Laura Thompson on the Future of Dating

Last Friday saw Laura Thompson in a packed auditorium at the V&A Museum for a Friday Late event on ‘The Future of Dating’. She spoke on the panel titled ‘The Male Gaze Reimagined’. Her talk argued the market optics and logic of dating apps place women’s bodies under intensified scrutiny, which can manifest in misogynistic harassment about women’s appearance and (hetero)sexual ‘value’. The panel discussion further explored questions of surveillance, privacy and gender norms around online dating. Also on the panel was Dr. Róisín Ryan-Flood (University of Essex), journalist Judith Duprotail and director of Big Brother Watch, Silko Carlo, acting as chair.