Look at me! Images, Validation and Cultural Currency on Gaydar
Sharif Mowlabocus, Media and Film, University of Sussex
When: 4 February, 5-7pm
Where: DWB 210
In my talk I will be critically examining the role that digital images play within a dating/sex website catering to gay/bisexual men. Focussing specifically on ‘profile pics’ – digital representations of the self – I will discuss the multiple ways in which these images are deployed in order to 1/validate the subject’s ‘outness’ and authenticity, 2/legitimate the subject’s investment in the space and 3/ act as a point of engagement between the self and other.
Drawing on the work of Roland Barthes and Amelia Jones, as well as Gaze theory and notions of performativity, this paper argues that digital images of the Self are not solely ‘advertisements’ for the user’s attractiveness but also serve to position the user as an embodied subject in a space that is regularly conceptualised as disembodied.
