Text Clan

Description of Text Clan

There are numerous clans in the country, there is no studies as to how many clans do we have here. Let us discuss what a Text Clan is. Just like Chat rooms in the internet, Text clan is a group of textmates who shares the same interest. Members share thoughts, announcements, forward quotes or send anything under the sun within the rules; each message must be sent to all the members which they call “GM” or General Message. Text clans are usually of Gay nature, I have not heard of any text clan of any interest other than having gay members or founders for gay people.

Each Text clan has different rules in terms of processing the application. For someone to be a member, an applicant should complete an application sent to him though text and he must resend the filled out form back to the person processing the application. If a person has been approved for membership, his number would be announced to the whole members through text message and each member has to welcome him.

Members ask for their friendster accounts (normally) to view the picture of a member and to find out if the person is attractive. Pictures on the profile are the only basis they would have for whatever purpose they may have in mind- be it for a date, FUBU(f**K Buddy), or for other purpose.

Clan members normally do have a GEB (Grand Eye Ball). Eye ball is a term for “meeting up”; grand eye ball is the term for meeting up of the whole members of the group, this is usually being held in a bar, disco, in a house(as a house party) or any venue the officers or members would agree. This is the event wherein they can meet the members in person.

The Filipino Gay

Gay life has always been associated with anything about sexual innuendos. Search for the term in google, yahoo or any of the search engines and you’ll results about sex, sexy pictures and dating. Majority of the results are more for lifestyles and fashion. In this light, it is befitting indeed that this calls for an avenue wherein we can look at the lifestyle of the gay culture in a spyglass of a scholar.

Looking at Gay culture from an Ivory Tower.

Jergens BIllboard Vs Hed Kandi Label

The Image at the left side is a cover of Head Kandi Beach House 4.03 which contains popular track like Kiss Kiss Kiss from The Ananda Project and Heather Johnson, Safe by Bonnie Bailey, Feeling the Night by Kaskade, Back Together by Ron Carroll and Hardsoul and others. The image at the right side is the summer ad of Jergens which was located in SLEX and C5 (near Katipunan).

The similarities of the pictures are indeed, highly notable. Let's try to enumerate the difference first:

1.The image at the left is an illustration, the other one is a real person.
2. The other one is for music, the other one is for Lotion.

But perhaps it would be interesting to note the similarities. Lets try to identify some.

1.Both models wear 2 piece suits
2.Both carries surfboard.
3.Both has blue background
4.The position of the sun is the same.
5.Both has palm leaves at the upper left hand corner

Hed Kandi Art

Jason Brooks is the genius behind the sexy covers of Hed Kandi albums. His illustrations epitomize the sexy image of club goers- sexy, slim, and fashionable. Women being portrayed are like models – with long slim legs; just right for what Hed Kandi desires to attain.

I discovered this when I became interested with the Hed Kandi label. When I was given the freedom to go out, I got hooked with the music and researched more about the label. I’ve observed that the covers of Hed Kandi have something in common, they all have sexy women with long legs.

I like the way he does his illustrations, his clients includes Clients include
Audi,British Airways,BRB, Coca-Cola, Coty,Carlsberg,Ellesse,Finlandia Vodka,Globetrotter,
Guerlain,L'Oreal, Saatchi & Saatchi,Mark's Inc, Martini,Nike, Ritz Hotels,Ruggeri, Mercedes Benz, Mont Blanc, Niemann Marcus, Publicis,Tali, Safilo Sunglasses, Veuve Clicquot ( source:http://www.jason-brooks.com/portfolio/). After a Master of Arts Degree in Illustration at the Royal College of Art, Brooks landed a series of assignments drawing at the Couture shows in Paris for The Independent Newspaper. He has since filed numerous visual reports from the shows in New York for Visionaire and London Fashion Week for Elle.(source:http://www.jason-brooks.com/portfolio/). After which,he did posters for clubs in London during the early 90s. He was then commissioned to provide the artwork for Hed Kandi wich would later give him worldwide recognition.

Part 2 Sexuality and Identity in the Internet World

This is a continuation about the previous post on Sexuality and Identity in the Internet World

To understand our subject for the study, it is imperative that we discuss the theory that will help us analyze the situations. The study has its grounds on Judith Butler’s study about the Queer Theory, in her book Gender Trouble:Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Butler points out a new model called ‘heterosexual matrix’ in which ‘sex’ is seen as a binary biological given – you are born female or male – and then ‘gender’is the cultural component which is socialized into the person on that basis. (Gauntlet 2008). Butler’s overall argument is that we should not accept that any of these follow from each other – we should shatter the imagined connections (Ibid.) which can be summarized in this diagram.

Source: Media, Gender, and Identity (Gauntlett 2008)

Rather than taking the historical attributes to gender as fixed as male and female, Butler sees gender as a fluid variable that shifts and changes in different contexts and at different times (Ibid.). The theory can be a good tool in analyzing the reason why a person shifts from different gender. The theory is not limited to homosexuality but is rather a part of it.

The theory asserts that identities are not fixed – neither to the body nor to the ‘self’ –we can select gender in whatever way we prefer. Although some gender patterns may have acquired and learned socially, these can be broken by performing non-normative ways of how a person may appear or act and the mass media plays its role in breaking the barriers of acting in a normative ways.Part 1 post about of this

Part 1 Sexuality and Identity in the Internet World

The individual, having a complex, multifaceted personality, is an interesting yet indeed, broad field for study. To limit our focus, the paper does not in any way attempt to discuss the developments of an individual throughout his interaction with the new media. Rather, the study deals with the present time that the identities have already been established.

In the internet, anyone can play a role, a male can be a female, a female can be a male, and vice versa. Moreover, a male or female can be a homosexual, and vice versa. In other simulated games, a person can play a role of an animal.Previous posts about this

Part 0 Sexuality and Identity in the Internet World

Today i would like to explore the fact that the internet is a feasible avenue for an individual to conceal their identity. Being a new medium, it also provides ways on how an individual can pour out frustrations, play a role he or she would prefer and select the identity as he or she would like it to appear in the online world.

Part 6 Online Gay Social Networking Sites: Effects and Marginalization

Limitations of the Study

Results are somehow subject to limitation of the number of respondents available for
interview. The manner of interview can also be pointed as it was conducted in
an informal way. Lack of formal validation of the accuracy summarizing the
respondents’ answers can also be a point for further study.

Conclusion and Recommendations

With the growing number of members joining the social networking sites, it is indeed a normal phenomenon that businesses may tend to maximize the opportunity for advertisements in social networking sites. Business establishments may capitalize on the vanity and marginalization created by the users. We can generate studies from these effects, even open up to possibilities of
development for new theories. Further studies may focus on bigger sampling and
methods to conduct this study.

References

Boyd, D. (April 24, 2004). Friendster and Publicly Articulated Social Networking.
Retrieved July 27, 2008, from Communications 200 Database.

Dawley, H. (March 27, 2007). Retrieved
July 27, 2008, from http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_11038.asp.

QuantCast (2007b) “Profile for MySpace.com”, Quantcast, Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://www.quantcast.com/myspace.com.

Rios, J. R. (2007). The World For Men. Icon, 2, 68 – 73.

Previous posts about this

Part 5 Online Gay Social Networking Sites: Effects and Marginalization

Observations

Majority of the users contains pictures of them being half naked, some wearing only their underwear, and some taking the pose of what they consider as artistic nude. Having these trend leads to another issue that users tend to create stereotypes, the trend of “No chubs and effeme policy”. Most of the users with a gym-fit body usually has a clause on their profile “no chubs and effemes please”. “Chubs” is a term for an abbreviated word “chubby”, and effeme is the term for effeminate gay. This means that the user with such clause only prefers to date a user with a well fit body.

Some users who don’t have the “gym-fit body” were interviewed on face to face. Don, a 23 year old member shares the same answer among the 5 people interviewed, that he doesn’t send message to someone with a “gym-fit body” for invitation to be a friend, nor even ask them for a date since it always mean rejection, which has been proven by experience. Carlo, 24 years old, when asked about this trend, said that he only sends messages to someone having a not so developed body to
avoid rejection.

These resulted to stereotyping for both parties and created an effect of marginalization. Those with a “gym-fit body” claim the higher part of the hierarchy and the marginalized users either has to pump up themselves with steroids to date them and keep up with them or instead date persons within themselves. Questions were also posted about this to the users with “gym-fit body”, answers vary according to preference, but most of their preferred dates are of the same appearance.

Echoing the argument posted by Boyd in her article Friendster and Publicly Articulated Social Networking (2004) that one is simply performing for the public, but in doing so, one obfuscates the quirks that often make one interesting to a potential suitor. Thus, some users were also interviewed through messaging about why they post images with what they consider to be sexy, majority of the answers agree to the premise.

Going back to our respondent in the introduction, Jerome, considering the availability of pictures of the guy he has been stalking to, found the best avenue of stalking as his subject presented himself on his most vulnerable condition of being nude. This leads to a lot of issue. An issue of privacy on
exhibitionism and voyeurism can be extracted. Previous posts about this

Part 4 Online Gay Social Networking Sites: Effects and Marginalization methodology of the study

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Part 3 Online Gay Social Networking Sites: Effects and Marginalization

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Part 2 Online Gay Social Networking Sites: Effects and Marginalization

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Part 1 Online Gay Social Networking Sites: Effects and Marginalization

John, 18 years old, a self confessed gay, recalls five years ago, it would take him either a lot of courage to ask for a man’s name or set-up a blind date through his network of friends. But now, as he claims, with a simple click of a button, he can now ask for someone’s name or their number.

Jerome, 32 years of age, a typical gay considers himself as a queen hiding behind his closet, says fifteen years ago, he would need the skills of a detective to stalk a guy he likes, but now, he can even have the convenience of watching his guy in his own bedroom and having
lesser risks of being caught.

These are just some of the countless advantages of the internet we live with. A lot of people are now joining the social networking sites. Similarly, the number of social networking sites is also increasing. Social networking sites are a type of virtual community that has grown tremendously in popularity over the past few years. The social networking site MySpace ranks sixth in overall web traffic, with over 47 million unique US visitors each month (QuantCast, 2007b).Friendster, as described by Boyd (2004), is a website that allows people to explicitly articulate their social network, present themselves through a Profile (interests and demographics), post public Testimonials about one another, and browse a network of people. Friendster launched its public beta in the fall of 2002. As of early January 2004, the site is still in beta and has amassed over 5 million registered accounts and is still growing (Boyd, 2004). These are some of the most popular heterosexual sites.

Part 0 Online Gay Social Networking Sites: Effects and Marginalization

The existence of online networking sites tends to be invisible as it becomes a natural part of our culture. However, there were only few studies made to recognize the growing issues related thereon. We have the study of social networking by Danah Michele Boyd on “Friendster and Publicly Articulated Social Networking” (2004), Adam Thierer on “Social Networking and Age Verification: Many Hard Questions; No Easy Solutions” (2007) among others. Moreover, seldom has tackled the issues on the online gay social networking. Thus, this paper tends to focus on online gay dating sites, the trends, how the users utilize the possibilities of social networking, and present some issues resulting thereon.

Introduction

I decided to build this blog simply because I can’t help but speak up. I can no longer endure the silence I have created despite the fact that my mind is shouting things out. I am a keen observer and I can see that there are a lot of things to tackle.

I am a self confessed gay and I can see that we have a distinct and great gay culture in the Philippines. I can say that despite the fact that the gay culture in the Philippines is already open and we have developed a new culture on this, however, the development is both good and bad, there are some marginalization and muted group.

And so we would like to see some fun when looking into these details, and thus we begin.