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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The Internet has become a venue for men who have sex with men to search for sexual
partners. Some of these men intentionally seek unprotected anal intercourse with other
men (‘bareback’ sex). This paper focuses on the creation, use, and content of Internet
personal profiles of men who have sex with men in the greater New York City
metropolitan area who use bareback sites for sexual networking. We used a mixedmethods
approach to examine data from a cybercartography of Internet sites conducted
during the first phase of the research (199 personal profiles) and from in-depth
interviews conducted during its second phase (120 men who have sex with men who
sought partners online for bareback sex). Results indicate that men generally followed
offline stereotypical patterns in their online profiles. However, men who disclosed
being HIV-positive were more likely to include face and head pictures. Overall, the
images they used were heavily sexualised in accordance with group norms perceived
and reinforced by the websites’ design and imagery. Bottom-identified men tended to
be more explicit in the exposition of their sexual and drug use interests online. This
paper highlights how certain virtual and social performances play upon and reinforce
other, in the flesh, performances.
Description
Keywords
Men who have sex with men (MSM Barebacking Internet HIV
Citation
Culture, Health & Sexuality, 13 (9), 1015-1029