Teenage Identity and Ritual

Abstract

Marcos Brito (2007), an openly gay rapper (also known as Q Boy, see Figure 6.1) and the force behind the revolutionary educational documentary Coming Out to Class (Channel 4, 2007, UK) (discussed below), affirms that:

The internet is amazing [for gay and lesbian youth] because they can find information that I couldn’t find when I was young, they can find other teenagers going through similar experiences to them, and speak to them. They can find dates which is wholly important. When you are a teenager, everybody pairs off. Everybody has a boyfriend or a girlfriend: Its part of growing up.

Finding a partner, and taking part in the ritual of dating and romance, are often distanced from gay and lesbian youth. As Brito foregrounds, the Internet and diverse forms of related new media (such as Internet social networking, discussed below), have recently offered new life chances for gay and lesbian youth. This has not only enabled new connectivities, but also it has stimulated performative possibilities. Gay and lesbian youth have constructed new social worlds challenging repressive heteronormative constraints, where romance, desire and the ability to naturally engage take centre stage.