Gay Nettersexuality: Grindr, Porn, and Non-being in Nick Comilla’s Candyass

Year 2021, Issue: 16, 33 - 58, 30.11.2021

Richard Vytniorgu

Abstract

Since its appearance in 2009, Grindr has become (in)famous as the go-to app for anything from casual chat and casual sexual encounters to relationships and even finding a spouse. ‘Nettersexuality’ denotes how gay men’s sexuality is mediated by digital media such as dating apps, which allow users to create and circulate their own self-made gay porn. In this article, I analyse gay nettersexuality in Nick Comilla’s debut novel, Candyass (2016), arguing that the novel and its representations of gay pornography offer crucial insights for masculinities scholars into how gay men represent and articulate their experience of nettersexuality. Drawing on the existentialist tradition, I pinpoint the ways in which Candyass illustrates the concept of ‘non-being’ as a state of tedium, vacancy, and psychological disintegration shaped by gay men’s pornified use of gay dating apps. I argue that the nettersexual nature of their engagement with dating apps and gay porn causes the characters in Candyass to confront new experiential challenges related to their sexual behaviour.

Keywords

nettersexuality, non-being, Candyass, gay porn, ; gay dating apps

Gey Netseksüellik: Nick Comilla’nın Candyass’inde Grindr, Porno ve Hiçlik

Abstract

2009’da ortaya çıkmasından bu yana Grindr, gündelik sohbet ve cinsel karşılaşmalardan ilişkilere kadar ve hatta bir eş bulmaya kadar pek çok şey için başvurulan bir uygulama olarak (kötü) şöhret elde etti. ‘Netseksüellik’, kullanıcıların kendi gey pornolarını yaratmalarına ve yaymalarına olanak tanıyan flört uygulamaları gibi uygulamalar içeren dijital medyanın, gey erkeklerin cinselliğini nasıl aracı ettiğini ifade etmektedir. Bu makalede, Nick Comilla’nın ilk romanı Candyass’te (2016) gey netseksüelliği analiz ediyorum. Romanın ve gey pornografisine ilişkin temsillerinin, erkeklik çalışan araştırmacılar için gey erkeklerin netseksüellik deneyimlerini nasıl temsil ettiği ve ifade ettiği konusunda önemli bilgiler sunduğunu savunuyorum. Varoluşçu gelenekten yararlanarak, Candyass’in ‘hiçlik’ kavramını, gey erkeklerin gey flört uygulamalarını pornoize edilmiş kullanımıyla şekillenen bir bezginlik, boşluk ve psikolojik parçalanma durumu olarak gösterme biçimlerini saptıyorum. Flört uygulamaları ve gey pornosu ile ilgilenmelerinin netseksüel doğasının, Candyass’teki karakterlerin cinsel davranışlarıyla ilgili yeni deneyimsel zorluklarla yüzleşmelerine neden olduğunu savunuyorum.

Keywords

Grindr, netseksüellik, hiçlik, Candyass, gey porn, gey flört uygulamaları

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