“Direto ao ponto”: uma análise das buscas por parceiros no Grindr e no Scruff no contexto do neoliberalismo

Abstract

This research analyzes interactions mobilized by men in commercial partner search applications, known as “male pick-up” applications. My objective is to understand the correlations between the interactions mobilized by users of the applications investigated and the current dynamics of the capitalist market, marked by an increasing flexibilization of production processes, the constant incitement to consumption and different forms of inequality and recariousness. I start from the assumption that, because they are commercial platforms, market logic produces a framework for interactions in applications, shaping the production of desires, subjectivities and social interactions. The field research was carried out, intermittently, between the years 2018 and 2022. The empirical section of this research consists of men, aged between 23 and 45 years old, who use two of these applications, Grindr and Scruff and who in way of building their profiles and their modes of interaction trigger the entrepreneurial logic based on controlling time, so as not to waste it, adopting a discreet performance as a way of measuring the degree of desirability and calculating expectations and opportunities in order to avoid frustrations. This choice was made because these men constitute the majority of users who use the applications. Three methodological strategies were used: interaction with profiles, analysis of available textual content and interviews with application users. The interviews were carried out in person and via Google Meet, given the difficulty of obtaining meaningful data about users and their uses during interactions through the applications. I concluded that the ways in which these applications are used are referenced by a discourse guided by an entrepreneurial logic that instills a behavior of competition and constant dispute, stimulated by a neoliberal culture, centered on the ideals of autonomy, individual freedom and performance that guide the uses of digital social media.