Podcast: what does ‘TubeCrush’ reveal about modern desire?

We’re not looking at a utopia or a dystopia – we’re looking at the progression of a narrative throughout history that’s slowly changing

Dr Adrienne Evans' research delves into the complex world of modern desire, using the website TubeCrush as her starting point. TubeCrush allows users to post secretly taken photos of ‘guy candy’ they see on the tube. While the site was established to pay homage to men, the practice raises moral questions about privacy, consent and objectification. In this podcast, Dr Evans explains the origins of her project and how fears about the impact of new inventions on traditions surrounding love and romance can be traced all the way back to the 12th century. 

Dr Adrienne Evans is Reader in Media at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University. She received a British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant for her project TubeCrush as Connected Intimacies: A Qualitative Analysis of Gender, Workplace and Contemporary Urban Space. Her published works include Technologies of Sexiness (Routledge, 2014), written with Sarah Riley, and Postfeminism and Health: Critical Psychology and Media Perspectives, (Oxford University Press, 2018), written with Sarah Riley and Martine Robson.