More than the selfie
Online dating, non-monogamy, normativity, and linked profiles on OkCupid
Success in the digital dating world is often dependent on an individual’s ability to negotiate the
affordances and
constraints of platforms (
Bucher &
Helmond 2017) while effectively expressing who one is and what they are looking for. Since mononormativity is the
dominant script that underpins ideals of romantic love and intimate relations in our society (
Wolkomir 2019), for the millions who ascribe to non-monogamy, profile creation is often complicated by dating platform
interfaces and relationship orientations. This research takes a critical multimodal discourse approach (
Machin 2016,
Milani 2013) to examine the interplay between
various semiotic modes in meaning making about sexual normativities (
Motschenbacher
2019) in digital dating contexts, and considers how people navigating non-traditional relationship orientations
negotiate discourse in digital dating contexts to demonstrate how discourse and design have the ability to empower and marginalize
users (
Sun 2020) as well maintain cultural norms (
Wachter-Boettcher 2017) about emotional bonding and sexuality.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Consensual non-monogamy and sexual normativity
- 3.Multimodality and queer linguistics
- 4.Consensual non-monogamy and digital design
- 4.1Labeling relationship type and status
- 4.2Linking profiles
- 4.3Constructing non-monogamy through written bios
- 4.4Visualizing non-monogamy through profile photos
- 5.Conclusion
- Ethics statement
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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