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Changing Geographies of Intimacy: A Study on FemaleTinder Users in İstanbul

Year 2020, , 113 - 124, 01.06.2020
https://doi.org/10.46655/federgi.745831

Abstract

This study discusses the changing geographies of intimacy by focusing on the experiences of femaleTinder users in Istanbul. Within the scope of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28women in Istanbul. Based on these interviews, the flows of how women use Tinder have been createdand the locations in which the app is used have been identified. The study revealed that women usethis mobile application secretly and they do not actively use it in the neighborhoods where they liveand work. The way women look for relationships varies considerably and they choose among varyingtypes of relationships. Tinder allows women to rapidly expand their pool of potential partners andeliminate other intermediaries and their social supervision in building relationships. These factsindicate that the geographies of intimacy and the gender relationships within these geographies havestarted to change for some women.

References

  • References
  • Barraket, Jo and Millisom S. Henry-Waring. "Getting It On(line): Sociological Perspectives on E-dating", Journal of Sociology 44, no. 2 (2008): 149-165
  • Bauman, Zygmunt. Akışkan Aşk, Çev. Işık Ergüden (İstanbul: Versus Kitap, 2012)
  • Bauman, Zygmunt. Akışkan Modernite, Çev. Sinan Okan Çavuş (İstanbul: Can Sanat Yayınları, 2017)
  • Beck, Ulrick and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. Normal Chaos of Love (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1995)
  • Bell, David and Jon Binnie. The Sexual Citizen: Queer Politics and Beyond. (Polity Press: USA, 2000).
  • Berlant, Lauren. "Sex in Public," Critical Inquiry 24, no. 2 (1998): 281-288
  • Berlant, Lauren and Michael Warner. "Sex in Public," Critical Inquiry 24 no. 2 (1998): 547-566
  • Bilgin, Nuri. Sosyal Psikoloji Sözlüğü: Kavramlar, Yaklaşımlar (İstanbul: Bağlam Yayıncılık, 2003)
  • Binnie, Jon. "Cosmopolitanism and the Sexed City," City Vision ed. David Bell and Azzedine Haddour (London: Pearson, 2000), 166–178
  • Chambers, Deborah. Social Media and Personal Relationships: Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
  • Chan, Lik Sam. "Liberating or Disciplining? A Technofeminist Analysis of the Use of Dating Apps among Women in Urban China," Communication Culture and Critique, 11, (2018): 298-314, DOI:10.1093/ccc/tcy004
  • Chan, Lik Sam. "Multiple Uses and Anti-Purposefulness on Momo, a Chinese Dating/Social App," Information, Communication & Society (2019): 1-16, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1586977
  • Chappetta, Kelsey and Joan M. Barth. "How Gender Role Stereotypes Affect Attraction in an Online Dating Scenario," Computers in Human Behavior 63, (2016): 738–746, DOI:10.1016/j. chb.2016.06.006
  • Creswell, John. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007)
  • David, Gaby and Caroline Cambre. "Screened intimacies: Tinder and the Swipe Logic". Social Media C Society 2, no. 2 (2016): 1-11, DOI: 10.1177/2056305116641976
  • de Vries, Jan M. A. "Impact of Self-Descriptions and Photographs on Mediated Dating Interest," Marriage & Family Review 46, no. 8 (2010): 538-562, DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2010.543038
  • Donato, Katherine. M., Donna Gabaccia, Jennifer Holdaway, Martin Manalansan, and Patricia R. Pessar. "A Glass of Half Full? Gender in Migration Studies," International Migration Review, 40, no. 1 (2006): 3-26. DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-7379.2006.00001.x
  • Feliciano, Cynthia, Belinda Robnett, Golnaz Komaie. "Gendered Racial Exclusion among White Internet Daters," Social Science Research 38, no. 1 (2009): 39–54. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2008.09.004 Fryer, Roland G. "Guess Who’s Been Coming to Dinner? Trends in Interracial Marriage over the 20th Century," Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, no.2. (2007): 71-90
  • Gedik, Esra and Samet Talha Turgut. "Sosyal Medya Delikanlılığı: Ekşi Sözlük Örneği," Current Debates on Social Studies 2 Culturel Studies ed. Meryem Bulut and Zeynel Karacagil (Bilgin Kültür Sanat Yayınları, 2019), 40- 49
  • Gewirtz-Meydan, Ateret and Liat Ayalon. "Forever Young: Visual Representations of Gender and Age in Online Dating Sites for Older Adults," Journal of Women & Aging 30, no. 6 (2018): 484-502, DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2017.1330586 Gibbs, Jennifer L, Nicole B. Ellison and Chih-Hui Lai. "First Comes Love, Then Comes Google: An Investigation of Uncertainty Reduction Strategies and Self-disclosure in Online Dating," Communication Research 38, no. 1 (2011): 70-100
  • Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1991)
  • Giddens, Anthony. The Transformations of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1993)
  • Göle, Nilüfer. Modern Mahrem. (İstanbul: Metis, 1996)
  • Jakobsson, Niklas and Henrik Lindholm. "Ethnic Preferences in Internet Dating: A Field Experiment," Marriage & Family Review, 50, no. 4 (2014): 307-317, DOI:10.1080/01494929.2013.879554
  • Knudson, Sarah. "A Good Match? Offline Matchmaking Services and Implications for Gender Relations," Marriage & Family Review 53, no. 7 (2017): 641-666, DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2016.1247764
  • Leurs, Elleke and Anne Hardy. "Tinder Tourism: Tourist Experiences Beyond the Tourism Industry Realm," Annals of Leisure Research 22, no. 3 (2019): 323-341, DOI: 10.1080/11745398.2018.1553678
  • Lindsay, Jo and Deborah Dempsey. Families, Relationships and Intimate Life (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • Liu, Tingting."Neoliberal Ethos, State Censorship and Sexual Culture: A Chinese Dating/Hook-Up App," Continuum 30, no. 5 (2016): 557-566, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1210794
  • Lordoğlu, Ceren. İstanbul’da Bekâr Kadın Olmak (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2018)
  • MacLeod, Caitlin and Victoria McArthur. "The Construction of Gender in Dating Apps: An Interface Analysis of Tinder and Bumble," Feminist Media Studies 19, no. 6 (2018): 822-840, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2018.1494618
  • Mason, Corinne Lysandra. "Tinder and Humanitarian Hook-Ups: The Erotics of Social Media Racism," Feminist Media Studies 16, no. 5 (2016) 822-837, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2015.1137339
  • Massey, Doreen. Space, Place and Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994)
  • McCullough, Megan B., Jan Brunson and Karin Friederic. "Introduction: Intimacies and Sexualities in Out-of-the-Way Places," Ethnos, 79, no. 5 (2014): 577-584, DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2013.813057
  • McDowell, Linda. "Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, C. 17, no. 4 (1992): 399-416
  • McGrath, Allison R., Glenn T. Tsunokai, Melinda Schultz, Jillian Kavanagh and Jake A. "Tarrence Differing Shades of Colour: Online Dating Preferences of Biracial Individuals," Ethnic and Racial Studies 39, no. 11, (2016): 1920-1942, DOI:10.1080/01419870.2015.1131313
  • Mok, Teresa A. "Asian American Dating: Important Factors in Partner Choice," Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 5, no. 2 (1999): 103-117. DOI: 10.1037/1099-9809.5.2.103
  • Newett, Lyndsay, Brendan, Churchill and Brady Robards. "Forming Connections in the Digital Era: Tinder, a New Tool in Young Australian Intimate Life," Journal of Sociology 54, no.3 (2017): 1-16, DOI: 10.1177/1440783317728584
  • Paerregaard, Karsten. "The Resonance of Fieldwork. Ethnographers, Informants and the Creation of Anthropological Knowledge," Social Anthropology 10, no. 3 (2002): 319-334
  • Ramazanoğlu, Caroline and Janet, Holland. Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices (London, Thousand Oaks, CA, New Delhi: Sage, 2002)
  • Rosenfeld, Michael J. and Reuben J. Thomas "Searching for a Mate: The Rise of the Internet as a Social Intermediary," American Sociological Review 77, no. 4 (2012): 523-547
  • Şenlikoğlu, Sertaç. "Exercising in Comfort: Islamicate Culture of Mahremiyetin Everyday Istanbul," Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 12 no. 2 (2016): 143-165. DOI:10.1215/15525864-3507606
  • Şenlikoğlu, Sertaç and Aslı Zengin. "Everyday Intimacies of the Middle East," Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 12 no. 2 (2016): 139-142. DOI:10.1215/15525864-3507595
  • Solis, Randy Jay C. and Ka Yee J. Wong, "To Meet or not to Meet? Measuring Motivations and Risks as Predictors of Outcomes in the Use of Mobile Dating Applications in China," Chinese Journal of Communication 12, no. 2 (2019): 1-20. DOI:10.1080/17544750.2018.1498006
  • Sprecher, Susan. "Relationship Initiation and Formation on the Internet," Marriage & Family Review 45, no. 6-8 (2009): 761–82
  • Timmermans, Elisabeth and Cedric, Courtois. "From Swiping to Casual Sex and/or Committed Relationships: Exploring the Experiences of Tinder Users, " The Information Society 34, no.2 (2018): 59-70, DOI: 10.1080/01972243.2017.1414093
  • Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).
  • Valentine, Gill. "The Geography of Women’s Fear," Area 21 no. 4 (1989): 385-390
  • Valentine, Gill. "Globalising Intimacy: The Role and Information and Communication Technologies in Maintaining and Creating Relationships," Women’s Studies Quarterly 34, (2006): 365–393.
  • Valentine, Gill. "The Ties That Bind: Towards Geographies of Intimacy, " Geography Compass 2, no. 6 (2008): 2097– 2110, DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00158.x
  • Vandeweerd, Carla, Jaime Myers, Martha Coulter, Ali Yalçın and Jaime Corvin. "Positives and Negatives of Online Dating According to Women 50+," Journal of Women & Aging 28, no. 3 (2016): 259-270, DOI:10.1080/08952841.2015.1137435
  • Watson, Wendy K. and Charlie Stelle "Dating for Older Women: Experiences and Meanings of Dating in Later Life," Journal of Women & Aging 23, no. 3 (2011): 263-275, DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2011.587732
  • Zhang, Lixuan, Iryna Pentina and Wendy Fox Kirk. "Who Uses Mobile Apps to Meet Strangers: The Roles of Core Traits and Surface Characteristics,"Journal of Information Privacy and Security 13, no. 4 (2017): 207-225
Year 2020, , 113 - 124, 01.06.2020
https://doi.org/10.46655/federgi.745831

Abstract

References

  • References
  • Barraket, Jo and Millisom S. Henry-Waring. "Getting It On(line): Sociological Perspectives on E-dating", Journal of Sociology 44, no. 2 (2008): 149-165
  • Bauman, Zygmunt. Akışkan Aşk, Çev. Işık Ergüden (İstanbul: Versus Kitap, 2012)
  • Bauman, Zygmunt. Akışkan Modernite, Çev. Sinan Okan Çavuş (İstanbul: Can Sanat Yayınları, 2017)
  • Beck, Ulrick and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. Normal Chaos of Love (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1995)
  • Bell, David and Jon Binnie. The Sexual Citizen: Queer Politics and Beyond. (Polity Press: USA, 2000).
  • Berlant, Lauren. "Sex in Public," Critical Inquiry 24, no. 2 (1998): 281-288
  • Berlant, Lauren and Michael Warner. "Sex in Public," Critical Inquiry 24 no. 2 (1998): 547-566
  • Bilgin, Nuri. Sosyal Psikoloji Sözlüğü: Kavramlar, Yaklaşımlar (İstanbul: Bağlam Yayıncılık, 2003)
  • Binnie, Jon. "Cosmopolitanism and the Sexed City," City Vision ed. David Bell and Azzedine Haddour (London: Pearson, 2000), 166–178
  • Chambers, Deborah. Social Media and Personal Relationships: Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
  • Chan, Lik Sam. "Liberating or Disciplining? A Technofeminist Analysis of the Use of Dating Apps among Women in Urban China," Communication Culture and Critique, 11, (2018): 298-314, DOI:10.1093/ccc/tcy004
  • Chan, Lik Sam. "Multiple Uses and Anti-Purposefulness on Momo, a Chinese Dating/Social App," Information, Communication & Society (2019): 1-16, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1586977
  • Chappetta, Kelsey and Joan M. Barth. "How Gender Role Stereotypes Affect Attraction in an Online Dating Scenario," Computers in Human Behavior 63, (2016): 738–746, DOI:10.1016/j. chb.2016.06.006
  • Creswell, John. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007)
  • David, Gaby and Caroline Cambre. "Screened intimacies: Tinder and the Swipe Logic". Social Media C Society 2, no. 2 (2016): 1-11, DOI: 10.1177/2056305116641976
  • de Vries, Jan M. A. "Impact of Self-Descriptions and Photographs on Mediated Dating Interest," Marriage & Family Review 46, no. 8 (2010): 538-562, DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2010.543038
  • Donato, Katherine. M., Donna Gabaccia, Jennifer Holdaway, Martin Manalansan, and Patricia R. Pessar. "A Glass of Half Full? Gender in Migration Studies," International Migration Review, 40, no. 1 (2006): 3-26. DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-7379.2006.00001.x
  • Feliciano, Cynthia, Belinda Robnett, Golnaz Komaie. "Gendered Racial Exclusion among White Internet Daters," Social Science Research 38, no. 1 (2009): 39–54. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2008.09.004 Fryer, Roland G. "Guess Who’s Been Coming to Dinner? Trends in Interracial Marriage over the 20th Century," Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, no.2. (2007): 71-90
  • Gedik, Esra and Samet Talha Turgut. "Sosyal Medya Delikanlılığı: Ekşi Sözlük Örneği," Current Debates on Social Studies 2 Culturel Studies ed. Meryem Bulut and Zeynel Karacagil (Bilgin Kültür Sanat Yayınları, 2019), 40- 49
  • Gewirtz-Meydan, Ateret and Liat Ayalon. "Forever Young: Visual Representations of Gender and Age in Online Dating Sites for Older Adults," Journal of Women & Aging 30, no. 6 (2018): 484-502, DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2017.1330586 Gibbs, Jennifer L, Nicole B. Ellison and Chih-Hui Lai. "First Comes Love, Then Comes Google: An Investigation of Uncertainty Reduction Strategies and Self-disclosure in Online Dating," Communication Research 38, no. 1 (2011): 70-100
  • Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1991)
  • Giddens, Anthony. The Transformations of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1993)
  • Göle, Nilüfer. Modern Mahrem. (İstanbul: Metis, 1996)
  • Jakobsson, Niklas and Henrik Lindholm. "Ethnic Preferences in Internet Dating: A Field Experiment," Marriage & Family Review, 50, no. 4 (2014): 307-317, DOI:10.1080/01494929.2013.879554
  • Knudson, Sarah. "A Good Match? Offline Matchmaking Services and Implications for Gender Relations," Marriage & Family Review 53, no. 7 (2017): 641-666, DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2016.1247764
  • Leurs, Elleke and Anne Hardy. "Tinder Tourism: Tourist Experiences Beyond the Tourism Industry Realm," Annals of Leisure Research 22, no. 3 (2019): 323-341, DOI: 10.1080/11745398.2018.1553678
  • Lindsay, Jo and Deborah Dempsey. Families, Relationships and Intimate Life (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • Liu, Tingting."Neoliberal Ethos, State Censorship and Sexual Culture: A Chinese Dating/Hook-Up App," Continuum 30, no. 5 (2016): 557-566, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1210794
  • Lordoğlu, Ceren. İstanbul’da Bekâr Kadın Olmak (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2018)
  • MacLeod, Caitlin and Victoria McArthur. "The Construction of Gender in Dating Apps: An Interface Analysis of Tinder and Bumble," Feminist Media Studies 19, no. 6 (2018): 822-840, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2018.1494618
  • Mason, Corinne Lysandra. "Tinder and Humanitarian Hook-Ups: The Erotics of Social Media Racism," Feminist Media Studies 16, no. 5 (2016) 822-837, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2015.1137339
  • Massey, Doreen. Space, Place and Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994)
  • McCullough, Megan B., Jan Brunson and Karin Friederic. "Introduction: Intimacies and Sexualities in Out-of-the-Way Places," Ethnos, 79, no. 5 (2014): 577-584, DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2013.813057
  • McDowell, Linda. "Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, C. 17, no. 4 (1992): 399-416
  • McGrath, Allison R., Glenn T. Tsunokai, Melinda Schultz, Jillian Kavanagh and Jake A. "Tarrence Differing Shades of Colour: Online Dating Preferences of Biracial Individuals," Ethnic and Racial Studies 39, no. 11, (2016): 1920-1942, DOI:10.1080/01419870.2015.1131313
  • Mok, Teresa A. "Asian American Dating: Important Factors in Partner Choice," Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 5, no. 2 (1999): 103-117. DOI: 10.1037/1099-9809.5.2.103
  • Newett, Lyndsay, Brendan, Churchill and Brady Robards. "Forming Connections in the Digital Era: Tinder, a New Tool in Young Australian Intimate Life," Journal of Sociology 54, no.3 (2017): 1-16, DOI: 10.1177/1440783317728584
  • Paerregaard, Karsten. "The Resonance of Fieldwork. Ethnographers, Informants and the Creation of Anthropological Knowledge," Social Anthropology 10, no. 3 (2002): 319-334
  • Ramazanoğlu, Caroline and Janet, Holland. Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices (London, Thousand Oaks, CA, New Delhi: Sage, 2002)
  • Rosenfeld, Michael J. and Reuben J. Thomas "Searching for a Mate: The Rise of the Internet as a Social Intermediary," American Sociological Review 77, no. 4 (2012): 523-547
  • Şenlikoğlu, Sertaç. "Exercising in Comfort: Islamicate Culture of Mahremiyetin Everyday Istanbul," Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 12 no. 2 (2016): 143-165. DOI:10.1215/15525864-3507606
  • Şenlikoğlu, Sertaç and Aslı Zengin. "Everyday Intimacies of the Middle East," Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 12 no. 2 (2016): 139-142. DOI:10.1215/15525864-3507595
  • Solis, Randy Jay C. and Ka Yee J. Wong, "To Meet or not to Meet? Measuring Motivations and Risks as Predictors of Outcomes in the Use of Mobile Dating Applications in China," Chinese Journal of Communication 12, no. 2 (2019): 1-20. DOI:10.1080/17544750.2018.1498006
  • Sprecher, Susan. "Relationship Initiation and Formation on the Internet," Marriage & Family Review 45, no. 6-8 (2009): 761–82
  • Timmermans, Elisabeth and Cedric, Courtois. "From Swiping to Casual Sex and/or Committed Relationships: Exploring the Experiences of Tinder Users, " The Information Society 34, no.2 (2018): 59-70, DOI: 10.1080/01972243.2017.1414093
  • Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).
  • Valentine, Gill. "The Geography of Women’s Fear," Area 21 no. 4 (1989): 385-390
  • Valentine, Gill. "Globalising Intimacy: The Role and Information and Communication Technologies in Maintaining and Creating Relationships," Women’s Studies Quarterly 34, (2006): 365–393.
  • Valentine, Gill. "The Ties That Bind: Towards Geographies of Intimacy, " Geography Compass 2, no. 6 (2008): 2097– 2110, DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00158.x
  • Vandeweerd, Carla, Jaime Myers, Martha Coulter, Ali Yalçın and Jaime Corvin. "Positives and Negatives of Online Dating According to Women 50+," Journal of Women & Aging 28, no. 3 (2016): 259-270, DOI:10.1080/08952841.2015.1137435
  • Watson, Wendy K. and Charlie Stelle "Dating for Older Women: Experiences and Meanings of Dating in Later Life," Journal of Women & Aging 23, no. 3 (2011): 263-275, DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2011.587732
  • Zhang, Lixuan, Iryna Pentina and Wendy Fox Kirk. "Who Uses Mobile Apps to Meet Strangers: The Roles of Core Traits and Surface Characteristics,"Journal of Information Privacy and Security 13, no. 4 (2017): 207-225
There are 53 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Women's Studies
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Ayla Deniz This is me 0000-0001-5964-0131

Publication Date June 1, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020

Cite

Chicago Deniz, Ayla. “Changing Geographies of Intimacy: A Study on FemaleTinder Users in İstanbul”. Fe Dergi 12, no. 1 (June 2020): 113-24. https://doi.org/10.46655/federgi.745831.