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Thesis Supervisor, My Copromotor, Or Just As Colleagues), and of Course for Being Such a Good Friend UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Digital Spaces, Material Traces : Investigating the Performance of Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment on Internet Platforms that feature User-Generated Content van Doorn, N.A.J.M. Publication date 2010 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): van Doorn, N. A. J. M. (2010). Digital Spaces, Material Traces : Investigating the Performance of Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment on Internet Platforms that feature User-Generated Content. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:29 Sep 2021 DIGITAL DIGITAL SPACES, MATERIAL TRACES MATERIAL SPACES, DIGITAL As ever more social interaction and cultural production takes place in the networked digital spaces of the internet, it is crucial to develop an understanding of the ways in which gender and sexuality are articulated in these online practices. SPACES, Through four comparative case studies, this dissertation DIGITAL demonstrates how various forms of user-generated content are employed in the digital performance of gender and sexuality. Far from being immaterial, disembodied, or cut off from the physical conditions of everyday life, it is argued that the internet exists of ‘digitally material’ spaces and artifacts MATERIAL that contain multiple traces of the embodied users who shape and inhabit them. As such, this dissertation offers a new way to make sense of how gender, sexuality, and embodiment are made to ‘matter’ on the internet. TRACES Generated Content Generated SPACES, - Investigating the Performance of Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment on Internet Platforms that feature User- Generated Content Niels van Doorn van Niels Niels van Doorn Digital Spaces, Material Traces Material Digital Spaces, Uitnodiging voor het bijwonen van de MATERIAL openbare verdedeging van mijn proefschrift. on Internet Platforms that feature User feature that Platforms Internet on Niels van Doorn van Niels Investigating the Performance of Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment Embodiment and Sexuality, Gender, of the Performance Investigating Datum & tijd Vrijdag 19 februari 2010, 12.00 uur, Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231, Amsterdam Paranimfen Caspar Stalenhoef en TRACES Thomas Kampen Na afloop is er een lunch voor genodigden. Digital Spaces, Material Traces © N.A.J.M. van Doorn, 2009 ISBN/EAN 978-90-9025052-6 Cover design by Sandra Kassenaar (www.sandrakassenaar.com) Printed by Ipskamp Drukkers B.V., Enschede Digital Spaces, Material Traces Investigating the Performance of Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment on Internet Platforms that feature User-Generated Content ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT Ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D. C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op vrijdag 19 februari 2010, te 12.00 uur door Niels Antonius Johannes Marinus van Doorn geboren te Roosendaal en Nispen Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. Dr. E.A. van Zoonen Copromotor: Prof. Dr. S. Wyatt Overige leden: Dr. J. Hermes Prof. Dr. M. Meijer Dr. J. Peter Prof. Dr. R.A. Rogers Prof. Dr. E.S.H. Tan Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen Table of Contents Acknowledgements 3 Chapter one: Introduction 5 1.1 – Orientation: Introducing the subject matter 5 1.2 – Context: concepts, research approach and surrounding fields 6 1.3 – Practice: method(olog)ical considerations and case study design 9 1.4 – Order: contents and structure of the dissertation 11 Notes to chapter one 13 Chapter two: Theorizing Gender and the Internet: Past, Present, and Future 15 2.1 – Introduction 15 2.2 – Gender as identity 15 2.3 – Gender as Social Structure 20 2.4 – Situated practices and spaces 24 2.5 – New web, new questions, new outcomes? 27 2.6 – Conclusion 30 2.7 – Guide to further reading 31 Postscript to chapter two 33 Chapter three: A Body of Text 35 3.1 – Introduction 35 3.2 – Gender and embodiment online 36 3.3 – Method 38 3.4 – Results: Socio-cultural issues in #Cyberbar and #Queer 41 3.5 – Results part two: Interpretative repertoires and the perseverance of the body 46 3.6 – Conclusion 52 Notes to chapter three 53 Postscript to chapter three 54 Chapter four: Writing From Experience 57 4.1 – Introduction 57 4.2 – Gender identity and CMC: the research landscape 58 4.3 – Gender Identity and Weblogs 60 4.4 – Method 62 4.5 – Representing gender identity on Dutch and Flemish weblogs 63 4.6 – Conclusion 69 Notes to chapter four 71 Postscript to chapter four 72 1 Chapter five: The Ties That Bind 75 5.1 – Introduction 75 5.2 – Social network sites and identity performance 76 5.3 – Performance, performativity, and social interaction 77 5.4 – A network of Dutch MySpace Friends 79 5.5 – Results 82 5.6 – Conclusion 91 5.7 – Future research 93 Notes to chapter five 94 Postscript to chapter five 96 Chapter six: Keeping it Real 99 6.1 – Introduction 99 6.2 – From the obscene to the on/scene 100 6.3 – Pornography, participatory culture, and the internet 102 6.4 – User-generated pornography: discipline or emancipation? 106 6.5 – Method 108 6.6 – Results: amateurism and the aesthetics of the ‘real’ 111 6.7 – Results part two: the construction of visual pleasure 114 6.8 – Conclusion: gender ideology and its ‘scopic regime’ 117 Notes to chapter six 120 Postscript to chapter six 121 Chapter seven: Conclusions 123 7.1 – Looking back: a recapitulation of the previous chapters 123 7.2 – Making connections: some theoretical inferences 125 7.3 – Taking inventory: research contributions 136 7.4 – Looking forward: recommendations for future research 138 Notes to chapter seven 139 Afterword 141 References 143 Nederlandse samenvatting (Dutch summary) 163 2 Acknowledgements This dissertation could have never been conceived without the support, advice, patience, and dedication of a number of people who all deserve my deepest gratitude and respect. I would therefore like to take the opportunity to thank them here. First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest appreciation to my promotor Liesbet van Zoonen and copromotor Sally Wyatt, whose critical and dedicated presence has meant the world to me these past years. I want to thank Sally for always being there for me, for her guidance and support throughout our many professional encounters (whether as my internship supervisor, my thesis supervisor, my copromotor, or just as colleagues), and of course for being such a good friend. I want to thank Liesbet for believing in me and taking me under her wing, where our friendship has steadily grown. Without the opportunities she and Sally created I would have not been in the position I am today. Together they have been tremendously supportive, committed, and generous, encouraging me to make the most out of myself as a young academic. Moreover, they have shown great patience when my obduracy got the best of me and I gave them a hard time. For these reasons and more, they have truly been the best supervisors a PhD student could ever wish for. Second, I would like to thank a number of wonderful colleagues, whose kind words and critical comments have been so crucial to both my work and well being at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research. I am particularly thinking of the past and current members of the Media Entertainment and Popular Culture (MEPC) PhD club: Stijn Reijnders, Linda Duits, Vincent Crone, Koos Zwaan, Floris Müller, Yiu Fai Chow, Jeroen Jansz, Jeroen Lemmens, Cem Gömüsay, Pauline van Romondt Vis, Marcel van den Haak, Mirjam Vosmeer, Mervi Pantti, Monique Aerts, Joyce Neys, and Henry Mainsah. Both during our meetings and at various other occasions it has always been a true pleasure to be around such friendly, witty, and bright people. An additional word of praise goes out to the members of the ‘Internet Research’ PhD club, which I was allowed to partake in during my time as a junior researcher at ASCoR in 2005: Todd Graham, Tonny Krijnen, Tamara Witschge, Enrique Gomezllata, Caroline Nevejan, and Diana Lucio Arias. From the very start they offered me a warm 3 welcome and a stimulating atmosphere, which made me feel right at home. Thank you for making my first steps into academia such a pleasant experience. I would also like to express my gratitude to Elske Verkruijsse, Ardy Grefhorst, Sandra Zwier and Maaike Prangsma, whose organizational and administrative assistance has made my whole PhD trajectory run so much smoother. Finally, it is essential to acknowledge the unremitting support I have received from those outside of the university who are all so very close to me. I especially want to thank my parents, Ruud and Nelly, my sister Caroline, my ‘almost brother in law’ Luís, and of course my amazing girlfriend Melanie for providing me with virtually infinite measures of moral, mental and material sustenance. Without your enduring presence in my life none of this would mean much.
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