Blued browsing: indexing gay men into standard data

Blued browsing: indexing gay men into standard data

When users sign up on Blued, the first page requires a headshot, a screen name, their date of birth, their height, their weight, their sex roles (four default options are: top numbered as 1, versatile numbered as 0

5, bottom numbered as 0, and others signaled by ‘?'), and unit types (choosing either ft/lb or cm/kg to display height and weight). The next page asks users to disclose their body types and personalities. Body type consists of four tags: ‘monkey' (a thin body), ‘average', ‘bear' (a hefty body), and ‘muscular'. There are 12 tags in the personality pane: ‘masculine' (ye men), ‘sunshine' (yang guang), ‘big uncle' (da shu), ‘slutty inside decent outside' (men shao), ‘bad inside kind outside' (fu hei), ‘bossy' (ba dao), ‘frosty' (gao leng), ‘loyal dog' (zhong quan), ‘cold outside hot inside' (ao jiao), ‘natural dull' (tian ran dai), ‘cute fresh' (xiao qing xin), and ‘warm guy' (nuan nan). All these tags carry loose cultural references whose meanings are open to individual interpretations. Their meanings can sometime overlap. For example, ‘bossy' shares a similar idea with ‘masculine', but the former emphasizes more of an aggressive masculinity with no personal strings attached in sex. By contrast, ‘warm guy' embodies a gentle, tender, and caring character. In the final step, users are encouraged to select their preferred body types, personalities, and what they are looking for. The tags of body type and personality are the same as in the previous step. The ‘looking for' option contains five tags: ‘chat', ‘date', ‘friend', ‘boyfriend', and ‘gym buddy'. Upon finishing the account set-up, users can add more information in the personal profile, including a text headline and their relationship status, race, place of residence, hometown, and blood type. המשך…

להמשך קריאהBlued browsing: indexing gay men into standard data