Different ways of taking care of oneself. How Argentinean gay men negotiate COVID-19 protocols for hooking-up

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of pandemics, Argentinean gay men continued to have sexual experiences. However, when doing so, they did not just break the lockdown, but renegotiate care practices. That negotiation was part and parcel of engaging in an ephemeral network of mutual assistance. This paper aims to analyse the heterogeneous ways of caring among gay men who looked for other men to have sexual intercourse during the Pandemic lockdown. Based on 11 in-depth interviews with Argentinean gay men – aged from 24 to 45—, we explore how these men renegotiated COVID-19 care measurements when hooking up during pandemic times. Instead of portraying them as careless, we describe different ways in which they renegotiated caring. Considering those arrangements as tactics and micro resistances opposed to the disciplinary official discourse, we analyse actual practices of care that engaged in an ephemeral network of mutual assistance. The paper is organised into four sections. The first section briefly outlines official sanitary measurements in Argentina, characterised by an early lockdown that lasted several months. The second section describes the qualitative methodological approach of the research. The third section lists the theoretical discussions about virtual dating, hooking up and care practices. The fourth section settles the analysis of the ways these gay men developed their tactics becoming “responsible in their own ways”.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• hook-up
• eroticism
• gay
• care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The first version of this paper was presented at the 2022 SLAS conference.

2. The native flirting figure of histeriqueo could be defined as the game of flirtation, where saying yes at the same time that is said no. In virtual platforms, it supposes the chance to extend the chatting period, delaying the in-person encounter that might never happen.

3. Skex, also known as Skype sex, refers to the utilization of Skype calls for engaging in sexual activities.

4. In Spanish, this feature is called ‘Mejores Amigos’ (best friends). Among gay men is used to share erotic content avoiding being banned.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maximiliano Marentes

Maximiliano Marentes, PhD, is an Assistant Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina (CONICET) and Lecturer at the Interdisciplinary School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de San Martín (IDAES-UNSAM). His current research focuses on love relationships among gay men, gay-worlds during the 90’s in Argentina, work-family tensions among upper-middle class women, political participation during 80’s, LGBT families.

Mariana Palumbo

Mariana Palumbo, PhD, is an Assistant Researcher at the National Council on Scientific and Technical Research, based at the National University of San Martín, Argentina (CONICET). Her current research focuses on sexualities, genders, affectivities and violence.

Adriel Maroni

Adriel Maroni is an Internal Doctoral Scholar of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina (CONICET). His current research focuses on sociological studies on health, biomedicalisation and governmentality, as well as the study of emotions in the context of neoliberalism.