Theorizing the lesbian hashtag: Identity, community, and the technological imperative to name the sexual self

Abstract

This analysis integrates poststructuralist and symbolic interactionist approaches to the self by incorporating the insights of science and technology studies regarding categorization processes. While the advent of the Internet has freed many individuals from geographical constraints on community formation, the architectures of online platforms produce a technological imperative to name aspects of the self with words. Using sexual identity hashtags on Instagram (e.g., #lesbian) thus performs paradoxical functions: the hashtag both enables the construction of a sexual identity within an affirming community and also reinforces the power relations that compel individuals to name and account for their sexual selves. By illustrating one way sexual identities function in the online lives of young women, this research complicates other scholars' findings that the salience of sexual identity categories is decreasing.

Tinder’s lesbian digital imaginary: Investigating (im)permeable boundaries of sexual identity on a popular dating app

“…This suggests an expansion of the notion of lesbian identity to include a wider array of signals of non-heterosexual female identity. Aligning with Herrera’s (2017) finding that WSW on Instagram default to #lesbian for its recognizability, participants often defaulted to stereotypically lesbian self-presentations in order to be rapidly identifiable as non-heterosexual. However, many participants did not personally identify as “lesbian” and used identity-related terms like “gay” and “queer” interchangeably.…”

“…Jamie (24, UK) explained, “I am very literal in that, I just assume, if you’re on Gay Tinder, then you’re gay, well not gay, but queer.” For participants, Gay Tinder described a portion of the app dominated by LGBTQ+ people, assumed to be the only ones to change their gender settings due to the heteronormative uptake and discourses surrounding Tinder. Jamie invoked “gay,” and used it interchangeably with “queer,” to construct a broad category of non-heterosexuality, reflecting young people’s ambivalence toward specific identity terms (Herrera, 2017) and the popular uptake of “gay” as a catch-all for the wide spectrum of sexual identity beyond “straight” or heterosexual. 3 Our participants imagined themselves entering a space—whether or not they specifically called it Gay Tinder—where only WSW should be visible.…”

“…#gaybrisbane), poses complications for managing overlapping audiences. In Herrera’s (2017) study of WSW on Instagram, interview participants often eschewed sexual identity labels offline but used lesbian-related hashtags (e.g. #lesbian, #lesbiansofinstagram).…”

“…#lesbian, #lesbiansofinstagram). Even if participants identified more closely with other labels, such as “queer,” or aimed to de-center sexual identity from their self-presentation, they perceived “a powerful social requirement to make their sexuality intelligible to others through naming it” (Herrera, 2017: 7). This intelligibility is complicated for those whose sexual identities lack a consistent visual code, as Pond and Farvid (2017) observe in their study of bisexual women’s use of Tinder.…”

“Running the Numbers”: Modes of Microcelebrity Labor in Queer Women’s Self-Representation on Instagram and Vine

“…Although platforms pose challenges, such as privacy risks (Cho, 2017), the circulation of LGBTQ self-representations on social media can contribute to individuals’ sexual identity development, community-building, and challenges to heteronormative discourses (Cooper & Dzara, 2010). For example, Herrera (2017) found that queer women’s self-representations on Instagram that were paired with lesbian-related hashtags enabled individuals to claim an “intelligible sexual identity” (p. 11) while feeling like part of a community. However, the commercialization of, and marketing toward, minority sexual identities can dilute counterpublic discourse and meaningful community formation (Campbell, 2005; Lovelock, 2017).…”