Abstract

This talk is about Bears as gay male subculture and on-line gender performance. It contextualizes definitions of new masculinities by analzying different fields of netporn research.

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The presentation will focus on socio-anthropological analysis of the end of Gay culture and Bear culture whithin by building a digital genealogy of its own represenations, from digital networks archeology of Bullettin Board Systems and Mailing Lists to today’s Internet porntube platforms and smart technology.

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About the Speaker

Born in Rome the 22nd October 1970 and living between Rome and Berlin, Francesco Macarone Palmieri aka WABEAR works as social anthropologist,w riter, DJ and curator.

In 2002 he receives the Degree in Sociology and the Master Degree in Cultural Anthropology and Development with the maximum grade (110/110) at the “Università degli Studi di Roma la Sapienza” with the Professor Massimo Canevacci as Supervisor, discussing a graduation thesis entitled “Raves. Glocal countercultures´s ethnographic reading” about the relationship between countercultures and the advent of digital technology in the European nineties. His second book is entitled “Tanz Berlin” for Manifestolibri and it is dedicated to Berlin clubbing scene. He is Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering of “La Sapienza” University of Rome.

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His work is based on Cultural Studies with a focus on Urban Anthropology, New Media, Geographies of Sexualities, Netporn Studies and Epistemology of Emotions. He collides his theoretical research with the fields of Independent Cinema and Event Management.

His first book is entitled “Free Party. Techno anomia per delinquenza giovanile” and published by Meltemi Editore. He published a long series of books and essays with international Publishers, gave lectures in conferences and universities all around the world.

He works as curator, performer and DJ on an international level. He is co-producer and Resident DJ of the Berlin-based bi-monthly event “Gegen”.

Travis S.K. Kong is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Associate Dean (Undergraduate Education) of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests are homosexuality, prostitution, and transnational Chinese sexualities. To date, his articles have appeared in books, encyclopaedias, and journals such as Gender, Work & Organization, Body & Society, Sexualities, Deviant Behavior, Critical Asian Studies, Culture, Health and Sexuality, British Journal of Criminology, Sociological Review, Lancet, and AIDS Care. He is the author of Chinese Male Homosexualities: Memba, Tongzhi and Golden Boy (London: Routledge 2011) and Oral History of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong 男男正傳: 香港年長男同志口述史 (Hong Kong: Stepforward 2014) (in Chinese).

Kong is the co-editor of Sexualities: Studies in Culture and Society (2013-), one of the most prestigious international journals in the field of sexuality. He was awarded the Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange Award at the University of Hong Kong (2015) to acknowledge his oral history project on older gay men and the recipient of Prism Award of Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (2014) to recognize his long term service to and research on the LGBT community in Hong Kong.