- Between weeks 8 and 14, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
This week I read two more articles for our literature review, and I plan to read a few more this weekend to catch up with Nicole. I have included below my notes on the articles and rough drafts of annotated bibliography entries. I also have gotten a copy of “Racial Erotics,” which you recommended, Professor Greene. I plan to look over that some next week.
I have also begun to start scheduling interviews with peers, and I will head full swing into that process this weekend. As of now, I think we still need to work on narrowing the scope of our project, and I think getting data from interviews will help us prioritize what we find most interesting or insightful from the findings.
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Peck, Berkowitz, and Tinkler’s article looks at how sexual racism plays into how white, heterosexual college students use Tinder. The authors tie back this masked racial preference to colorblind racist ideology that reflect larger issues of stereotypes, generalizations and also class considerations. The term “preference” allows these students to avoid overtly racist language that allow racism to be masked in these discussions. The authors’ sample of Southeastern students is interesting because they are interviewing a more conservative student body that could differ from how Bowdoin students would engage with Tinder. White men tended to be the most overtly racist but white women also shared many less overtly racist values too. They also mention that gay men tend to be the most explicit with their racial preferences, a group not looked at in this study.
I really liked this article, and it reminded me of articles we read in Sociology of Sexuality from Robinson and Han about studies on racialized preferences among white men. I think it also does some interesting work in terms of enhancing the discussion on gender dynamics and how white men and women differ in their approaches to race. I also liked the discussion of geography that the author’s debunk, as many white students said they did not swipe on Black people on Tinder because they were not around. I wonder how this changes in Maine where the population is extremely white, though I bet that also plays into people’s excuses for racist preferences too.
Miller’s article looks at how men present on MSM dating apps, particularly on whether they disclose their face or their body. The findings reinforce assumptions that one might already have about these apps and the men on them. The men who showed their faces were more likely to be out, use the app longer and more often. The shirtless men often had more of a body and muscularity focus and often would share anti-effeminacy attitudes. This research relates directly back to our considerations of Goffman and presentation, and the work also cites Walther’s “Selective presentation” as well (1801). The questions for participants in the study was broken down in a variety of categories, most on sliding numerical scales. The research reinforced the highly sexualized nature of these apps, and the hyper fixation of gay men on their and other’s bodies.
This research directly builds of MacKee’s past work with men on dating apps in London and helps give a better sense of the self presentation gay men go through on this app. One thing that this article lacked was a discussion of race and maybe how class could play into this, though it brought out interesting discussions on femininity and muscularity that were talked about less in depth in other articles.