Digital Intimacies: Queer Men and Smartphones in Times of Crisis

Queer men’s cultures of intimacy have long been sites of fierce contestation. Indeed, debates have raged for decades over issues such as monogamy, safer sex, sexual racism and gay marriage. This open access book explores these debates, intensified by the introduction of the smartphone in 2008, whilst exploring further questions.

Through interviews with a diverse group of 43 queer men about their smartphone mediated intimacies, Digital Intimacies reveals that queer men use their smartphones, not simply to arrange intimate encounters, but more specifically to gain a sense of control over the parts of their intimate lives that make them feel most vulnerable. For instance, some use messaging apps to gain a sense of control over intimate conversations that they feel too vulnerable to have in person. Others use the ‘block’ function on dating apps to feel in control of the racism and transphobia they are vulnerable to on these apps.

Digital Intimacies therefore illuminates not only hitherto underexplored aspects of queer men’s cultures of intimacy but crucially also brings into view previously obscured cultural dynamics, gaining insight into the historical moments in which they occur.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.

• Publication date: 19 March 2026
• Page count: 232
• Dimensions: Height 154 mm; Width 234 mm; Thickness 15 mm
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN-13: 9781350381780