Queering App-Propriate Behaviours: the Affective Politics of Gay Social-Sexual Applications in Toronto, Canada by Adam W. J
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Queering App-propriate Behaviours: The Affective Politics of Gay Social-Sexual Applications in Toronto, Canada by Adam W. J. Davies A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in the University of Toronto © Copyright by Adam W. J. Davies 2021 Queering App-propriate Behaviours: The Affective Politics of Gay Socio-Sexual Applications in Toronto, Canada Doctor of Philosophy, 2021 Adam W. J. Davies Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto Abstract In conversation with affect theory, queer theory, and relevant social scientific literature, this thesis investigates the affective and feeling politics of gay socio-sexual applications (GSSAs). Specifically, this thesis investigates how GBQ men’s understandings of emotional connections— a term used in GSSAs, such as Grindr, to advertise the potentialities of such applications—are involved in the socio-sexual politics and constitution of normative gay men’s sexual subjectivities online and how online outreach workers and social service workers are implicated in and involved with such politics. Applying a feminist poststructural affect theory lens, this thesis uses Jackson and Mazzei’s (2011) process of “plugging-in” with different poststructural theories, such as Michel Foucault’s (1991) governmentality, Julia Kristeva’s (1982) abjection, and Sara Ahmed’s (2004a, 2004b, 2010a, 2010b) affective economies and promises of happiness to analyze what I term “fractions” of data. In the first data chapter, I apply Foucault’s theorization of governmentality to argue that subjects learn to navigate GSSAs through discourses of emotional regulation and restraint, while analyzing the politics of “emotional risk.” In the second data chapter, I apply Kristeva’s (1982) theorization of abjection to argue that the abjection of others and the abjection of the “self” take place within GSSAs through the rejection of emotional dependency upon others, romantic love, as well as the aspiration for neoliberal norms of individuality. In my third data chapter, I apply Sara Ahmed’s (2004a, 2004b, 2010a, 2010b) work on the promises of happiness and affective economies to argue that GSSAs promote ii certain affective economies of confidence and self-assuredness whereby subjects are encouraged to perform neoliberal subjectivities through promises of self-pleasure. In particular, I note how GSSAs, such as Grindr, hold differing “promises” for individuals that keep subjects bound to them and using them, even if they might seek to disconnect from such applications. Within each data chapter, I write a Deleuzian “intermezzo” section in reflection on my experiences in what I term “thinking/feeling/writing” within the affective assemblages of my research project. I close with a very un-final not-conclusion that articulates some further thoughts for online outreach as well as my own becomings within my research. iii Acknowledgements Thank you to all the men who shared their stories using applications with me—I do hope this thesis has honoured your narratives. From my interviews, I learned more myself about working within and against gay men’s cultures, histories, and knowledges, and the ways in which you each navigate the norms and structures that you are positioned within. Through this thesis and my interviews, I have learned and reflected upon new ways of being and becoming gay. To my supervisor, Dr. Heather Sykes, thank you for all you have taught me and your kindness with me on my academic journey. As a student who has experienced my own institutional barriers in higher education, you have been continually kind and supportive of me and I do not believe I would be a working academic today if it were not for you and your mentorship. Thank you for your teachings and for showing me that you can be a queer theorist who still believes in love. I promise you that I will be “clingy” in my continual connection with you after my graduate career. I appreciate your willingness to mentor a student in queer theory and how you encouraged me to pursue a research project I was passionate about, even if it was not about the formal school system. Thank you for supporting me in telling this story. To my committee members, Dr. Tanya Titchkosky, Dr. Rinaldo Walcott, Dr. Lance McCready, and Dr. Damien Riggs, I highly value your participation in my very personal academic journey and your support in my thesis. Tanya, your courses always taught me to challenge normalcy and the taken-for-granted in society and how culture can teach us about included/excluded subjects. You’ve been a guiding light in my academic career, a true friend, and someone who has introduced me to cultural studies and critical disability studies after coming from a background in teacher education and developmental psychology in my master’s. I am so appreciative to you in ways that words cannot even begin to describe. Rinaldo, I value your thoughtful reads of my work and how you push my critical thinking further to challenge my own whiteness and how it plays out in my work. Lance, thank you for your attention to questions of methods and methodology and for all the learning I gained in your courses on queer of colour critique and black masculinities. Damien, thank you for your thoughtful insights and contributions. Thank you all for your kindness, support, and input. iv Thank you to my mom, Karyn, and my dad, Brent, for their emotional and financial support throughout my graduate journey. I really could not make it through my master’s and doctorate without your help and I value how you always had a safe home for me to return to in Guelph. Even though you do not always “understand” what I study, you would listen to me talking about Grindr, queer theory, and gay masculinities endlessly. Thank you to my sister, Emily, who always would ask questions about my research and provide various forms of emotional support throughout my long graduate education. Also, to all my OISE friends, especially Sohyun Kate Lee, Shawna Carroll, j. wallace skelton, Kate Reid, Michael Wallner, and Noah Kenneally, my graduate experience was so aided through your love. I must thank Dr. Kimberly Maich, an academic mentor of mine who has supported me since the beginning of my academic career as a teacher education candidate, and who has always been kind and offered thoughts and feedback on navigating academia, regardless of where my interests and career took me. As well, I would like to thank Dr. Lauren Bialystok, who kindly provided me with mentorship and guidance in the beginning of my career as a graduate student and with whom I had many conversations around ethics, identity, femmephobia. Your work has shown me ways to “be myself.” Thank you. Also, to Dr. Tara Goldstein who met with a teacher education and master’s student who wished to continue his education and follow his dream of completing a PhD, and even supported my application to doctoral studies—I will never forget and will be always thankful for the way you generously supported a student who had only taken one course with you, and how one of my first publications came from your course. To my new academic family at the University of Guelph, where I have begun my career as a young academic and tenure-track faculty, I appreciate everyone in my new department in Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, particularly my friendships with Dr. Tricia van Rhijn Dr. Robin Milhausen, and Dr. Ruthie Neustifter. Thank you so much for all you have done for me in my first year as an Assistant Professor. You have been a rock during this incredible and busy year. As well, Dr. Toni Serafini at St. Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo— you are an academic gem and a kind soul. Meeting you has given me so much hope for academia. Thank you to Dr. David J. Brennan for your mentorship and taking on a qualitative researcher interested in queer theory for your mixed-methods project and introducing me to the world of gay men’s sexual health. And, Dr. Ashley Rhea Hoskin—meeting another queer femme who has shown me a world of vulnerability, femininity, and rich scholarship has been a blessing. v Lastly, this is for my brave participants who shared their stories with me and all the men who feel “hope” for something more on Grindr. Your vulnerability with a stranger is the crux of this thesis and I hope you feel honoured in how I have re-presented your brave stories. vi Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Appendices .......................................................................................................................... x Chapter One: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Introducing the Thesis: Feeling My Way ................................................................................... 1 Why this Research? ....................................................................................................................