Beyond Hooking Up: Tales from Grindr in Pakistan

Grindr is among the most subscribed social networking apps in Pakistan. The chapter explores the uses of Grindr among men in Pakistan. It argues that Grindr's usage in Pakistan creates opportunities for casual sexual encounters and demonstrates the construction of a cosmopolitan queer identity that appropriates Western epistemologies of sexuality and sex positions. Such appropriations notwithstanding, Grindr's usage in Pakistan illuminates a culturally distinctive queer sexuality. A majority of the interlocutors profess profound sadness over their inability to be truthful about being gay due to familial, religious and societal mores that negatively assess homosexuality. Given such real-life concerns, Grindr provides a significant space to negotiate obligations to adhere to societal heteronorms and equally, the desire to imagine cosmopolitan queer sexualities.