| What is my age: | I am 31 | |
| Hair color: | Ash-blond | |
| What I like to listen: | Dance | |
| In my spare time I love: | Looking after pets | |
| Smoker: | No |
Christopher T. Conner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. This language is so pervasive on the app that websites such as Douchebags of Grindr and hashtags like grindrwhileblack can be used to find countless examples of the abusive language that men use against people of color.
A slice of that project — which is currently under review with a top peer-reviewed social science journal — explores the way gay men rationalize their sexual racism and discrimination on Grindr. That user went on to explain that he had even purchased a paid version of the app that allowed him to filter out Latinos and Black men.
In my study, many of the respondents seemed to have never really thought twice about the source of their preferences. When confronted, they simply became defensive. The other way that I observed some gay men justifying their discrimination was by framing it in a way that put the emphasis back on the app.
Since Grindr has a reputation as a hookup appbluntness should be expected, according to users like this one — even when it veers into racism. While social media apps have dramatically altered the landscape of gay culture, the benefits from these technological tools can sometimes be difficult to see.
Some scholars point to how these apps enable those living in rural areas to connect with one another, or how it gives those living in cities alternatives to LGBTQ spaces that are increasingly gentrified. In practice, however, these technologies often only reproduce, if not heighten, the same problems and issues facing the LGBTQ community.
As scholars such as Theo Green have unpacked elseweherepeople of color who identify as queer experience a great deal of marginalization. Perhaps Grindr has become particularly fertile ground for cruelty because it allows anonymity in a way that other dating apps do not.
Scruffanother gay dating app, requires users to reveal more of who they are.
However, on Grindr people are allowed to be anonymous and faceless, reduced to images of their torsos or, in some cases, no images at all. The emerging sociology of the internet has found that, time and again, anonymity in online life brings out the worst human behaviors.
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Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Grindr allows for anonymity in a way that other dating apps do not.
ConnerUniversity of Missouri-Columbia. Author Christopher T.
