Face Assemblages & Sex Machines: A Theoretical Exploration of Online Sociability of Men who Have Sex with Men

Résumé

The article undertakes a theoretical discussion of the online sociability of men who have sex with men. The main objectives of this theoretical exploration are to investigate the links between the ways that bodies are publicized/advertised on online profiles and the concept of sex as a regulatory category; the connections we can make between images/descriptions of certain parts of bodies shown online and the concept of face as an assemblage; and finally, the possibility of resistance against the regulation of the “heterosexual matrix” within so-called same sex desire. Drawing on a set of empirical data gathered through online participant observation on a cruising-for-sex website for men, this analysis hopes to foster our theoretical and political understandings of the ways Internet users are experiencing their bodies in relation to technology, providing new conceptual approaches regarding sexuality on the online cruising for sexual partners.