新媒體時代同性戀大學生身份認同建構過程研究

Study on the Identity Formation Process of University Homosexual Students in the Wake of the Development of the New Media

隨著互聯網發展，人們獲取信息的來源更為多元，人際交往與互動方式也隨之改變。對于大學生同性戀群體，新媒體的出現不僅改變了他們的社交方式，也促進他們不斷思考自身的性身份并對其進行界定與建構。本文在 Cass 的同性戀認同發展理論基礎上結合 7名 19-23 歲的中國大陸同性戀大學生的情感經歷，考察分析了新媒體對同性戀大學生自我身份認同建構過程的影響，并對西方同性戀認同發展理論在當代中國的應用提出批判性反思。本文認為，新媒體的確有助于同性戀大學生在認同困惑初期得到更多同性戀相關信息，從而正視自我的性身份，完成認同比較；而多元化的網絡社交方式可以更好地幫助他們完成認同接納的過程；但是，互聯網的出現并不能完全改變同性戀者在异性戀為主導的主流文化中的境遇。甚至，由同性戀亞文化衍生的網絡青少年流行文化開始伴隨著越來越多的網絡暴力出現；與此同時，新媒體時代的同性戀大學生更傾向于選擇網絡社交的方式，而對現實生活中的人際交往與互動更為謹慎，這都不利于同性戀大學生認同統合的最終實現。

Along with the development of the internet, people nowadays can get access to information via multiple ways, which accordingly changes the ways of communication and interaction. Especially for the young group among homosexual people, the emergence of the internet has changed not only their interaction and communication models but also their identity formation. Basing on Cass’s theory of homosexual identity formation (HIF), this study explores the changing models of interaction and the formation of gender identity of seven university homosexual students between the age of 19 and 23 under the influence of new media. A multiple-case research method along with in-depth interviews is used in this study to collect data. It argues that the emergence of the new media has facilitated ‘the first conscious awareness’ of university homosexual students through providing wider social platform and multiple interaction channels to establish interpersonal relationship. Owing to the internet, homosexual students can easily go through the stage of Identity Confusion and reach the next two stages –Identity Comparison and Identity Tolerance. However, even though the new homosexual subculture emerged along with the new media can facilitate young people’s Identity Acceptance to some degree, the mainstream ideology towards heterosexual marriage plan an obstacle for homosexual youths establishing Identity Pride. Furthermore, the over-usage of new media accompanied with cyber violence could indulge homosexual youths into a virtual world and hinder their relationship establishment in real life, which is not good for the last stage of Identity Synthesis. This indicates the limitation of applying Western theory of homosexual identity development into the Chinese context.