Date of Award

2020

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

First Advisor

Dr. Douglas Bruce

Abstract

Little research has been done on gay potential relationships (when two daters had gone on five or fewer dates or would-be dates), and there was no existing research available on romantic rejection in gay potential relationships. Most existing literature on romantic rejection focused on heterosexual relationships and long-term homosexual relationships. This thesis analyzed 48 blog entries from four publicly-accessible gay dating blogs ( The Guyliner ; It Gets Worse ; Gay Dating Stories ; and 100 Guys, 100 Storie s) that described romantic rejections. This thesis concluded romantic rejections for the four gay bloggers overall were most frequently implicit, due to a violation of expectations, and used face-detracting rejection strategies; offering a reason and silence were the most common rejection strategy sub-categories. Results varied between blogs, and each is reported within this thesis. The results of this content analysis offer a framework for understanding romantic rejection in the gay community regarding types of rejections, reasons for rejection, and rejection strategies used in potential relationships.

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