VIRTUAL QUEER: PRODUCTION OF QUEER SPACE AND IDENTITY IN CYBERSPACE

The web has been a source of both liberation and increased harassment for minority sexualities. On the
aternatvly, the anonymity of the web has provided a safe space for people to explore alternative
sexualities and connect with others dealing with the pleasures and dangers of non-mainstream sexual
identities. In many cases, these connections have been literally life-saving.

On the other side, that same privacy has been fertile ground for homophobic and heteronormative
ranting, raving and harassment. And, as with gender and race/ethnicity, representations of
gay/lesbian/queer folks in various digital media are often stereotypical and denigrating, and gay-baiting is
rampant in game communiites.

Sexual identities are never isolated social markers. They ares always interwoven with gender, class, race,
ethnicity and a variety of other factors, and most of the materials in this section acknowledge such
intersectionality.

Sources below include analyses of these issues, and links to organizations working to the make
cyberspaces more user-friendly to LGBTQ communities.

The emergence of the opportunities opened by the internet raises also questions of interest for research
regarding the extent to which these have an impact on the formations of non-heterosexual life and on
the experience of marginalised sexual identities. There have been different approaches in this regard
and answers vary from optimistic and utopian appraisals concerning cyberspace in the early 90s to the
more moderate and sceptic visions in the 2000s. Starting from this framework of debates, the present
paper aims to explore the meaning of the term “cyberqueer”, including the theoretical context of its
occurrence, to briefly highlight some critical considerations relating to cyberqueer research and to look
over the main recurrent themes linked up with this concept, such as queer and cyberqueer identity,
body and (dis)embodied practices and the forthcoming process of blurring the dividing boundaries
between real/virtual, online/offline and public/private.

ABSTRACT

This discourse functions under the cyberculture whereas spaces produce in the that are designed for
and used by queer youth in order to gain understandings of the ways in which online and offline queer
spaces might intersect and inform each other.; the paper focuses on the way discourses of sex operate
on websites commonly used by queer youth, such as Gaydar (www.gaydar.com) and Gaydar Girls
(www.gaydargirls.com), in ways that (re)produce the discourses present in offline queer spaces (such as
bars and clubs). Further, it explores the ways such sites work pedagogically for young queer users,
particularly in relation to gaining an understanding of what to expect in other queer venues and
developing insight into how queer cultures might be constructed and participated with. Drawing on
cultural geography to explore the ways that bodies and discourses shape and are shaped by space and
utilising both textual analysis of the websites and participant discussions, this paper challenges the
assertion that internet spaces are spaces of transcendence, instead positing that they are intrinsically
linked to ‘real life’ and therefore offline operations of discourse
In this paper I attempt to engage with three points of entry into a discussion on the category of the
Cyberqueer. I begin by looking at Space and the transformative politics of the queer cyberspace. I follow
this up with a discussion on Cyberculture and more specifically Queer Cyberculture, finally tying up my
argument within the domain of identity and the subversive potential of the Cyberqueer identity. The
complexity of these interdisciplinary fields means that there is no fixed path while navigating them. My
arguments thus freely turn and overturn these domains through a process of queering Digital Culture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Stein,Edward. "Title of Article." Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.

Stein,Edward. " Queers Anonymous: Lesbians, Gay Men, Free Speech, and Cyber Space." Harvard Civil
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In the past several years, the development and expansion of the Internet and other forms of cyberspace
have created new forms of communication around which new communities have developed. Not
coincidentally, a disproportionate number of lesbians and gay men and other sexual minorities have taken
advantage of these opportunities, and, for many such people, the structure of their communities has
changed dramatically as a result. The focus of this paper is on the attempts by the state to regulate
cyberspace and how such attempts will impact the speech and communities of gay men, lesbians and
others sexual minorities. The central claim is that the speech of sexual minorities in cyberspace deserves
special respect and attention; when the state attempts to regulate speech in cyberspace, it needs to take
care not to trench on the speech and associational rights of lesbians, gay men, and other sexual minorities.

Kuntsman, Adi. “Cyberethnography as home-work.” Anthropology Matters Journal , Vol. 6, no 2, 2004, p.

1-10

Cyberspace invites the rethinking of the concepts culture and location. But it also demands a re-
examination of the idea of ‘the field’ in virtual—or what is also called cyber-ethnography. This article
focuses on one way of locating the field in cyberspace by exploring the concept of home as it is
conceptualized by the ethnographer and imagined and negotiated by those with whom she works. The
article suggests a critical way of approaching belonging on-line, and examines the epistemological
position of anthropology at home when applied to cyberspace. On a theoretical level, this article brings
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Atay, Ahmet. “Queer Diasporic Males in Cyberspace.” Globalization’s Impact on Cultural Identity
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these venues. This book aims to show the interconnected nature of cultural identity segments by
highlighting some of the powerful cultural and social forces that mold our identities in this ever
more global world.

Globalization’s Impact on Cultural Identity Formation: Queer Diasporic Males in

Cyberspace examines diasporic, queer, cultural identity formations in an era of globalization by
utilizing cyber-ethnography as a critical, cultural, and qualitative method. Atay presents cyber-
ethnography as a method to make sense of complex, globally infused, and cultural experiences,
examines how one creates and recreates cultural identity through lived and mediated realities,
and analyzes how one uses mediated forms, such as web pages, chat rooms, blogs, and
webcams, to understand and negotiate personal identity. Atay utilizes critical research methods,
such as cyber-ethnography, to investigate different aspects of cultural identities as presented on
these venues. This book aims to show the interconnected nature of cultural identity segments by
highlighting some of the powerful cultural and social forces that mold our identities in this ever
more global world.
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