Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Degree Granting Department
Womens Studies
Major Professor
David Rubin, Ph.D.
Committee Member
José Maldonado, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Jill McCracken, Ph.D.
Keywords
relationships, queer, LGBTQ+, Nonbinary
Abstract
This study examines how gender nonconforming lesbians experience and navigate algorithmic constraints, commodification, and self-expression on dating apps. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower, this study analyzes focus group discussions to argue that dating apps encode and enforce traditional gender norms. However, rather than acting solely as sites of constraint, dating apps also provide spaces where gender nonconforming lesbians creatively resist these limitations and subvert platform design to assert their politicized queer identities. This research highlights how biopower operates within digital dating platforms while also illuminating the subversive strategies users employ to reclaim agency. By situating gender nonconforming lesbian identity within broader structures of race and socioeconomic status, this study contributes to ongoing discussions on queer digital identity formation.
Scholar Commons Citation
Connolly, Lily M., "Breaking Binaries: Gender Non-Conforming Lesbians and the Undercurrent of Biopower on Dating Apps" (2025). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10933
