The Queer Politics of Chatroulette
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/9669721[/vimeo]
Chatroulette has swept the the nation. I say “swept” because, like many things on the Internet, the novelty and hype surrounding chatroulette is proving ephemeral. That’s not to say that chatroulette is going away any time soon. In fact, we should expect Internet culture to continue to produce new opportunities for the random interactions at the heart of the chatroulette experience. Fellow Sociology Lens commentator Nathan Jurgenson not unfairly described chatroulette as a “downright capricious and aleatory experience.”
Perhaps the most contentious and reported aspect of chatroulette is the regular frequency with which one encounters people engaged in sexually explicit activities, particularly men masturbating. Clearly somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Casey Neistat, producer of the video embedded here, divides chatroulette users into three categories: “boys,” “girls,” and “perverts.” While I don’t want to directly criticize this wonderfully made mini-documentary, I think it is good launching point for a discussion about the ways in which the norms and values of Internet culture may be transforming human sexuality.
If we go back to Foucault, we can define sexuality as a set of socially constituted knowledges and practices associated with erotic pleasure. Follow this definition, Seidman argued that queer theory is concerned with “those knowledges and social practices that organize ‘society’ as a whole by sexualizing.”
Traditionally, masculinity/femininity and heterosexuality/homosexuality have been the primary foci of queer theory. However, the objects of our sexual fantasies and mores are far more diverse than these two binary categories can capture. The tradition of queer theory invites us to ask the question: Why did chatroulette almost immediately become a hub of [sexual] exhibitionism and voyeurism, and why are social commentators so quick to dismiss it as perverted?
The Internet is a world whose fabric is constituted by freely circulating information. Increasingly (at least for those on the more affluent side of the digital divide), it has become a social imperative to subject every minute detail about oneself to the gaze of others. Our obsession with living in public extends from the most trivial acts (e.g., posting one’s latest meal on Twitter) to the most profound (e.g., mourning the death of a loved one by commenting on her Facebook page).
Isn’t it possible that [sexual] exhibitionism and voyeurism are just natural and logical extensions of a social system that places a premium on transparency? If such behaviors are consistent with deeply held social norms (however recently these norms have become part of our culture), can we call them perverse? I think not. Instead, I think we should reserve the term “perverse” for a social system that imbues certain activities with value and meaning, and then punishes, or even ostracizes, those who are only doing what society has disciplined them to do.
” The Surreal World of Chatroulette” by Nick Bilton
“Michel Foucault” by Barry Smart
My problem with chatroulette is that it plays into and encourages rape culture against women.
I have spent much time on chatroulette, usually goofing around with friends, and I notice that the “perverts” who masturbate quickly disconnect when they see they have a room full of guys. As any male will attest, it is quite hard to find a partner to talk to when every other male on the system is frantically searching for a female. And the most common comments I get are “show me your boobs,” which makes me wonder why men looking for porn are spending their time on such an unpredictable and male-dominated space.
I routinely get homophobic comments followed by quick disconnections by my fellow male chatrouletter’s, probably because of my somewhat non-hetero normative self-presentation. They simply assume I am gay, launch an epithet or two, and switch to the next partner.
Chatroulette, I argue, is a male-dominated and voyeuristic space. It is a space where men feel free to disrobe and touch themselves because of its pseudo-anonymity. My problem with this behavior is that it plays directly into the larger culture that promotes the voyeuristic consumption of women’s bodies and the overwhelming “freedom” men feel in engaging in sexually explicit behavior towards women. I would argue that the behavior displayed on chatroulette is symptomatic of a larger culture that frowns upon, but does not stop, men who sexually harass women.
Unfortunately, I do not see chatroulette as a space of sexual exploration and freedom. I see it as a space where men feel quite comfortable masturbating in front of anonymous strangers. And I have to ask, How is this any different from masturbating on a public train? In a library? Or accosting a woman on the street to show her your penis?
The only answer I can think of is that there is no way for these men to be prosecuted. They feel comfortable disrobing and sexually harassing women because there is no fear of retribution. And in a period when men can simply google porn at will, it begs to wonder why so many men flock to chatroulette to masturbate. I don’t think they are perverts. I just think we found a good way to get our jollies off without getting in trouble… And it is this behavior that I find symptomatic of a larger culture. Rape culture.
pj
-quick correction, i think you mean to say “SEXUAL exhibitionism and voyeurism” instead of just exhibitionism and voyeurism. of course almost all of web2.0/social media is an orgy of exhibitionism and voyeurism of some sort!
from this – i agree with your point that we are told to be exhibitionists and voyeurs on web2.0 and one logical result is *sexual* exhibitionism and voyeurism. thus, distinguishing exhibitionism and voyeurism from SEXUAL exhibitionism and voyeurism helps reinforce your point here.
dave
-you do not seem to be disagreeing with pj’s points above, but i disagree with some of your new set of points.
1-you “wonder why men looking for porn are spending their time on [chatroulette]”, which precisely is the point: if they were indeed “looking for porn”, they wouldnt be on chatroulette. they are looking (1) to be exhibitionists as that is thrilling for them, (2) to connect with a male or female to have a sexual encounter (e.g., the girl flashing for the masturbator), or (3) both.
2-on rape culture: rape is sex without consent. women need to be able to say no AND yes to sexual encounters. i feel the way you describe Chatroulette obscures women’s consent to say YES to sex. i’ll submit that ANY distancing between females and their consent to sex is troubling.
females indeed CAN consent to the “voyeuristic consumption of [their] bodies.” if you go onto Chatroulette a second time, you are consenting to a space where sexual exhibitionism is possible, allowed and likely (which is the difference between Chatroullette and ‘public trains, libraries and the street’). i feel that you have not opened room for this consent that women are giving, and to remove women from sexual consent is, again, problematic. in sum, we need to view rape culture as the distancing of women from their sexual consent, and that also includes, at a minimum, acknowledging that women can say yes to sex, too! ~nathan
Nathan nailed it. It’s about consent. Chatroulette is a space for consenting to these kinds of encounters: this is the function of nexting. If one does not like what’s being said about your appearance, next until you find a partner who says what you prefer. Sitting there in outrage, under that specific dynamic of freedom, is one’s choice.
As an online environment it definitely does away with some of the trappings of social etiquette, but created its own: the finger, the thumbs up, &c. And perhaps instead of comparing it to libraries or subway cars, a more apt comparison of what is possible and permissible: bdsm dungeons or sex clubs. In these places, masturbating strangers is commonplace, though certain rules apply depending on management. Some people enjoy being watched and having people masturbate to what they are doing; some people don’t. Some creepers move on; some are thrown out. But even with Chatroulette, the Report function has some sanctioning effect for not playing accordingly. Why jump immediately to the public space of a library and so on (Do people talk and share with one another in libraries? Do they talk and share with one another in subway cars? In just passing on the street, do they?), and why not instead a bar, a dungeon, a sex club?
Part of the enjoyment for some groups of guys precisely is to see men masturbating and laugh at them. Whether titillation or moral condemnation, the interest is in not only the obscene but the awkward, the unusual, the fringe, the freak, the perverse. It seems, to me, part of how to roll with pjrey’s observation about the idea of the ‘perverse’ is to note how fascination with the obscene and socially shaming it (through joking, mocking, deriding, name-calling, &c) drives much of the interest in Chatroulette. Afterall, are there any news pieces or social commentaries about Chatroulette that do not talk about the sexual exhibitionism in the mode of “There’s also all this sick stuff, too?”
I take it this is a point made by pjrey. We’re putting already a number of things out there as part of our online social world. Masturbation, something many people do, becomes part of this, and likewise part of this online social world is the hand-wringing and shaming. For some, they also get off on shaming the appearance of online dick.
Charles R
“It seems, to me, part of how to roll with pjrey’s observation about the idea of the ‘perverse’ is to note how fascination with the obscene and socially shaming it (through joking, mocking, deriding, name-calling, &c) drives much of the interest in Chatroulette.”
spot on!
one does not need to look to foucault for this observation because it is obvious (but we sound smarter if we mention how foucault discusses this in hist of sex 1): prohibition leads to an explosion of sexuality, not less of it. it is our very prudish/puritan/(we other)victorian view on sex that creates the taboos that are so “sexy” to break on chatroulette. many kinks and lots of porn center on taboo, and since these taboos are created via prohibition, to moralize about chatroulette is to ensure the continuing “perversity”!