Cruising Sex

This essay analyzes discourses and narratives of men who frequent the washrooms at public venues in Havana. The graffiti on toilet room walls works as an articulator of micro markets of sexual communication and gender/sexual relations. In this article graffiti is the focus of an ethnographic approach to everyday life and discourses on homoeroticism at play in those sites. The final part of the essay moves on from graffiti in public toilets to chart other places constituting a homoerotic ambiente in Havana.

Cruising Quito was a project that I developed in the framework of Queer City Quito, from June 28 to July 8, 2017.

The project included a residency at No Lugar, along with an experiential research and reflection on the different spaces and technologies of gay cruising in the city of Quito, following the distinction that I have proposed between analog cruising and digital cruising, that is, between the cruising modalities that go from places like parks, public baths, or video venues, to computer technologies such as the Grindr or Hornet applications.

The objective was to evaluate and compare the continuities and mismatches between these different modalities of homosexual encounter. This project is part of a larger research where I have dealt with the “flows” that can be established or proposed between the physical/material and the virtual. This interest in the material-digital confrontation has had multiple and diverse routes, such as, for example, my series of Interface Paintings, my work about porn on the Internet, or my TAG3 series.

The resulting experiences of this residency in Quito were documented and are compartmentalized in a specially created website, where other materials such as texts, images, or schemes associated with the project are included. The proposal also included an instance of an object-based artwork that consisted of the assembly of a QR code, as in my Queer Code series, constructed of condoms painted in colors. This artwork was exhibited at the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) in Quito. When scanned with an electronic device, the condom code linked to the project website.

Saint Sebastian acted as an intercessory figure during historical pestilences; a symbol of communality invoked to heighten religious affiliation within a demoralised medieval public. While the saint retains a contemporary queer resonance due to his homoerotic portrayals, this dissertation focuses on the saint as a communal instigator who was invoked to re-establish the queer community during the AIDS crisis, much like he had during medieval plagues. This is a topic that has been left largely unaddressed, with research tending to focus on the saint’s sexuality and disregarding the correlation between a medieval and AIDS temporality. Through a consideration of Sebastian’s communal positioning in the devotional and performative arts of the plagued middle ages, and a cross-temporal comparison with works by David Wojnarowicz and Ron Athey that utilised the saint during the AIDS crisis, this study argues that the saint’s martyrdom acted as a symbol for communal re-establishment during a growing anti-queer rhetoric. Drawing upon theories of community building, queer kinship and appropriation, this dissertation dismisses the queer understanding of the saint as a pornographic figure, reintroducing him as a tool for superseding persecution and provoking broader discussions on the potential of appropriating a dominant culture to address marginalised concerns.

El surgimiento de la Arqueología Queer en la pasada década evidenció la posibilidad de investigar algo tan subjetivo e intangible como la sexualidad a partir del registro arqueológico. Asimismo, la Arqueología del Presente ha demostrado, en los últimos años, las ventajas de aplicar la metodología arqueológica al estudio de las sociedades actuales, ya que, al poner el foco en la materialidad y, por tanto, en lo que la gente hace (y no en lo que dice que hace), esta disciplina revela dinámicas que pasan desapercibidas a otras como la Etnografía o la Sociología. En este texto aunaré
ambos enfoques para analizar de qué forma los practicantes de cruising (o “cruisers”) subjetivan y “sexualizan” el espacio, así como el modo en que la propia sexualidad se “espacializa” mediante esta práctica sexual. Para ello, propondré que, a través de esta práctica contra-hegemónica y disidente, sus participantes resignifican y se (re)apropian de distintos lugares (parques, descampados, ruinas, baños públicos, bosques…) para subvertir por completo el orden espacial establecido. Debido a esta subversión de la lógica espacial hegemónica, definiré los espacios de cruising como pornotopías, esto es, como espacios-otros donde la alteridad disfruta de prácticas sexuales estigmatizadas por el grueso de su sociedad. Por último, concluiré analizando la reapropiación que el mercado neoliberal (el “capitalismo rosa”) está llevando a cabo de esta práctica, arrebatándole todo su carácter marginal y disidente.

Nos ocupamos aquí de cómo se produce y comprende la publicidad del espacio público, y de cómo dicha producción y comprensión repercute normativa y performativamente sobre los usuarios de aquél. El enfoque que hemos escogido pretende comentar estos aspectos con la ayuda de las etnografías que se han venido realizando en los últimos tiempos sobre el cruising, por cuanto esta actividad, que implica una apropiación furtiva de determinados espacios públicos para el desarrollo de actividades sexuales anónimas entre hombres, ofrece un observatorio privilegiado del desfase entre el espacio público como dispositivo performativo y los agentes, que no siempre son meramente moldeados por tales dispositivos. Encontramos en esta práctica una ventana privilegiada para el análisis de la forma en que lo público y lo privado son construidos espacial y conceptualmente en la dialéctica entre marcos morales y prácticas subjetivas.

Un grand nombre d’hommes jusqu’ici nommés « gais » se travestissent dans la sphère privée pour poster des annonces sexuelles sur Internet en cherchant les hommes « hétéros . »  Par cette recherche, les limites des identités sexuelles, ainsi que des objets liées à elles, sont testées, étirées, re-signifiées et même ridiculisées. Grâce au numérique, une rencontre « trans-orientationnelle » se produit, ce qui ouvre la porte à une nouvelle façon de penser et de pratiquer la différence sexuelle. C’est un rapport fondé sur le semblant, sur la multiplicité, sur l’objet de désir comme ses alentours. La matérialité du corps apparaît comme toile, comme voile, comme écran – pas comme substance. Ce phénomène révèle aussi une faille dans la logique hétérosexuelle. Lorsque l'objet se dénonce comme un semblant potentiellement divorcé de son référent matériel, ces deux figures (la travesti bâtie par le numérique et cet homme hétéro éveillé par le numérique qui la désire) se mettent en contact, se touchent, se baisent, se découvrent, s’utilisent, s’aiment. Qu’est-ce que la jouissance de la travesti peut dire d’un système symbolique et social qui dénie son existence et sa valeur?

Lugares públicos como el metro, parques, reservas ecológicas, baños o establecimientos nocturnos, tanto públicos como privados para ejercer el cruising, no están considerados ni reglamentados por las autoridades competentes, acrecentando un riesgo de contraer Infecciones de Transmisión Sexual (ITS) y favorecer los atentados contra la integridad física y moral de los usuarios que gustan del flirteo y sexo hombre con hombre en estos espacios; aunado al estigma social que representan las prácticas homosexuales en una cultura hegemónica heterosexual y patriarcal, como la que predomina en México.

O trabalho visa contribuir para o crescente debate nas ciências sociais a respeito das interações entre pessoas e lugares a partir da proposição de reflexões etnográficas sobre as narrativas e  experiências eróticas de homens engajados em uma rede de trocas afetivas e sexuais a que chamam “pegação”. Essa rede é conformada por uma multiplicidade de agentes e circuitos que se distribuem entre o público, o privado, o comercial, o virtual e o doméstico. Os circuitos que conformam a rede podem ser definidos a partir domínios e modelos de relação que, ainda que se entrecruzem e sobreponham constantemente, configuram maneiras específicas de entender os significados produzidos na experiência. Ao longo do trabalho busco descrever e analisar encontros produzidos a partir de espaços como banheiros, praias, cinemas pornôs, saunas, sites e aplicativos para dispositivos móveis. As análises sinalizam para o modo como o espaço e os marcadores sociais da diferença estão imbricados, produzindo relações e significações mútuas a partir de economias eróticas que valorizam e (re)produzem expectativas sobre gênero, raça, classe e gerações a partir de estratégias de diferenciação e fragmentação do espaço para públicos e interesses diferenciados.

El artículo reflexiona sobre diversos aspectos relacionados con la app geosocial de Grindr, vinculada a las tecnologías tradicionales de cruising homosexual. Para ello, utiliza una noción ampliada de "cruising" y propone algunas categorías de análisis diferencial: por un lado, la oposición entre cruising espacial (inmediato) y comunicacional (mediado), por otro la oposición entre un cruising analógico y otro digital. El texto no configura un ensayo unitario convencional, sino más bien un conjunto de notas estructuradas como bloques temáticos.

This paper reports the results of an ethnographic study conducted in a gay sauna located in a city in Northern Italy. The analysis of the field notes shows a large number of common elements in the same sex encounters. Each man is promoting conditions that enable other men to develop their potential and express their characteristics. A primary goal is that everyone respects the ability of others as well as their freedom to learn and develop their sexual skills. Moreover, the men present in the sauna provide protection from the arbitrary exercise of coercive power. This assumes that decisions can be negotiated among those who are involved. The idea of autonomy is common to all these aspirations. According to the respondents, autonomy is the ability of individuals to reflect on themselves and make decisions, choosing between different actions and possibilities, but respecting the rights of the others. Responsibility cannot be continuous and therefore goes hand in hand with confidence. The trust, which is both the product and the guarantor of responsibility and sincerity, runs through the whole system of cruising between men. Nevertheless, a deeper analysis of the observations and the interviews shows very disturbing aspects. All respondents report experiences of violence in the sauna. Strangely, many men consider sexual violence in sauna not a real rape, but " a sexual intercourse against will ". Moreover, surprisingly for the writer, the problem of sexually transmitted diseases does not appear a particularly relevant point: sex acts are generally consumed without any protection. Thanks to the interviews, it is very clear that men underestimate their vulnerability to negative events that affect the health and HIV infection is no exception. Moreover, none of the HIV-positive respondents shows any forms of ethical concerns about the possibility of infecting a healthy partner in sauna.

The essay culls from classical texts and personal experiences of libertine intimacy with strangers to address age-old academic blind spots regarding group sex as a recurring fantasy and sexual practice. What is brought forth is a Freudian and Lacan-ian analysis of the relationship between contemporary desire and digitality through " the gangbang " as articulated on digital platforms. The focus is on digitally-assisted gang-bangs involving a transvestite and several heterosexually identified males, and what such events reveal about digital media's and heterosexuality's demands. The author argues that this sexual configuration is a re-enactment of " the great misdeed " , which Freud recounts in Totem and Taboo as the mythic primordial killing of the Father by the band of brothers. This symbolic occasion is described as the genesis of social organization and re-emerges as a form of mourning the disappearance of the fleshly body as new media turn it into digital code. Such a codification of the body awakens anxieties around the fictitious conflation between penis and phallus. In the face of the digital, man outsources his phallic power, which is suddenly required to be represented corporally at all times, to a virtually organized multitude that is willing to sacrifice freedom in the name of the group, and the legitimation of hetero-masculinity that it can presumably grant. The gangbang also appears as a digitally mediated opportunity for old fantasies of aggression and expiation to articulate themselves without putting the white male heterosexual body on the line.

The composition of Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu unfolded in a fin de siècle Paris rife with public sex, much of it between men. Queer desire and public space intersect repeatedly in the novel and, in light of the theorization of cruising during the last two decades, deserve special attention. While cruising may not be the key to understanding the Recherche, its entanglement with the novel’s more famous themes (time, memory, society, etc.) facilitates innovative readings and contributes to a growing conversation about the role of eroticism in Proust. With a minor passage in Sodom and Gomorrah concerning the duc de Châtellrault and the Guermantes’ usher as a touchstone, this reading explores the significance of cruising’s spatial liminality, offers the pantheistic spiritual world of the Recherche as an interpretive model for cruising, and interrogates the utopian potential of cross-class intimacy that public sex engenders. Ultimately Proustian homosexuality, and cruising in particular, entails an anonymous, impersonal sociability that runs counter to the novel’s generally pessimistic portrait of society. This kind of sociability troubles the ideology of public and private space that has come to define the modern city and encourages a rethinking of intimacy in an urban context.

Resumen: El texto reflexiona en torno al video Tutorial para chat gay de 2010. Se analiza el concepto de " ciberformance " o performance cibernética con que fue conceptualizado originalmente. Además, se problematiza el sistema de grabación utilizado para concebir el video, la técnica de Screencast o video de pantalla como un tipo de medio o género audiovisual. Más adelante se reflexiona sobre las diferentes tecnologías de cruising gay y finalmente se aborda la cuestión de la pedagogía homosexual.

Resumo: O texto reflete sobre o vídeo Tutorial para chat gay (2010). Analisa-se o conceito de " cyberformance " ou performance cibernética com o qual foi originalmente conceituado. Além disso, o sistema de gravação utilizado para conceber o vídeo, a técnica de Screencast ou o vídeo de tela como um tipo de meio ou gênero audiovisual é problematizado. Mais tarde, refletimos sobre as diferentes tecnologias de cruising gay e, finalmente, a questão da pedagogia homossexual é abordada.

Abstract: This text analyzes the concept of " cyberformance " or cybernetic performance, as used initially to define the video Tutorial para chat gay (2010). Then, it problematizes the recording system used to conceive the video, as well as the Screencast technique or screen video, as an audiovisual genre. Subsequently, it reflects on the different gay cruising technologies shown, and it concludes by addressing the issue of homosexual pedagogy.

The circularity inherent to cruising is derailed when romantic sparks are kindled in the middle of the orgy. Théo (Geoffrey Couët) and Hugo (François Nambot) look at each other in the eye and suddenly all other bodies in the room are demoted to supporting players—or witnesses to their immediate connection. If the banality of hedonism that the sex club represents belongs to a parallel gay cosmopolitan world where carnal needs shall always be copiously gratified, that world also abides by another type of temporality.

This article reframes the kinship between all liquids (from the mother’s milk to a lover’s sperm) as a source of queer dissidence that becomes particularly relevant in times of normative data-flows, the necro-politicization of the ocean, and social media’s injunction of permanent availability. Following Gaston Bachelard’s general theory of material imagination, liquidness appears as the only matter antithetical to digitality, hardware’s most threatening substance, and a reparative metaphor for contemporary anxieties. Through a queer psychoanalytic understanding of matter that harks back to the subject’s earliest experiences, the argument ultimately anchors itself in the figure of the creampie, the ejaculate excess that oozes out of a subject’s orifices after coitus, providing liquid evidence of a fantasy of fulfillment that is otherwise perpetually deferred by the digital economy.

There has been seismic change on the New York waterfront since World War II. The shipping industry of longshoremen on the rough docks, has given way to mothers with babies in a bucolic landscape. The former condition existed within Kristeva's theories of abjection (1982), and today we have a suppression of that abjection through the municipal authority of the Hudson

A comunicação versa sobre a produção da diferença social a partir de interações em contextos de pegação na cidade de João Pessoa, cidade de médio porte e capital da Paraíba. Por " pegação " me refiro a uma ampla rede composta por pessoas, práticas e lugares que aproximam e tensionam, na dinâmica dos homoerotismos masculinos, ideias sobre afeto, impessoalidade e mercados eróticos. Interessa-me particularmente indicar a forma como as masculinidades e sexualidades são experimentadas e vivenciadas por homens de classes sociais, raças, ocupações, origens e etnias diversas. No contexto da pegação esses atributos são avaliados dentro de uma " economia performática do gênero " , o composto das atividades de leitura, adição, subtração, medição e aferição dos valores e atributos postos em cena por pessoa. Considerando o contexto brasileiro, acredito que não seja possível falar de uma comunidade homossexual homogênea-se é que é possível falar de comunidade como sinônimo de homogeneidade. Ao contrário, coexistem vários mundos onde significados, prioridades, moralidades, comprometimentos, projetos de vida são distribuídos de maneira diversificada e, por vezes, contraditória. Nesse aspecto, não se pode ignorar o modo como marcadores sociais da diferença acionam formas de restringir ou facilitar o acesso a determinadas pessoas e espaços-como saunas, boates e bares. As socialidades nas quais as pessoas estão engajadas são orientadas nos percursos de vida por moralidades, interesses e expectativas que organizam seus momentos de divertimento, mas também pelas facilidades e constrangimentos que são impostos a ser negro, branco, moreno, rico, pobre, trabalhador, desempregado, jovem, adulto, velho, afetado, discreto, magro, gordo, musculoso, feio ou bonito, peludo ou liso, morar em determinado bairro, etc.. Esses elementos, ora se intersecionam, ora se sobrepõe de maneira mais ou menos casual, e são hierarquizados na forma como as pessoas vivem seus desejos, os lugares e atribuem sentidos a isso, conscientemente ou não. As categorias funcionam como marcadoras de posição e revelam etiquetas e prescrições sobre como interagir, leituras sobre a forma como a presença do outro é lida e avaliada a partir de atributos disponíveis ou presumidos. Tais categorias se estabelecem a partir de atributos hierarquizados na economia performática do gênero de modo a produzir, a partir de certas convenções, uma avaliação sobre sua positividade ou negatividade, sobre a maior ou menos chance de sucesso nos encontros estabelecidos nos espaços de pegação em sua variedade.

The present article represents a quite literal take on the theme of the special issue of Australian Feminist Law Journal in which it appears by discussing the public park as a garden of justice: on the one hand a concrete, geographical setting in which law and morality become manifest, on the other hand the site of a more intangible space which is constituted by the struggles between different spatial definitions. The article focuses on the case of Ørstedsparken in Copenhagen, a well-known cruising site where bi- and homosexual men have been meeting up to have sex for more than a century. In response to this use of the park, in recent years the municipality of Copenhagen has cut down vegetation in the park in order to expose (and thereby attempt to prevent) these activities. In doing so, the authorities attempt to reclaim the contested public space of the park and return it to a site of order (law) and potential justice.

Abstract: This essay explores digital technology 's enabling so-called "gay men " to make contact (sexual and otherwise) with heterosexually identified males through cross-dressing. This phenomenon, which the digital exacerbates, exposes a loophole in heterosexual logic, where the object is revealed to be a semblance, not a finite and neatly gendered materiality. The essay deploys " trans, " then, not as a bounded identity category one might transition into like a final destination, but as a technology for pleasure to where one can transit back and forth through digital mediation. The rise and ubiquity of cruising digital platforms (Craigslist's Casual Encounters, Plenty of Fish, Fetlife, and OkCupid) has enabled " transgender " to be appropriated as a pleasure-making tool that circumvents social doxa regarding the supposed stability of gender, sexuality, sexual practices and the prescribed objects of desire associated with them. As presumably gay men increasingly dress up as women for sexual purposes, posting hookup ads seeking straight men, and presumably heterosexual men catch themselves seduced by them, the limits of sexual identities and their related practices get tested, expanded, trespassed, and rendered porous. The essay weaves together queer theory, psychoanalysis, and autobiographical accounts to investigate the very porosities between identity categories that the digital makes visible and available for play, and to experiment with the urgent role psychoanalysis may have to play in understanding new sexual/existential practices.

Paru dans le numéro 27 de la revue Sextant : "Masculinités", cet article informe et met à l’épreuve la construction de la masculinité par l’ethnographie de la drague entre hommes. L’anonymat des rencontres en milieu urbain est confronté au secret partagé à la campagne, où la culture sexuelle masculine rend plus visible l’accès privilégié à un espace non-mixte de sexualité dans la continuité d’une génération d’hommes à l’autre.

Félix e Niko talvez sequer soubessem seus respectivos nomes de batismo quando foram interceptados pelos seguranças de uma estação de trem na região central da cidade de São Paulo, a maior da América Latina. Constrangidos~em um sentido amplo do termo~, a feição de seus rostos, quando enfim abriram a porta da cabine do banheiro, misturava " tristeza ", " culpa " e " arrependimento ". Enquanto 2 tinham suas pernas acertadas por cassetetes, esperavam um dos seguranças~ ambos pardos~consultarem seus papeis de identificação. Escoltados de dentro do banheiro para uma sala misteriosa, os anônimos solidários que ousaram aguardar por algum desfecho foram evadindo de acordo com a hora que avançava, sinalizando o fim do serviço à população paulista e o término do expediente do dia. Alguém diria que os jovens Félix e Niko foram alijados de um espaço privado para serem encerrados em outro, também invisível. Poderseia argumentar, contudo, que, na verdade, ambos foram compulsoriamente levados a um lugar de invisibilidade, a cabine, em um movimento prévio de sujeição, do qual foram violentamente retirados para serem, em um segundo momento de sujeição, julgados pelo público e pela lei. Uma terceira cabeça diria "Félix e Niko são jovens pretos interpelados oportunamente por uma autoridade repressora. Contudo, devido à condição social a que pertencem, jamais deixariam de circular em uma zona cinzenta e homogênea de invisibilidade e silenciamento. Se muito serão levados a um distrito policial". Passemos a uma segunda cena:

Specific identities of men cruising for same-sex acts (cruisers) in a park located in a North Italy city were investigated. In this study 57 men were interviewed by three different methods (individually, couple interviews, and one focus group of friends). A pragmatic approach was followed throughout the analysis of the data, drawing from a number of analytic strategies, including constant-comparative, typographic, and narrative methods. Queer theory and queer historiography were also blended into the examinations of the men’s lives. Cruisers’ identities consisted of three elements: self-perception, or what an individual felt or perceived about himself and his contexts; experiences, or what and/or how he behaved or acted; and interpretations drawn from the cruiser’s experiences, or the meanings he ascribed to himself and his life concerning his experiences, in juxtaposition to what he perceived as the normative values of the contexts of which he was a part. Six identity types among cruisers were delineated, providing evidence of different ways non- heterosexual men identify in cruising places. Understanding the nuances of cruisers’ identities will prevent other researchers from extrapolating from only the visible elements or actions of this population.

This article revisits the concept of (virtual) cruising with the purpose of uncovering an often-disregarded fact in queer theory: that cruising is equally about rejecting as it is about welcoming others/otherness. With the help of two critical conceptual tools, community and immunity, that I borrow from Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito, this paper discusses how a particular Geosocial Networking Application, Hornet, both enables and undermines the emergence of a virtual community in Istanbul, Turkey. While defying heteronormativity, Hornet reproduces violence in the shape of homonormativity, endangering what it claims to offer originally: community. By addressing cruising in relation not only to community but also immunity, this article makes an intervention in queer theory's tendency to reduce cruising to a universal welcoming of otherness. This paper aims to revisit both the communitarian potentials and immunitarian risks of cruising in the light of a rather politicized analysis grounded in the everyday experiences of ordinary people.

This chapter explores two sets of (often fleeting) contemporary urban spaces that demonstrate some of the emancipatory potential of the city – sites of public (homo)sex and the carnivalesque spaces created by the direct actions of the anti-capitalist disorganisation Reclaim The Streets(RTS). Just as the actions of RTS consciously attempt to undermine (however briefly) the privatisation of public space and the alienated conpartmentalism of our lives, the liminal spaces of public (homo)sex transcend the private/public binary through which contemporary sexual citizenship is defined. Although the spaces created by RTS actions and for public (homo)sex challenge certain societal norms and demonstrate the potential for new forms of commuality, I question the extent to which these spaces and the acts that constitute them are capable of promoting real and sustainable emancipatory change. Based on participatory ethnographic research in both sets of spaces, this chapter explores the tensions and contradictions contained within these sites.

It's difficult to recall a film that understands gay desire, or desire tout court, so well and which translates it so strikingly. Its magnificence comes from the way it unfolds like a literary myth, with the visceral simplicity of a tragedy, while demystifying certain truisms about queer sexual practices: that gay men didn't instrumentalize one another as much before Grindr, that digital cruising has replaced face-to-face cruising, that flirting with death is in the libidinal makeup of only a pathological minority.

Most studies on men seeking men and who use the Internet for sexual purposes have focused on the epidemiological outcomes of Internet cruising. Other research has only focused on online sexual behaviours such as cybersex. The present study examines men who find the acts of Internet cruising and emailing to be erotic as self-contained behaviours. We surveyed 499 men who used craigslist.org for sexually-oriented purposes, and ran an ordinary least squares multiple regression model to determine the demographic characteristics of men seeking men who found Internet cruising erotic. Our results showed that younger compared to older men seeking men found the acts erotic. Likewise, men seeking men from mid-sized cities and large cities compared to men from smaller cities found Internet cruising and emailing to be erotic. Most notably, bisexual- and heterosexual-identifying men seeking men compared to gay-identifying men found these acts to be more erotic. Our results suggested that self-contained Internet cruising might provide dual functions. For some men (e.g., heterosexual-identifying men), the behaviour provides a sexual outlet in which fantasy and experimentation may be explored without risking stigmatization. For other men (e.g., those from large cities), the behaviour may be an alternative to offset sexual risk while still being able to ‘get off’.La mayoría de los estudios acerca de hombres que buscan hombres (HBH) y sobre hombres que usan la Internet para fines sexuales se ha centrado en los resultados epidemiológicos de los “ligues” cibernéticos. Otras investigaciones han dirigido su enfoque al comportamiento sexual en línea, como por ejemplo, el cibersexo. El presente estudio se orienta al análisis de hombres que opinan que el intercambiar correos electrónicos y los actos vinculados al ligar por Internet resultan eróticos en tanto comportamientos autocontenidos. Los autores encuestaron a 499 hombres que usan craigslist.org para fines sexuales. Posteriormente, corrieron un modelo de regresión múltiple de mínimos cuadrados ordinarios de los resultados, con el fin de determinar las características demográficas de los HBH que consideran que el ligue cibernético es erótico. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que, comparando hombres mayores vs. hombres jóvenes, quienes en mayor medida encuentran erótico el acto de ligar por la Internet, son los hombres jóvenes. Asimismo, se constató que, en relación a los HBH que residen en ciudades pequeñas, aquellos que lo hacen en ciudades medianas y grandes muestran mayor tendencia a encontrar erótico el ligue cibernético y el intercambio de correos electrónicos. En particular, cabe señalar que, en comparación con los hombres que se autoidentifican como gay, aquellos HBH que se autoidentifican como bisexuales o heterosexuales, muestran mayor predisposición a considerar eróticos los actos referidos. Los resultados también demuestran que el ligue cibernético autocontenido podría desempeñar una función dual. Para algunos hombres -por ejemplo, quienes se autoidentifican como heterosexuales-, este comportamiento constituye una satisfacción sexual en la que se pueden realizar fantasías y experimentaciones sin arriesgarse a ser estigmatizados. Para otros -por ejemplo, los de ciudades grandes-, este comportamiento puede ser una alternativa que disminuye el riesgo sexual y de todas maneras permite el goce sexual.La plupart des études sur les hommes qui cherchent à rencontrer d'autres hommes et utilisent Internet dans un but sexuel se sont interrogées sur les conséquences épidémiologiques de la drague via Internet. D'autres se sont concentrées sur les seuls comportements sexuels en ligne comme le cybersexe. Cette étude s'est focalisée sur des hommes qui pensent que les actes de drague et de communication (courriels) via Internet sont aussi érotiques que les comportements autonomes. Nous avons interrogé 499 hommes utilisant craiglist.org dans un but sexuel et suivi un modèle ordinaire de régression multiple des moindres carrés pour déterminer les caractéristiques démographiques d'hommes cherchant à rencontrer d'autres hommes et percevant la drague sur Internet comme érotique. Nos résultats montrent que parmi ces hommes, comparativement aux plus âgés, ce sont les plus jeunes qui trouvaient ces actes érotiques. De même, comparativement aux hommes résidant dans les plus petites villes, ce sont les hommes vivant dans les villes moyennes et plus importantes qui trouvaient la drague sur Internet et les emails érotiques. Plus particulièrement, les hommes s'identifiant comme bisexuels ou hétérosexuels et cherchant à rencontrer d'autres hommes, comparativement aux hommes s'identifiant comme gays, trouvaient ces actes plus érotiques encore. Nos résultats suggèrent que la drague autonome sur Internet pourrait avoir une double fonction. Pour certains hommes (par ex. ceux qui s'identifient comme hétérosexuels), ce comportement offre un débouché sexuel, dans lequel phantasme et expérimentation peuvent être explorés sans risque de stigmatisation. Pour d'autres (par ex. ceux qui vivent dans les grandes villes), ce comportement serait peut-être une alternative de compensation du risque sexuel, alors qu'ils sont encore capables de «baiser».

This paper provides a new approach to the geographies of cruising and public homosex. For some time, social scientists have contended that, in those semi-public spaces where
men meet each other for sex, actions speak louder than words and men’s competency in using the space is more important that the (sexual) identities they claim in other aspects of their lives. This paper extends that argument in a new direction through an engagement with recent theorizations of affective geographies and more-than-representational approaches to spatial practices. Through a series of short vignettes of cruising encounters on city streets, in public toilets and in urban green spaces, this paper examines how public homosex is enacted and performed in relation to both human and non-human bodies, objects and the environment in which it takes place. The encounters described in the paper draw attention to the complex choreography of gestures through which cruising is performed and sexual engagement is negotiated ethically. I contend that the site-specific, performative nature of these sexual encounters suggests a more contingent sexuality arising from the interaction of bodies in specific environments and exceeding the boundaries of reified sexual identities.

La discusión de las políticas culturales del duelo ofrecida por Judith Butler tras los atentados del 11 de septiembre servirá aquí para cuestionar las fracturas sexuales, genéricas y raciales, entre otras, que rigen la inteligibilidad cultural de la vulnerabilidad compartida en contextos pandémicos. Esta revisión de la idea de comunidad se pondrá en relación con el desarrollo de la medicina social urbana explorado por Michel Foucault para deslocalizar la resistencia a los procesos de estigmatización y normalización puestos en marcha por la pandemia del sida para pensar, hoy, las biopolíticas emergentes en nombre del cuidado de la salud colectiva.

RESUMO: Graças aos avanços e a popularização dos meios de captação audiovisual que aconteceram nas últimas décadas, a produção de documentários em primeira pessoa apresentou lato crescimento nos últimos anos. Por seu caráter egocêntrico centrado na vida pessoal de seus realizadores, esse tipo de filme é constantemente alvo de acusações e deslegitimação. Mas não pode o relato em primeira pessoa transcender a experiência individual? Seriam esses filmes necessariamente narcisistas e supérfluos? Falar de si mesmo é político? Partindo de algumas reflexões sobre o filme-ensaio e o documentário em primeira pessoa, esse artigo se propõe a fazer uma análise do curta-metragem brasileiro Virgindade (Chico Lacerda, 2015). Pretende-se assim apontar como o uso estrutural da obra fílmica produz um discurso que constrói uma certa memória utópica queer, como proposta por José Esteban Muñoz. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: cinema queer; filme-ensaio; memória; política. Abstract: Thanks to the improvements and popularization of the new medias of audiovisual recording that happened in the last few decades, the production of first-person documentaries displayed a great boost over the last years. By virtue of it self-centered nature, focusing in the private life of the filmmakers, this kind of film is an unswerving target of accusations and devaluation. But cannot the first-person narration to surpass the individual experience? Are these films necessarily narcissistics and superfluous? Talk about oneself is political? Based on some theories about the essay film and the first-person documentary, this essay proposes to make an analysis of the Brazilian short film Virgindade (Chico Lacerda, 2015). The aim is to point out how the structural use of the filmic work creates a discourse that builds a certain queer utopian memory, as proposed by José Esteban Muñoz. Resumen: Debido a los avanzos y a la popularización de los medios de captación audiovisual que ocurrieron en las últimas décadas, la producción de documentales en primera persona presentó un amplio crecimiento en los últimos años. Por su carácter egocéntrico centrado en la vida personal de sus realizadores, este tipo de película es constantemente objetivo de acusación y deslegitimación. ¿Pero no puede el relato en primera persona trascender la experiencia individual? ¿Serían estas películas necesariamente narcisistas y superfluas? ¿Hablar de si mismo no es político? Partiendo de algunas reflexiones sobre la película-ensayo y el documental en primera persona, este artículo se propone a analizar el corto metraje brasilero Virgindade (Chico Lacerda, 2015). Así se pretende apontar como el uso estructural de la obra fílmica produce un discurso que construye una cierta memoria utópica queer, como propuesto por José Esteban Muñoz.