TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Leaky Networks and Bareback Browsing examines how the inherent promiscuity of networked machines and network culture has been obscured—both technically and culturally—to uphold ideals of closure  that reflect a phallocentric logic. 

Drawing parallels between the stigmatization of bodily promiscuity and the securitization of digital interactions, the talk engages queer theory and digital media studies to reframe "leakiness"  and “promiscuity” as generative conditions that have the potential to disrupt the phallocentric fiction of impenetrability embedded in cybersecurity narratives.

Inspired by Wendy Chun’s call “to build new forms of interaction that cannot leak because they do not seek to be private or close or monogamous in the first place” (Chun, Friedman, 2015) Leaky Networks and Bareback Browsing proposes to look at the subculture of Barebacking as a framework to reclaim the inherent promiscuity (and vulnerability) of networked interactions and reshaping them into practices of radical openness and collective care. By linking barebacking to browsing practices, the talk re-frames digital promiscuity  as a form of resistance to the macho technopolitics.