Whether through a social media platform or through a more
germaine platform such as online publishing, technology has shaped the culture
surrounding different sexual preferences. What do I mean by this? Technology
created the hyper drag queens in Ru Paul’s show, and technology created hyper
straight heterosexual male linguistics. Every niche, from big hair on men
dressed as women, to emotionally underdeveloped straight men, technology can
validate their life choices. (I should point out here that I have no issue with
drag or gay culture, and do take issue with the bro-life type men. I just want
it be clear I have full love in my heart for all sexual preferences among
consenting adults). I would also like to acknowledge that culture surrounding
different preferences existed before technology and easy to media platforms.
What I’m suggesting is that technology has given voice to, and thereby
validated and supported, the most polar of positions. Whether you are a
homophobic man or a drag queen, you can find an online community to reify your
views and develop your practice.
Where did this idea get into my head? To tell you the truth,
it began during a haircut. I recently started to see someone new, as my
previous hair person had started to leave me looking like a prepubescent
metallica fan. A friend of mine (happens to be gay) has impeccable hair. So, I
asked where he got it got. A few weeks later, I was in the chair at a salon
that’s also an art gallery. I was talking to my stylist (also happens to be
gay) about his pants, and asked where he got them. He showed me the website and
I fell in love with the pants they offered. In the most delicate way I can
phrase this, the website is not selling pants to midwest trump voters, or to
“ball is life” type men. Media representations of how a certain sexual
preference dresses serves to condition the market for technology to reach out
and sell a solution to that, or to validate it. Now, pants from london are only
24 hours shipping away (quite the website).
Media has transformed male facial hair from stubble being a
pinnacle of style to manicured things that look like the barber knows geometry.
Straight men seem to have an affinity for beard care products and neatly
defined edges from straight razor shaves. Somehow, my sexual choices get
wrapped up in the fit of pants and type of facial hair. I believe that one
could argue that people accept these cues and display them in order to gain
acceptance from their desired group. If a wear a v-neck shirt and puma shoes,
somehow I’m typified as straight. If you change the cut of the shirt and swap
out the shoes, maybe I’m typified as something else.
Through a variety of platforms and the interactions they
facilitate, technology has defined the parameters for how someone with a
certain sexual preference dresses, looks, acts, etc. While there are exceptions
to this (many, in fact), the effect it has on blossoming people still finding
their way and developing their confidence is not to be neglected. As people
seek to fit into a group, they will follow its style of dress and manner of
speech. People that could not previously find a community which with they could
identify (for loving or hateful reasons) can know have a sense of belonging and
rightness. The power of this lies in more polar cases such as the case
referenced on the blog assignment. People will model more complex behaviors
when under greater distress. The source of that distress may vary, be it social
or neurological, but the representations of groups communicated by technology will
inculcate people to follow those representations.
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