Google, Tell Me. Is He Gay? Masculinity, Heterosexuality, and Gendered Anxieties in Google Search Queries about Sexuality

It is difficult to gauge people’s acceptance about same-sex sexualities, as responses questionnaires are prone social desirability bias. We offer a new proxy for understanding popular concern surrounding sexualities: prevalence of Google searches demonstrating over gay/lesbian sexual identities. Using Trends data, we find that whether specific person gay or lesbian show patterned bias toward masculine searches, in such much more frequently conducted boys and men compared with girls women. put these findings into context by comparing search frequencies other sexuality otherwise. forth the illustrates support enduring relationship between masculinity heterosexuality it does so on larger scale than previous research has been able establish.