. After completing this
section, the user's country, region and city informations are filled
automatically and appeared on the section of “where you come from”
After this regional activation, the user is required to complete the
“body stats and general information part.” In this section the
user is required to fill birthday information. And then the user is
expected to choose appropriate data about his general body
appearances, such as body type, weight, height, body hair, eyes,
beards, hair, hair color, tattoos and piercing.
In this part the user can choose slim, average, athletic, muscular,
belly, stocky as the body type, and
can choose his ethnic identification among the following ones.
Namely, Caucasian, Asian, Arab, Black, Latin, Hybrid, Mediterranean
and mixed. After the ostensible bodily and ethnic identifications,
here comes the sexual orientation part. According to the web-site's
interface, sexual identification is considered as an orientation. In
this part the users are expected to choose among the three
identification of the orientation section, namely, gay, bisexual and
transgender. However, during my actively membership on the
aforementioned web-site, I rarely encounter profiles that identified
as transgender, so to speak. As a matter of fact, there might be said
that there is a considerable sissy-phobia regarding my own Gayromeo
experiences. The dominant discourse within the members on the
website is that usually composes of statements which refers to “real
men” and “straight-acting” issues. Hence, gay and bisexual
identifications are popular among the members. After the ostensible
orientation part, the users proceed the relationship status, which
has four different alternatives. Namely, “I am a single, I have a
partner, open relationship, married”
Then, user choose the age range according to his age preferences. The
age range is included between the 18 and 99. Some members have
strict definition of age preferences, whilst some member indicated
that “I am looking for someone between the age of 18 and 99”
By doing so, some of them stand against the age discrimination.
According to Payne(2007), this is a kind of dissident identification
to stand against the discursive dominant understanding.
After the definition of age preferences, users select the definition
of aim, such as for sex dates, for relationship and for friends.
Then, comes the “headline” and “your statement” parts. Within
these parts users are expected to write about themselves and some
other important information which help to attract to the other
members. Headline part is limited with the 15-200 characters.
Headline part is appeared as highlighted on the member's profile and
it is considered as the prominent interesting section of the users.
Namely, if the user prefers only chubby ones, masculine ones, only
bears, or if the user is attracted by merely straight-acting type of
gay, he emphasizes on his headline section by doing so.
“Your
statement” part is limited with 50- 30,000 characters. According to
the web-site indication, members can talk about anything else they
want to mention about themselves. In addition to this statement,
there is also an advice, that is, “there
is plenty of space so do not limit yourself to just three words”.
In this part, members usually state their sexual preferences, and
what they look like, what kind of things impress them and so forth.
This part is very important indeed, because of the fact that in this
part, they usually state what they are and accordingly what they are
not. For example, some users do not prefer sissies, feminine ones.
Some members want “normal guys”, or some members do not looking
for drama queens and seeking merely non string-attached sex. By doing
so, they also state certain information cues on their identity. The
identity construction process always is articulated by exclusion.
According to Hall, identity is a structured representation which only
achieves its positive through the eye of the negative(Hall,1996)
There is usually excessive or insufficient graduation of
identification process.
The statements that is held on this part usually refers to becoming
of the member.
I
would like to exemplify to put it bluntly. One of the common
discourses as the following.
“I
would like to meet a guy who knows what gay means. I do not want to
meet with gays whom are too much degenerated. I want “normal guys”
The
statement that mentioned above is actually definition of proper gay
identity among the particular members. By defining the proper
gayness over relatively the “negative” one, the member refers
his identity through the exclusion. Hence he articulates his
identification process by doing so.
After the “statements” section, users are expected to enter
their sexual preferences. This part is composed of eight sections
which users can enter the following options. “I am generally top
only, more top, versatile, more bottom, bottom only” as to indicate
sexual position. However this part is not mandatory or to put in
another word arbitrarily .As the user wishes, he can skip this part
or he can deliberately leave as unselected. Sexual preferences are
composed of “safer sex(yes,no,always)
anal(top only, more top, versatile, no, more bottom,bottom only)
SM(yes, no, soft sm only)
fisting(active, active/passive, passive) dirty(yes, no, ws only) dick
size(small, medium,large, xlarge and xxlarge) and cut and uncut.
Finally, users come to the fetish part. This part is also
arbitrarily.
There are some most acknowledged fetishes, such as leather,
sportswear, uniform, rubber, boots, jeans and so forth. The members
can select more than one option, and owing to the limited selection
of fetish list, the member can indicate more on their profiles
according to their taste. Or, they can exclude the fetish part out of
their profile concerning with their sexual identity elements.
To
conclude this process, the members are expected to upload images,
photos. This part is arbitrarily as well. However, it is highly
recommended in the course of better communication, actually for
better cruising, so to speak. The choice of image is also worth to
discuss on very much indeed. Owing to the fact the visual
representation is one of the most prominent element of the
identification process. According to me, the “proper”
representation of the profile might relatively help the member to
represent the arbitrary “true
self”
by choosing relevant images with their statements.
During
my observations, I can state that some of the members (most of them
indeed) are in tended to do so. To put it crudely, if the member
state that he is top only
or more top and
if he identifies himself as “straight-acting,”
masculine type of guy, his general tendency is to choose mostly
images which indicate or represent the member as equivalent with the
general look of the profile.
The aforementioned images are mostly composed of as followings.
Outdoor images have high reputation among these type of guys, such as
captured images during the outdoor activities, namely particular
sport activities, or certain captured images during working out in
the gym, or some similar images which represent the masculine unity
or equivalent elements according to the user.
In addition to this, if the member state that he is a “decent guy”,
“not into gay scene” and looks for the same-minded persons,
within this perspective, the user's general tendency on the visual
representation is more or less similar. Actually, most of the time,
yet arbitrarily indeed, the notions of “straight-acting” and
“decent” might be considered as equivalent with each other. On
the other hand, off course there are particular members who resist
this dominant discourse and shape their profile not according to the
mentioned discourses above. Besides, there are fake profiles as well
and others who do not indicate anything regarding with the “headline,
your statements and photo” parts.
According to Rodriguez(2003) “the discursive space does not
establish which identity practices are available , but it does
provide frame through which these practices are received in that
context.”
Conclusion
“Digital
discourses, those virtual exchanges we glimpse on the Net, are
textual performances: fleeting, transient, ephemeral, already past.
Like the etxt of a play, they leave a trace to which meaning can be
assigned, but these traces are haunted by the absence that
performance itself, its reception, and its emotive power.”
Juana
Maria Rodriguez
Doing research on the internet is very challenging process indeed.
Having been a new medium and rarely conducted research sometimes
cause the researcher to be disturbed and sometimes push the
researcher to find own possibilities within the field regarding with
the conducted researches, case studies and conducted methodologies
as well.
On this paper, I tried to trace the everyday identification practices
on the Gayrome concerning with the online profile issue. One can
easily sense that how the every day particular identity enactments
shape the online profile within the tools of language and of
specific website on cyberspace. Through the suturing and articulation
process(Hall,1996), the aforementioned website' users (re)constitute
the gender and sexual identity over and over. This process refers to
the non-stability and to be in the progress of the identity
problematic and its constructed structure.
According to Edelman(2004), every identity is textual, every identity
is interactive. Each body that always demands to be read and each
body “on which his sexuality is always already inscribed. Hence,
through the online profile and cyberspace we encounter
textual-identity performance that is representing textuality of the
self, “a constant coding and decoding of the self and the other.”
(Rodriguez,2003)
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