Censoring the Sexual Self

Reflections from an Ethnographic Study of Gay Filipinos on Mobile Dating Apps in Manila

Bibliographic Data

ID2174952
AuthorsPaul Michael Leonardo Atienza (0000-0002-6272-4966, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume19
Issue3
Pages231-244
Publication date2018-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14442213.2018.1454503
OpenAlexW2802444244
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited33

This paper reflects upon Evelyn Blackwood's 1995 'Falling in Love with An-Other Lesbian' essay on love and desire during fieldwork research as it intersects with the figure of the 'virtual anthropologist' in Kath Weston's 1997 essay of the same name. My multiple subjectivities (specifically those nativised) enabled and restricted what I considered bonds and differences between me and others during ethnographic research among gay Filipino men using mobile dating apps. I revisit an experience from four weeks of preliminary data collection between May and June 2015 in Manila, Philippines, where I decided not to include a sexual encounter with a research participant named Wesley. Moving forward with my study, my reflections on censoring sexual encounters with research participants helped me to acknowledge several sources of moral anxieties and ethical considerations that influence how this specific testimony took its shape and to consider how to construct and apply a malleable ethic of honesty for current and future projects especially when intimacies themselves are the focus

Ethnography · Honesty · Lesbian · Participant observation · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology

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