The cruising proposal can be immediate in nature

Our analysis of the websites showed that e-dates generally have an immediate sense. One proposes a date at an actual place and at an actual time, and the time between the proposal and the encounter tends to be very short. Immediacy overlaps speed, which we explored in the previous section, thereby shaping a new concept of cruising. It’s about a new cruising format imbued with the same traits we recognize in the daily life of the Second Modernity: a fast life that demands fast responses: “Anybody now in the Tarongers Library?” (RolloXY site, accessed on 05/).

The author of this post is a young man studying in a university library, who launches a proposal for a cruising encounter in the very same place where he is at the moment. The way the proposal is addressed shows that the waiting time for possible candidates is superseded, as is chance intervention in materializing the practice, so that this technological mediation offers the satisfaction of sexual desire at any moment.

Although not all e-dates we extracted from the online sites show this characteristic, many of them do, leading us to considerer it an interesting change in cruising scenes.

“What does [the e-date] do? The minute you feel horny, bingo! You take your phone, and ring, ring, ring [imitates a cellphone ringtone] and here I have you, and not here… wherever it is, and wherever I catch you” (DG3).

Surprise plays a determinant role in traditional cruising, since the nature of the sexual encounter is agreed on and negotiated simultaneously with the practice itself

Non-immediate encounters are scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, this evening, etc., expressions that show planning and anticipation in an activity traditionally conceived as chaotic and disordered. Continue Reading