UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Designing online experiences for queer women: a multidimensional framework for queer user experience in heterosexual cyberspace
by
Sarah Champion
Degree: PhD
Sydney, Australia, 2019 Certificate of original authorship
I, Sarah Champion, declare that this thesis, is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the aware of PhD in the School of Software, Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney.
This thesis is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis.
This document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution.
This research is supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program.
Production Note: Signature: Signature removed prior to publication.
Date: 02-(03 (2- 11 Acknowledgement I would like to first acknowledge the participants who so willingly and openly told me their stories; without them this thesis would have been a far different endeavour. My wonderful supervisors, Linda Leung and Laurel Dyson, the value of your guidance, expertise, patience and perspective cannot be entirely put into words. My candidature was made far more rewarding thanks to your constant support. Meredith Jones for her initial involvement in the project and for introducing me to the field of media and its social context, an area which sparked my initial interest in research. My amazing mother, Stephanie Champion, for her continual support and listening patiently to my various research-related rants over the years. I also acknowledge and gratefully thank Mum for her assistance in performing the final copy-edit of the thesis document, which improved it to no end. There would be a lot more typos. My work colleagues, Cristiana Palmieri, Michele Daly, Kerri Brown and Bernard Bucalon, for buoying me with their enthusiasm for research as I struggled to juggle a demanding work role with a PhD, for their flexibility and endless support, and for reading initial drafts. Those chapters are better for your support. Fellow PhD student Jessica Frawley, for imbuing her enthusiasm for research, her support and friendship, and her help in navigating the university. Last but absolutely not least, my partner Tania Wantling, for her endless love and encouragement, talking me off the ledge every time I wanted to quit, and keeping me well fed on those long weekends of writing. iii List of Publications Conference papers 1. Champion, S. & Bucalon, B. 2011, ‘Moodling in medical education – supporting trainee physicians and paediatricians’ work-based learning’, paper presented to the Moodlemoot AU Conference, Sydney, 17-20 July 2011. 2. Palmieri, C. & Champion S. 2017, ‘Innovation in professional development: implementation of a CPD framework to support multiple scopes of practice across diverse medical specialties,’ in proceedings of 14th International Conference on Teaching, Education and Learning (ICTEL), Lisbon, 23-24 May 2017, PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, p. 57. 3. Palmieri, C. & Champion, S. 2018, ‘Using technology to support lifelong learning needs of medical specialists: The experience of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians’, paper presented to the Association for Learning and Technology Academic Conference, Manchester University, 11-13 September 2018. 4. Champion, S. & Newtown L. 2019, ‘Get your head in the (digital) cloud: Innovating with user experience design methods to develop online social learning environments’, poster presented to the Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) Conference, Canberra, 1-4 July 2019. 5. Champion, S. & Lucas G. 2019, ‘Capitalising on content, digitising delivery: Can face-to-face faculty development be effectively converted to online environments?’, paper presented to the Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) Conference, Canberra, 1-4 July 2019. iv Preface The idea for this thesis arose from reflections and observations of the media and online landscapes around me. Prior to undertaking this PhD, I worked for a number of web and design companies and have developed hundreds of websites. As a User Experience (UX) and digital designer, I was constantly evaluating and making decisions regarding use of imagery, terminology, colour and designing personas based on stereotypes and archetypes of supposed users, business requirements and known standards within the industry. The use of personas was supposed to humanise users for designers, but I wondered if the inadvertent counter effect was a narrow view of who would ultimately be using a product. I now work client side, leading a team that designs education technology and experiences for medical specialists. Medical education is a refreshing field, somewhat removed from a number of the stereotypes and archetypes found in mainstream media or digital design. However, while working in commercial design companies, designing websites for a huge range of industries, including fashion, beauty, wedding, finance, men and women’s retail and e-commerce, news, construction, home maintenance and the list goes on, I realised that not once had I ever been the target audience for any of these websites. I am a queer woman in my mid 30s, with a long-term female partner, and no desire for children. I am neither femme nor butch and don’t seem to fit in any of the stereotypical buckets that are applied to women by the media. I’ve worked in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields for my entire career, am athletic, enjoy traditionally male geeky pop culture, and wouldn’t know what to do with makeup if you paid me. This realisation led me to reflect further on broader media that I was consuming, particularly movies and television, and I realised that there too, I had not only never been the target audience for a television show or advertised product, but I had never seen myself represented in media. I have never seen a television couple that mirrors my relationship with my partner. I have never seen a female character, regardless of sexuality, who mirrors my own interests and eschewing of traditional femininity. This has not changed even now, when queer women are better represented in mainstream media than they’ve ever been in history, and it is still difficult to engage with queer characters when the colloquially termed ‘dead lesbian syndrome’ (see section 4.3.2) v seems such a likely fate. I found myself disengaging from all media, because it clearly was not for me, or people like me. As a UX designer, it became important to explore the impact that this was having on the experience of other queer women, and look to approaches that could be used to change the status quo. From there, this project commenced. vi Table of contents Certificate of original authorship ii Acknowledgement iii List of Publications iv Conference papers iv Preface v Table of contents vii List of figures and tables xiii Figures xiii Tables xiv Abstract xv 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Theoretical foundations 2 1.3 Research questions 3 1.4 Research methods 3 1.5 Contributions to new knowledge 4 1.6 Thesis structure 5 1.7 Conclusion 6 2. Terminology 7 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 Defining gender 7 2.3 Defining sexuality 9 2.4 The limitations of language in describing non-normative lived experience 12 2.5 Transgender 15 2.6 Blurring the lines of gender and sexuality 16 2.7 The ‘other’, stereotypes and invisibility 17 vii 2.8 Use of terminology in this thesis 20 2.9 Conclusion 21 3. Queer spaces and online communities 22 3.1 Introduction 22 3.2 The online context 23 3.3 Embodied social norms are maintained in online spaces 25 3.4 The Internet as queer utopia 28 3.5 Queer online communities in the age of social media 31 3.6 Social media as queer utopia 33 3.7 Conclusion 34 4. Representation of queer women in the media and online 36 4.1 Introduction 36 4.2 Representation of women in the media and online 37 4.2.1 Representation of women in news media 37 4.2.2 Representation of women in movies and television 40 4.2.3 Strong female characters in the media and video games 45 4.2.4 Gender, sexuality and advertising 49 4.3 Representation of queer women in the media 51 4.3.1 Representation of queer women in advertising 54 4.3.2 ‘Dead lesbian syndrome’ 57 4.4 Stereotypical representation preserves hegemonic norms 59 4.5 Conclusion 61 5. User experience and designing for queer women 62 5.1 Introduction 62 5.2. User experience design and engagement 63 5.2.1 Common UX design frameworks 66 5.3 The reproduction of cultural norms in design 70 viii 5.4 Inclusive design for queer women 74 5.5 Conclusion 76 6. Methodology 77 6.1 Introduction 77 6.2 The research questions 78 6.3 Methodological approach 78 6.4 Situating the researcher 81 6.5 Undertaking the research 83 6.5.1 Ethics 83 6.5.2 Participant selection and exclusion 83 6.5.3 Information and consent 86 6.5.4 Research methods 87 6.5.5 The websites studied 91 6.6 Participant data analysis 95 6.6.1 Generation of emergent themes 95 6.6.2 Sentiment analysis 96 6.7 Reflection on the application of the methods 100 6.7.1 Difficulty in sourcing participants 100 6.7.2 A broad range of sexualities 100 6.7.3 Participant gender distribution 101 6.7.4 Websites vs. social media 102 6.7.5 Photo narratives and interviews 103 6.7.6 Photo journals 103 6.7.7 Digital interactions 104 6.7.8 A mixed methods approach 104 6.8 Conclusion 105 7. Results: Thematic analysis 106 ix 7.1 Introduction 106 7.2 Demographic distribution of participants 106 7.3 The websites 110 7.3.1 Website purpose and perceived audience 112 7.4 Emergent themes according to participant gender and sexuality 117 7.4.1 Representation and stereotypes 122 7.4.2 Relevance 124 7.4.3 Inclusion and exclusion 125 7.5 Representation and stereotypes 126 7.5.1 Gender 126 7.5.2 Sexuality 132 7.6 Relevance 138 7.6.1 Gender 138 7.6.2 Sexuality 143 7.7 Inclusion and exclusion 146 7.7.1 Gender 146 7.7.2 Sexuality 149 7.8 Chapter summary 153 8. Results: Sentiment analysis 154 8.1 Introduction 154 8.2 Thematic sentiment 155 8.2.1 Excluded profiles 164 8.2.2 Summary 164 8.3 Website sentiment 165 8.4 Conclusions 169 9. Discussion 170 9.1 Introduction 170 x 9.2 Key findings in the context of the literature 171 9.2.1 Summary of literature in context 179 9.3 The Framework 180 9.3.1 Queer women expect to be under-represented 182 9.3.2 Queer women expect to be excluded 184 9.3.3 Queer women react negatively to being told what they should consider relevant 186 9.3.4 The omission of queer lived experience silences queer women 187 9.3.5 Exclusion can come from within the queer community 189 9.4 The importance of a user experience design framework for queer women 191 9.5 Recommendations and practical applications of the framework 193 9.5.1 Target audience, images and language 193 9.5.2 Website content and subject matter 194 9.5.3 Gendered advertising 195 9.5.4 Including queer women in the design process 196 9.5.5 Considering the question of experience 197 9.5.6 Summary of recommendations 198 9.6 Addressing the research questions 199 9.7 Conclusion 202 10. Conclusions and future work 203 10.1 Future work 203 10.1.1 Conduct a study with transgender participants 203 10.1.2 Test the framework on other minority groups 204 10.1.3 Consider social media 204 10.1.4 Participatory design of websites with low sentiment scores 205 10.1.5 Consideration of practical implementation costs in commercial contexts 205 10.2 Conclusion 205 xi Appendix 207 Appendix 1 - Social media posts to call for participants 207 Appendix 2 - Call for Participants website 210 Appendix 3 - Participant Information Sheet 212 Appendix 4 - Consent Form 213 Appendix 5 - Survey questions 214 Appendix 6 - Photo Narrative and reflective tasks 217 Appendix 7 - Websites excluded due to lack of data 219 Appendix 8 - Basic level thematic distribution by gender: representation and stereotypes 223 Appendix 9 - Basic level thematic distribution by gender: relevance 228 Appendix 10 - Basic level thematic distribution by gender: inclusion and exclusion 231 Appendix 11 - Basic level thematic distribution by sexuality: representation and stereotypes 234 Appendix 12 - Basic level thematic distribution by sexuality: relevance 240 Appendix 13 - Basic level thematic distribution by sexuality: inclusion and exclusion 244 Appendix 14 – Sentiment analysis lexicon, modified to include synonyms 247 Bibliography 280 xii List of figures and tables Figures Figure 1: Structure of a thematic network (adapted from Attride-Stirling, 2001)...... 96 Figure 2: Participant distribution by gender...... 108 Figure 3: Participant distribution by sexuality...... 109 Figure 4: Distribution of queer women and queer men across the research tasks...... 110 Figure 5: Websites distributed by gender...... 111 Figure 6: Websites distributed by sexuality...... 112 Figure 7: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for all participants...... 155 Figure 8: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for heterosexual women...... 157 Figure 9: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for queer women...... 159 Figure 10: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for heterosexual men...... 160 Figure 11: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for queer men...... 161 Figure 12: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for the transgender woman...... 163 Figure 13: Comparison of average sentiment scores across the websites discussed by all participants in the study...... 166 Figure 14: Comparison of average sentiment scores across websites, by demographic profile...... 168 xiii Figure 15: Visual representation of the user experience framework...... 181 Tables Table 1: The websites studied and participant categorisations ...... 92 Table 2: Participant distribution by gender...... 107 Table 3: Participant distribution by sexuality...... 109 Table 4: Website target audiences, as identified by participants ...... 113 Table 5: Global, organising and basic themes identified from participant responses. .. 118 Table 6: Distribution of organising themes relating to representation and stereotyping by gender ...... 127 Table 7: Distribution of organising themes relating to representation and stereotyping by sexuality...... 133 Table 8: Distribution of organising themes relating to representation and stereotyping by gender ...... 139 Table 9: Distribution of organising themes relating to relevance by sexuality...... 144 Table 10: Distribution of organising themes relating to inclusion and exclusion by gender ...... 147 Table 11: Distribution of organising themes relating to inclusion and exclusion by sexuality...... 151 xiv Abstract Literature has indicated that representation of women in media has shown little change over a period of decades. These representations, where present, are often stereotypical and provide limiting views of the range of lived experiences of women. Queer women in particular are significantly underrepresented in media, online and in the broader literature. Furthermore, where studies of women and queer women’s representation is undertaken, content analysis is the key methodology, which can reduce queer women to specific singular-dimensional roles and metrics. Individuals on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) spectrum often find themselves considered as one group, when in fact they are separate populations, further contributing to invisibility of specific queer groups. In the online context, user experience design focuses on mainstream target users, leaving little room for ‘edge cases’ such as queer women. Furthermore, practices in the technological industry result in product design defaults that exclude queer women. Despite a shift from human-computer interactions to user-centred design, the majority of UX design processes remain reductionist, focusing on a user completing a task, as opposed to a user’s lived experience. Though also recognised as an important tool in the design process to capture lived experience, there is limited literature discussing the scope of participatory design in the queer user context. Therefore, this research is important as it extends the concept of lived experience into studies of media and queer representation and looks at lived experience across the breadth of being a queer woman, in a multi-faceted manner. It takes into account not only specific events in a queer woman’s life, but the day-to-day engagement with broader society through media and technology. Study participants were provided a number of mainstream websites and asked to conduct a photo narrative and participate in an interview regarding their representation and emotional responses towards the design and content they were consuming. A thematic analysis was conducted against participant responses, and emergent themes identified in the structure of global, organising and basic themes. Sentiment analysis was then applied to participants’ emotional responses and thematic responses to identify the sentiment at which the themes emerged. Specific thematic sentiment was correlated xv with the original websites examined by participants to provide a metric for measuring the sentiment of queer women’s experience of particular websites. The results indicated that queer women are not well served by mainstream websites. Websites that did not appropriately or adequately represent queer women, those that provided content that was not relevant, and those that were considered exclusionary due to the reproduction or embodiment of heteronormative cultural norms resulted in low sentiment scores. Those websites that contributed to queer women’s invisibility through use of stereotypes and assumptions of heterosexuality additionally contributed to negative sentiment. From the participant data and themes, a user experience design framework to design appropriate experiences for queer women was proposed, taking into account the key emergent themes of ‘representation’, ‘relevance’, and ‘inclusion’, and underpinned by user sentiment. The thesis concludes with recommendations for implementation and use of the framework, discussion of its limitations and suggestions for future work. xvi Chapter 1 1. Introduction This chapter establishes the background for research underpinning and leading to the design of a multi-dimensional framework for queer user experience in an online context embedded in compulsory heterosexuality and heterosexist practices. These practices span both representation of queer women online, but also more broadly, how queer women are represented and considered in the design of broader online experiences. This chapter then formulates the research questions underpinning this study, by providing a summary of its context. The chapter then details the theoretical foundations of the research and the significance of the findings in contributing to an understanding how queer women perceive their own engagement with a range of online experiences. From this, a new user experience design framework and recommendations for practical implementation are provided. Finally, the chapter provides an outline of the structure of this thesis. 1.1 Background Despite significant study, representation of women both in the traditional media (print, radio and television), and later online has changed little since the 1970s (Gill 2007; Len- Rios et al. 2005) and representation of queer women is significantly lacking. Those studies of queer representation that do exist focus on invisibility and discussion of gender roles in a stereotypical manner (Fisher et al. 2007; Nölke 2018; Roderick 2017). Studies of media representation focus on gender as a heteronormative binary (Gill 2007). For both queer and heterosexual women, representation in the media remains embedded in compulsory heterosexuality, preserving hegemonic norms (Nölke 2018). The utilisation of content analysis as a key methodology to examine representation also further contributes to viewing queer women in a limited manner, focused on roles and numbers and does not provide scope for examining how queer women feel about the representations afforded them. The LGBTIQ community is also often considered as one entity, when in fact each group within it is its own population with distinct cultures and lived experiences. Within each population, the intersectional nature of lived experience is further rarely considered (Institute of Institute of Medicine 2011). 1 In the online context, user experience design focuses on mainstream target users, leaving little room for ‘edge cases’ such as queer women. Furthermore, practices in the technological industry result in product design defaults best serving heterosexual white men (Wachter-Boettcher 2017). Despite a shift from human-computer interactions to user-centred design, the majority of UX design processes remain reductionist, focusing on a user completing a task, as opposed to a user’s lived experience. Though also recognised as an important tool in the design process to capture lived experience, there is limited literature discussing the scope of participatory design in the queer user context (Prochner n.d.). This research therefore seeks to examine the intersection between how queer women are represented and the socio-cultural structures that perpetuate certain ‘default’ representations (Wachter-Boettcher 2017) in an online context. It seeks to interrogate the standard processes used by the industry to design user experience and asks why certain websites normalise certain discourses. Ultimately it seeks to examine how the lived experience of queer women are represented online and what impact does a lack thereof have on queer women. By examining the concept of lived experience in representations of queer women, this research extends the body of literature surrounding media representation and addresses an intersection between hegemonic norms in the media’s depiction of both heterosexual and queer women through a multi-disciplinary lens. By interrogating UX design approaches, it seeks to include the lived experience of queer women in the development of a framework to contribute to the design of positive experiences for queer women in the online context. 1.2 Theoretical foundations This thesis builds on feminist theories alongside a post-structuralist approach to provide a starting point for further thought in terms of how we examine the online experiences of queer women. While it is not the aim of this research to explore post-structuralism in depth, it is important to acknowledge that through the use of grand narratives, we see discourses and practices that become normalised. It is this normalisation of certain discourses that allow us to examine how and why queer women are represented as they are. 2 Finally, queer theory also has some value as a theoretical approach in this study as it is used to not only analyse these normalising discourses, but to disrupt them. In some senses, the production of a user experience design framework for queer women queers UX design processes themselves. 1.3 Research questions The research questions underpinning this study were identified through both recognising gaps in the literature, as well as an iterative approach to the study’s research design. This research seeks to acknowledge the blurred lines, even inseparability of online and physical spaces. In seeking to understand the ways in which queer women experience websites, it aims to develop a framework to assist researchers and UX practitioners understand how these users perceive images, texts and other discourses presented online. The framework further aims to consider whether there are elements of a website’s interaction design, content or overall style that invoke particular emotional responses and otherwise contribute to queer women’s experiences online. The research will address these aims through four key research questions: 1. Are queer women aware of how they are represented in media and online environments? 2. How do queer women respond to inappropriate, inadequate or stereotypical representations in online environments? 3. How can designers better align representations of queer women with their lived experience in an online design context? 4. What changes need to occur to typically used UX design frameworks to better accommodate and represent queer women? 1.4 Research methods The empirical research took place in two key stages. Participants were all Australian, with one Australian living overseas. The participants were sent a series of websites and asked to complete a photo narrative analysis of the websites, by documenting their web interactions through screen grabs, and answering prompting questions provided by the researcher. The data from these narratives was used to generate initial areas of potential thematic interest and to guide the subsequent semi-structured interview. In the 3 interview, they were asked to build on their responses from the photo narratives, and their lived experiences as participants online were discussed at length. Interviews were then transcribed and thematic analysis was then conducted on both the photo narrative data and interview transcripts to solidify the key themes resulting from participation of queer users. These themes were examined for specific emotional responses to the websites. Sentiment analysis was then used to provide a framework to examine whether themes were generated in a positive, negative or neutral light. The use of sentiment analysis made it possible to quantify participants’ emotional responses to their experiences and link sentiment associated with particular themes to particular websites. From here, a user experience framework to specifically address the needs of queer women was developed, and recommendations made to address the specific themes that queer women had identified as contributing to negative experience. It should be noted that while thematic analysis does provide a mechanism for analysing sentiment, one of the aims of this thesis was to develop a framework that can be used by industry practitioners, who may not be comfortable conducting thematic analysis. However, sentiment analysis is commonly used in design and marketing fields and is therefore an approach that is more likely to be accessible to industry practitioners. 1.5 Contributions to new knowledge The key contributions to new knowledge provided by this research are the ways in which it brings the concepts of lived experience into discussions of user experience, a field which has, while advocating for the user, focused on tasks they are performing. By examining the breadth of user experience as a queer woman in a multi-faceted way, it provides a mechanism to ‘queer’ UX. By taking into account not only specific events in a queer woman’s life, but the day-to-day engagement with broader society through media and technology, this thesis extends knowledge in the field of user experience design, the outcome of which is demonstrated in the development of a framework for designing online experiences for queer women. It does so by engaging queer women as both audiences and users in analysing websites through the lenses of representation, relevance and inclusion. Rather than conducting further textual analysis, which has been significantly addressed by the literature, the research has sought the participation and emotional responses of queer women regarding their own experiences and sentiments as 4 they consume a range of online media. This has been a crucial step, not only supporting existing literature that identifies that queer women lack representation across all spheres, but further developing new approaches to improve their experiences online through the production of a new user experience framework as well as recommendations for its use. 1.6 Thesis structure This thesis is structured according to the following chapters: • Chapter 1 provides the background, theoretical foundations and research questions which underpin this thesis. It also summarises the research methods and key contributions to literature, and provides an overview of the thesis structure. • Chapter 2 reviews the common terminologies that underpin the study of gender and sexuality, before moving on to explore broader literature on lived experience and ‘othering’ of those who do not identify as heterosexual. In particular, given the contentious nature of definitions in these fields, this chapter aims to establish the definitions to be used throughout this thesis. • Chapter 3 provides an overview of the literature regarding queer spaces in online contexts, highlighting gaps in the literature, particularly with regard to the study of queer women’s online spaces. It questions whether the Internet can ever really be a queer utopic space, as it was originally proposed to be, and the role of communities in queer identity and representation. • Chapter 4 discusses the representation of queer women in both the broader media, including news and advertising, and the online context. As there is a considerable lack of literature that examines queer women’s representation and engagement with media, particular online, broader women’s representation is used to provide a proxy for this literature. The chapter concludes with an exploration of literature that addresses the ways in which stereotypical representations of women preserve hegemonic norms, and the potential impacts on queer women. • Chapter 5 provides the industry context to this thesis, briefly discussing user experience (UX) design and engagement, as well as how engagement metrics have previously been used and are changing in line with social media and 5 broader social engagement. A brief critique of a number of commonly used UX design frameworks is provided, before the chapter provides an overview of existing recommendations for including queer women in design. • Chapter 6 describes the research methodology, including a broader discussion of the research questions, theoretical underpinnings of the research design, and outlines the empirical research design and associated instruments for the major data collection and analysis within this thesis. The chapter also provides a reflection on the application and appropriateness of the methods used within the study. • Chapter 7 presents the findings from the thematic analysis component of the research, including photo narrative and participant interview, and analysis of the user-generated themes that arose from these methods. It examines the emerging data by participant demographic, with a particular focus on queer women, and provides the distillation of the emergent data patterns into the study’s three key overarching themes: representation, relevance and inclusion / exclusion. • Chapter 8 presents the findings from the sentiment analysis of the emergent themes described in Chapter 7. It provides analysis of the presence of particular sentiment against specific themes, and demonstrates the link between the presence of particular discourses on the provided websites with participant sentiment. • Chapter 9 concludes the thesis by presenting a discussion of the research data and its alignment with existing literature. The chapter presents a new user experience framework for designing inclusive experiences for queer women, as well as recommendations and guidelines for its usage. The chapter concludes with an acknowledgement of the study’s limitations and provides recommendations for future work and research. 1.7 Conclusion This chapter has provided a high-level overview of the background and methodological approach that this research takes to addressing the research questions, as well as a summary of the key chapters of this thesis. The next chapter goes on to explore a number of definitions and associated theories pertaining to gender, sexuality, non- normative lived experiences and the issue of the ‘other’ to provide the reader with an understanding of the terminology underpinning this research. 6 Chapter 2 2. Terminology 2.1 Introduction There is a great deal of political meaning associated with terminology relating to gender and sexuality, as such, it is important to clarify such terminology early in the thesis. A range of terms and acronyms will be used to describe participants and their interactions. As this thesis aims to examine how gender and sexuality is represented, performed and designed for online consumption and more importantly, how LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) consumers ‘read’ that content, consideration must be given to how gender and sexuality are viewed in the design process, how they are represented, termed and labelled and thus experienced by individuals online. Queer, homosexual, LGBTIQ (and other variations on the acronym), genderqueer and a range of other terms are all used, in some instances interchangeably, to denote individuals who identify with a non-heterosexual sexuality or non-binary gender. If heterosexist views of gender and sexuality are represented in design, the question must be asked, what does this mean for individuals of non-normative genders and sexualities, particularly as it pertains to online experience? This chapter will explore some of these terminologies, their history, and the limitations of language in defining and interpreting queer lived experience. 2.2 Defining gender Gender is defined as a social construct, which, at its most simple level, divides biological males and biological females into social, political and hierarchical groups based on the physical traits known as sex. While the definition of gender can be fluid, dependent on the lens through which it is viewed, the commonplace notion of gender is this binary division. Kimmel (2011) indicates that there are many different theories which attempt to explain gender. Many of these theories focus on the differences between men and women, which are beyond the scope of this work. Common sense theories of gender remain heavily grounded in science and biological essentialism. Kimmel (2011) suggests that explanations based on science ‘reassure us that what is is what it should be, that the social is natural’ (p. 22). Hale also talks of the strength of the ‘natural attitude’ towards gender (2006, p. 289), which focuses on the 7 unchangeability and biological basis of gender. However, these theories also emphasise gender inequality in their explanation of the binary differences between men and women. The interplanetary theory of gender (or, women are from Venus and men are from Mars), for example, arose out of a series of tests which examined a range of attributes which were considered to be typically masculine or feminine. The study sought to measure the differences between men and women in these attributes, such as aggression, verbal expression, aptitude at mathematics, or a nurturing personality. Interestingly, the results suggested that differences were greatest within groups of women and groups of men than between the two groups. However, the very idea that men and women had any quantifiable differences between them became the most highlighted result of the study (Kimmel 2011), and the key findings, that is, that differences were greater within groups of women or men than between the two, was less acknowledged. These differences provide the potential for privilege, for one group to become ‘other’. The concept of ‘other’ will be discussed in greater depth later in this chapter. Anthropologist Gayle Rubin focuses on similarities between men and women, suggesting that in comparison to the rest of the natural world, they are in fact the most similar to each other. She states that ‘far from being an expression of natural differences, exclusive gender identity is the suppression of natural similarities’ (Rubin 1975, p. 180). However, it can be seen at a young age that gender is already engrained in both an individual’s sense of self and it also dictates interactions between individuals. A survey of American teenagers, which asked what they would do if they suddenly found themselves to be a member of the opposite sex, revealed interesting results. While the female students began to speculate on the broadened range of careers and life options that had become available to them, the male students answered almost instantly, ‘kill myself’ (Kimmel 2011, p. 52). Kessler and McKenna (2006), in a largely influential study, examined the social construction of gender and its relationship to gender attribution, the process through which we subconsciously assign a gender to a person we interact with, based on assumptions and social rules. They found that there is a great deal of focus on one’s genitals in relation to one’s gender. To examine the relationship between one’s genitals 8 and the gender that other people assign an individual, the authors used a series of plastic overlays, each depicting a piece of clothing or physical characteristic, to create figures which combined male and female gender characteristics. With the aim of producing an objective, quantifiable way of examining gender, the authors asked participants the gender of each overlayed figure. The results of the study indicate that the male figure dominates gender, with a gender attribution of female only occurring in the complete absence of male cues (Kessler and McKenna 2006): While genital cues increase the number of gender attributions towards the ‘appropriate’ gender, the difference between the presence of a penis and the presence of a vagina is profound... The presence of a penis is, in and of itself, a powerful enough cue to elicit a gender attribution with almost complete (96%) agreement. The presence of a vagina, however, does not have this same power. One third of participants were able to ignore the reality of a vagina as a female cue (Kessler and McKenna 2006, p. 171). Others agree with this study (Bornstein 1994; Hale 2006), stating that absence of a penis is the primary deciding factor in defining an individual as a woman. Presence of breasts, reproductive organs and XX chromosomes are all secondary to this absence. Furthermore, for an individual to identify their own gender as female, while not entirely negligible, is not weighted heavily as a deciding factor in whether other people see an individual as a woman. 2.3 Defining sexuality It is almost impossible to discuss sexuality without also examining gender (O'Driscoll 1996). It is thought that much of the negativity surrounding homosexuality is due to the implicit view that it violates gender norms and traditional masculinities and femininities (Halberstam 2005; Law 1988). Sexuality is defined as an individual’s attraction to another person and is often considered to be based on gender. However, as with gender, there are a range of sexualities which exist between these two points (Karl 2007), such as bisexuality (attraction to both masculine and feminine genders) and pansexuality (attraction to any and all genders), but equally so, the assumed binary nature of sexuality results in significant invisibility of those sexualities which lie elsewhere on the sexuality identification spectrum (Carey et al. 2016). 9 Historically, homosexuality was seen as a gender disorder (Blanchard, Clemmensen and Steiner 1987) – for example, gay men are lacking in masculinity and lesbians lack femininity, premising that masculinity and femininity are in fact quantifiable (Kimmel 2011). Such is the strength of the interconnection between gender and sexuality and also the rigidity of gender roles, that any individual seen to transgress a gender role or stereotype is automatically assumed to also transgress sexually (O'Driscoll 1996). Historical views of studies of homosexuality propose a range of different views and theories to explain the phenomenon. Magnus Hirschfeld (2006), who studied homosexuality and transvestitism in the early 20th century, felt that homosexuals were ‘sexual intermediaries’ which existed on a scale between male and female. Similarly, Harry Benjamin also believed in a gender scale, or spectrum. His 1954 article ‘Transsexualism and Transvestism as Psycho-Somatic and Somato-Psychic Syndromes’ was one of the first to consider the interrelationship between sexuality, gender identity and the body. He claimed that between the two extremes of male and female, there were an undefined number of intermediaries. However, he believed, like Blanchard et al. (1987), that homosexuality was a gender disorder, stating that it was a ‘disturbance of the sexual unity of the individual... a split of soma and psyche in the field of sex... instinctive drives, quite beyond the individual’s power to control or change’ (Benjamin 1954, p. 220). While the above theorists felt that homosexuality could be seen as some sort of disorder, they also argued that it was innate to an individual’s physiology (Benjamin 1954; Hirschfeld 2006). Freudian psychology, on the other hand, suggests that homosexuality is not biological, but a product of socialisation, relating to early childhood events. Another argument is that homosexuals were trapped in the body of the other sex, or the result of hormonal imbalances in the womb (Kimmel 2011). Interestingly, Foucault also suggests that homosexuality may be a social construct, but that it is the concept of the homosexual that is constructed, rather than the practice itself. Homosexuality appears as one of the forms of sexuality when it was transposed from the practice of sodomy onto a kind of interior androgyny, a hermaphroditism of the soul. The sodomite had been a temporary aberration; the homosexual was now a species (Foucault 1978, p. 43). 10 Ultimately, like gender, scientific research into discovering the cause of homosexuality has been unsuccessful. A range of experiments and theories have been explored, such as an investigation into a differing of brain structures between homosexual and heterosexual individuals and the effect of in utero hormone levels on a foetus. For example, Simon LeVay studied the differing sizes in hypothalamic tissue between heterosexual and homosexual men, using gay men who had died of AIDS. It was found that the hypothalamus differed between gay and straight men (LeVay 1991). The results were highly popularised in the media and it was claimed that LeVay had found a physiological basis for homosexuality. However, as a result of the sensationalism, LeVay later spoke in an interview with Discover Magazine, warning against misinterpretation of his results. “It’s important to stress what I didn’t find,” he points out with the courtly patience of someone who long ago got used to waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. “I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn’t show that gay men are ‘born that way,’ the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain” (Nimmons 1994). There have also been criticisms of LeVay’s study. For example, in Kimmel’s criticism, he points out that the gay men in question had all died of AIDS, which is known to impact the size of brain tissue (2011). Furthermore, the concentration of formaldehyde used to preserve the brain samples was higher for the AIDS- contaminated samples than the non-contaminated samples, due to fears of transmission of the disease. These two points call into question the validity of the results and it cannot be ascertained if what was seen was a result of homosexuality, or of AIDS infection, or formaldehyde treatment. Similar studies carried out on the brains of deceased male to female transsexuals (see Section 2.5) found that their brains resembled non-transsexual women. These studies ensured that proper control of variables was in place, however did not consider other mitigating factors such as the extensive hormone treatments carried out by the transsexuals over the course of their lifetime and the effect that these may have had on the brain (Kimmel 2011). Research into homosexuality has traditionally been exclusive of lesbians, bisexual women and transgender (see Section 2.5) individuals. For example, Boehmer (2002) reviewed twenty years of public health research to examine the inclusion 11 of LGBTIQ individuals. Some articles discussed more than one sexuality group, so percentages will not equal 100%, however, it was found that approximately 80% of articles focused on gay men, 27% on lesbians and less than 10% on either bisexual women or transgender individuals. However, bisexual men counted for nearly 40% of references. The majority of articles focused on diseases that affect the LGBTIQ population. Of those that did not, topics included identity formation, homosexual desire and relationships, coming out issues and the aetiology of sexual orientation. It was found that over the time period of the study, the proportion of articles on lesbians and transgender individuals decreased by 5% and 22%, respectively, but increased 25% for gay men and 20% for bisexual men. Though gender and sexuality have been studied extensively, research has not yet been able to completely and conclusively explain either concept. The differing approaches and views above provide a high-level historical view of gender and serve only to show that, as much as research has strived to find and explain the fixed and binary concept of gender, there is not yet an approach that can truly account for one. There are furthermore large gaps in the research of queer women and transgender individuals, as my literature review (see Chapters 3-5) will seek to demonstrate. 2.4 The limitations of language in describing non-normative lived experience A major criticism of the above systems and theories of gender and sexuality is their binary nature. They do not account for nor accept the concept of multiple masculinities, femininities, sexualities, or individuals that cannot be classified as either (Halberstam 1998a; Harrison, Grant and Herman 2012; Monro 2008). Queer, homosexual, LGBTIQ and other variations on the acronym, genderqueer, and a range of other terms are all used, in some instances interchangeably, to denote individuals who identify with a non- heterosexual sexuality or non-binary gender. However, while often these terms are used with the intent of being inclusive, they do not always achieve this aim. Expanding terminology referring to non-heterosexual sexualities also has the effect of either excluding those who should be included or including those who do not feel the term is appropriate for them. Throughout this research, participants were asked to self-report their preferred gender and sexuality terminology. The benefits and limitations of this 12 approach are considered in later chapters, but the reader should note that this approach was used as they consider this research. It is important to be aware that acronyms like LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) are often used to reference all sexual minority groups, but additionally include those of non-binary genders who in fact identify as heterosexual. The shortening of the acronym completely excludes intersex individuals (those who have variations in sexual characteristics, including genitalia, chromosomes or levels of sex hormones), who again may not identify as homosexual, which is the popular connotation associated with such acronyms. The term ‘queer’ has become popularised, however, it in and of itself is problematic. While ‘street’ usage of queer refers to the reclaiming of a term shrouded in homophobia and abuse, an additional theoretical use of the word, as in queer theory, also exists (O'Driscoll 1996). Queer in this context can signify any non-normative relationship or behaviour, but can also be any behaviour that threatens the norm (Zeikowitz 2002). The term ‘queer’ is both a rallying point for the LGBT community and rights, but also an oppressive term, as described by Butler: Identity categories tend to be the instruments of regulatory regimes, whether as the normalising categories of oppressive structures or as the rallying points for a liberatory contestation of that very oppression (Butler 1991, p. 13). O’Driscoll further describes queer as ‘a methodology that deconstructs categories of sexuality’ (1996). O’Riordan speaks out against the reductive nature of these terms, suggesting that queer is different to the sum of the LGBTIQ category (2007), while Butler also writes extensively on the exclusivity of the term ‘queer.’ The expansive and coalitional sense of [Gayle Rubin’s] ‘sexual minorities’ cannot be rendered interchangeable with ‘lesbian and gay’, and it remains an open question whether ‘queer’ can achieve these same goals of inclusiveness (Butler 2004, p. 11). It is beneficial to clarify and discuss usages of these terms both in queer groups and in research. The two main uses of the term ‘queer’, are as both a term for those who attempt to deconstruct these sexual and gender identity categories, as well as allowing theoretical approaches towards them (O'Driscoll 1996). Furthermore, in only addressing the binary divide between homosexual and 13 heterosexual, and not addressing the range of other identifications possible, we are making a vast oversimplification and furthering the exclusion of some individuals. A binary divide between homosexuality and heterosexuality may also trap individuals within incorrect categories (Karl 2007), which can impact their behaviour. For example, Langer describes the therapy experiences of genderqueer individuals whose experiences of gender are not recognised by current language (2011). Genderqueer refers to individuals whose gender falls outside of the categories of man and woman. Some genderqueer people also identify as transgender, but this is not always the case (Factor and Rothblum 2008; Harrison, Grant and Herman 2012; Nestle and Howell 2002). While therapy has in cases been helpful for transgender people in constructing their gender identities, for genderqueer people, the language is extremely restrictive and can lead to the exclusion and trapping discussed above (Karl 2007; Langer 2011). Warren, Smalley and Barefoot (2016) also agree that the psychological experiences of gender minority sub-groups need to be treated as separate not only from other members of the LGBTIQ community, but from each other, i.e. the approaches used for transgender men are not necessarily applicable for genderqueer individuals. Instead, genderqueer individuals have taken to defining non-normative genders through bodily representations. Individuals portray themselves visually by combining stereotypical representations of masculinity and femininity (Langer 2011). Ultimately, current language is inadequate for expressing the complexities of gender and sexuality, particularly for individuals who do not fit within these boundaries. Hale suggests that in our current heterosexist context, one can only be understood as a woman based on interactions and relationships with heterosexual men (Hale 2006). Additionally, Bradford et al. (2019), in a study of genderqueer adolescents and adults, describe the integral role of language in legitimising genderqueer experiences. Throughout this research, examples of the impact of the inadequacy of language in the heterosexist context will be demonstrated through a number of website and media examples and through responses from the study’s participants. 14 2.5 Transgender It is already clear that to define gender and sexuality can be controversial; similarly defining the terms transsexual and transgender grow more contentious with each source consulted. There is no completely accepted definition of either term throughout the academic literature, nor between two individual transgender or transsexual people. In many cases the terms are used interchangeably. Within The Transgender Studies Reader, for example, different contributors define ‘transgender’ differently in different chapters, and this is also consistent within wider literature (Bornstein 1994; Feinberg 2006; Nestle and Howell 2002; Stryker 2006; Stryker and Whittle 2006). While it is generally accepted that transgender is an umbrella term for a variety of lived experiences which defy social expectations and norms surrounding gender, inclusiveness under the umbrella is also debatable. Susan Stryker, for example, assigns transgender to individuals who changed the way they present their gender publicly, however have not undergone gender reassignment surgery (Stryker 2006). Feinberg, on the other hand, in a pamphlet on gender oppression, defines transgender as inclusive of transsexuals, drag queens, butches, hermaphrodites, cross-dressers and a range of other sexual and gender minority groups (2006). The definition is again extended by Heyes (2003), who introduces the term trans, to mean a broader scope still, similar to Whittle’s definition for transgender, which again differs from that of Prince and Stryker. Whittle’s definition takes the groups as mentioned by Stryker (2006) and Feinberg (2006) and includes anyone who experiences discomfort with gender role expectations (2006). The term transsexual is generally agreed by a range of authors to mean individuals who intend to carry out body modification (including hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery [SRS]) to align their physical bodies with their gender identities (Feinberg 2006; Heyes 2003; Stryker 2006; Whittle 2006). This in and of itself indicates the disparities between definitions even among transgender and transsexual individuals. It is also important to briefly raise an issue with the broadness of Whittle’s (2006) definition of transgender. As per the earlier discussion of inappropriately including or excluding individuals within language categories, Whittle’s definition may include individuals under the umbrella who do not identify in such a manner. For example, in some cases heterosexual, cis-gendered women who identify as feminist take issue with gender role expectations (Suter and Troller 2006; Troller and Suter 2004), however there is nothing to say that these women would identify as transgender nor fall into this 15 category. Note that cis-gendered refers to those individuals whose gender identity matches their birth sex. While being inclusive is important, it is also important not to reduce the visibility of certain groups within a wider group, as we often see within the LGBTIQ acronym, and we see the potential for grouping individuals into a category that they do not identify with. This issue is common when considering language in conjunction with individuals of non-normative genders or sexualities. 2.6 Blurring the lines of gender and sexuality In many cases, while respecting the definitions that both homosexuality and transgender individuals assign themselves, and the categories in which they place themselves, it can be difficult to find a common definition or identity. In addition to the examples already discussed in this chapter, it can also occur in situations where the margins of two larger social groups cross and become blurred. Halberstam (1998b) has written extensively on what has been dubbed a ‘border war’ between butch lesbians and female-to-male (FTM) transsexuals. Butch is described as a subculture within the lesbian community, with members presenting in a masculine-leaning manner. A constantly evolving definition of butch also entangles definitions of sexuality with what was previously only a debate about definitions of gender. The definition of butch originated, similarly to definitions of transsexuality, within medical discourse. It is suggested that both butch lesbians and FTM transsexuals experience a form of gender dysphoria, but the ways in which these two groups express this dysphoria, and the ways they use it to define themselves is different. Halberstam describes a continuum of gender dysphoria. However, the continuum is not so simple as to be read as butch lesbianism on one end and transsexuality on the other. To suggest that the greater the degree of gender dysphoria, the more likely one is to be transsexual invalidates the experience of butches and also suggests that to be butch is only an earlier stage of transsexuality (Halberstam 1998a). An attempt to separate the two groups is additionally problematic as it can inadvertently pathologise homosexuality, while some transsexual men practise conventional masculinity, which could be seen as further enforcing heteronormativity (Halberstam 1998a). Heteronormativity is the assumption that an appropriate expression of one’s sexuality is heterosexuality, and its associated practices, social expectations, and traditional family forms. This can contribute to the invisibility of homosexuality on a broader social level (Gibson and Macleod 2012; Ochse 2011). Furthermore, while the 16 use of a subjective approach may shed light on how individuals navigate these borders socially, there is a risk that in trying to ensure FTM subjectivity, FTM transsexuals may engage in homophobic discourse against butch lesbians and women in general (Halberstam 1998a). While the term ‘butch’ has associations with lesbianism in terms of choice of sexual partners, it is more complex than that when considered in relation to femininity. Butchness means to dis-identify with femininity and identify with a form of female masculinity. This differs from FTMs who specifically identify as men (Halberstam 1998a). Ultimately, the issue with how to define and separate these categories, as well as how we attempt to define transgender and transsexuality as a broader term, is that the ‘instability and interpretability’ (Halberstam 1998b, p. 301) makes them problematic. As Spade suggests, ‘butch and FTM bodies are always read against and through each other’ (Spade 2006, p. 323). It is not the aim of this research to solve this problematisation. However, it is considered throughout, particularly through providing participants the opportunity to self-report their identities and through the development of a framework for designing experiences for queer women which address a range of identities. 2.7 The ‘other’, stereotypes and invisibility Perhaps ultimately the issue is about how ‘other’ is defined, and in this case it is the perspective of the person doing so that determines who is othered. Othering is an extensively discovered area, with roots in Lacanian philosophy, colonialism and psychoanalysis (Jensen 2011). It has been defined and re-defined by a number of authors; for example, Jensen interprets it as: …discursive processes by which powerful groups... define subordinate groups into existence in a reductionist way which ascribe problematic and/or inferior characteristics to these subordinate groups (2011). Canales describes othering similarly, as a ‘process that serves to mark and name those thought to be different from oneself’ (2000). However, at its simplest level, this definition fails to account for issues of power, or agency. Canales expands the definition to discuss two kinds of othering; exclusionary, which aligns with multicultural and feminist literature; and inclusionary, which sees othering as an attempt to use power within a relationship to build alliances (Canales 2000). This study is primarily 17 concerned with othering as it is described in feminist literature, as a marginalising, pathologising and exclusive process (Brons 2015; Canales 2000; Johnson et al. 2004). If we look to the origin of the term ‘other’, de Beauvoir is credited with one of the first conceptualisations in her work The Second Sex, though it was not until 1985 when Spivak first coined the term ‘other’ in discourse around colonisation in British India. De Beauvoir references German philosopher Hegel to describe how women are seen as secondary to men, who are seen as the norm. She suggests that it is not only gender, but wider social hierarchies, that contribute to this disparity, but specifically in the case of gender, women only exist through the lens of men (Brons 2015; de Beauvoir 2012; Jensen 2011). A key component of othering is the use of stereotypes. Canales (2000) defines stereotypes as a ‘shared perspective of the dominant majority that are produced and sustained primarily through dominant-controlled communication channels’ (p. 22). Stereotypes are communicated across a range of media, culture and technology. They become part of the accepted norm and serve to further stigmatise the other by enforcing and amplifying differences and distance (Barter-Godfrey and Taket 2009; Canales 2000). The stereotypical characteristics associated with the ‘other’ tend to stem from an implicit inferiority perceived to be inherent to those outside the dominant group (Brons 2015). Those that are othered experience loss of status and power. The use of stereotypes and associated stigmatisation can result in a clear marking, or can lead individuals to hide their identities in order to avoid the social consequences (Barter- Godfrey and Taket 2009). In a study of lesbians, Stevens and Hall (1988) examined the beliefs regarding the participants’ ability to be identified as lesbian. Some participants felt that others could readily tell their sexual identity, whereas others felt that it could be hidden (Canales 2000). In both cases, the participants experienced othering, so the question becomes whether a visible participant is immediately othered, or a less visible participant open to being othered. Similarly, another study explored how lesbian women construct their appearance in order to negotiate pressure to balance expressing themselves authentically as well as looking authentically like a lesbian. Clarke and Spence (2013) found that some women presented in such a way as to subvert expectations around heterosexuality, whereas others presented in a more feminine way to subvert assumptions as what a lesbian should look like. 18 In relation to discussions of the other, particularly when it pertains to LGBTIQ individuals, it is important to introduce the concept of heterosexism, a practice which takes place within wider heteronormativity, which has been mentioned above. Heterosexism is recognised within scholarship to curb the formation of LGBTIQ identities (Gibson and Macleod 2012) and is defined as a practice that occurs either implicitly or explicitly but ultimately stems from the belief that heterosexuality is the norm. Heteronormative and heterosexist practices can range from day-to-day language, to physical violence. On either end of this spectrum, these othering practices serve to contribute to the invisibility of LGBTIQ individuals (Gibson and Macleod 2012). Lesbian invisibility will be discussed further in subsequent chapters. We see examples of othering, erasure and exclusion even within the LGBTIQ community. Gibson and Macleod reference examples of the ease of access of gay men to a range of geographical spaces, such as gay clubs and guesthouses, when compared to lesbians (2012). If we return to the examples of butch and female-to-male (FTM) bodies, Halberstam (1998) discusses that some lesbians may see FTMs as ‘traitors’ who have become ‘the enemy’ (p. 287). On the other hand, FTMs may see butch lesbians as other FTMs who are in denial or too scared of transitioning, or to ‘other’ themselves (Canales 2000). With so many differing and conflicting definitions, we must consider how individuals categorise their own gender and sexuality. This definition is personal, made up of one’s own politics, ethics and values, and can take on the attributes of definitions put upon an individual by wider society and culture. A medical professional may define transsexuality based on a diagnosis; the individual becomes a patient and an illness. However, a transsexual, despite engaging in a medical discourse to gain the desired sex reassignment surgery, sees their gendered identity as a part of themselves no differently to a non-transsexual or transgender individual. The different definitions of transsexuality or transgender in the literature created by a transgender person compared with a non-transgender person is in some cases stark, but in other cases, non-transgender individuals are basing their notions on subjective responses taken from transgender individuals. It is not possible to clearly delineate definitions based on who is constructing them. However, there is a trend towards non- transgender medical professionals continuing to define transgender based on the disease 19 model and in doing so completely remove subjectivity and agency from transgender individuals. We see this removal of subjectivity and agency in non-transgender individuals as well, for example male doctors dismissing the experiences of female patients regarding endometriosis. This professional discourse serves to further enforce strict gender roles and social hierarchy. Interestingly, transgender researchers and theorists also still utilise the medical model of transsexuality in their research extensively; however, it is used as a tool to demonstrate the way in which it limits definition and does not consider transgender narratives and lived experiences. They discuss the gender binary from a transgender perspective and are able to offer a unique social commentary that is, more often than not, neglected in research around transgender individuals. There are, in addition, non-transgender theorists who approach research around transgender with respect and understanding for the individuals they are researching, for example Cressida Heyes (2003), and it is important to demonstrate that there is not, in fact, a clear divide between ‘transgender’ and ‘non-transgender.’ This same approach is equally important in both researching and considering the lived experiences of the wider LGBTIQ community and ensuring that, when engaging in dialogue both with and about these individuals, we are not contributing to enforced heteronormativity, silencing or erasure. While self-identification and identity politics are discussed in further depth in Chapter 6, this brief example highlights the problematic nature of identity politics but also the importance of respecting individuals’ agency. Individuals may self-define or identify with mainstream social categories, or they may not, but by accepting the lived experiences of individuals, individuals maintain their agency, but frame themselves within socially constructed paradigms. 2.8 Use of terminology in this thesis To conclude this chapter, it is important to specify the ways in which terminology will be deployed throughout this research. As the majority of participants in this project fall outside of a heteronormative spectrum, taking into account individual experiences as well as personal preference when discussing individuals must be adhered to in order to avoid stigmatisation, labelling and continued perpetuation of heteronormative gender standards. While it is important to have clear definitions for groups of people, for the purpose of clear communications, forcing individuals into a category that they do not 20 feel they belong to works at cross-purposes if individuals within non-normative gender and sexuality groups are to continue to gain social acceptance. When referring to women who identify as non-heterosexual, the term ‘queer’, as a positive and reclaimed term, will be used to provide a consistent use of terminology, however the term is used with consideration of its history and problematisation. While there are clear trends in the different ways that individuals within particular categories define themselves, they do not follow a strict rule, and the literature remains divided on how to define, approach and categorise studies of sexuality, gender and transgender. Ultimately the importance of individual experience and subjectivity should not be overlooked. Individual preferences and narratives must be considered when defining and categorising individuals if we are to form realistic definitions that include lived experiences. The subcultural discourses which exist within these communities and the ways in which individuals form their identities must be acknowledged. Furthermore, as has been shown by the constantly evolving definitions within gender-based and sexuality umbrellas, and the way they are depicted in the media (discussed further in Chapter 4), these definitions continue to be unstable and therefore further highlight the importance of a varied approach to defining these individuals. 2.9 Conclusion This chapter focused on introducing a range of terms around the concepts of gender, sexuality and transgender. It established the importance of language, particularly in creating categories that impact how individuals are ‘read’ by others, and in turn, their behaviour. It further explored the limitations of language in describing lived experiences of individuals with non-normative genders or sexualities. 21 Chapter 3 3. Queer spaces and online communities 3.1 Introduction This chapter will explore the concepts of gender and sexuality in online communities. It addresses the online context in terms of the ways in which embodied social norms are maintained online. It also includes discussion of earlier research which suggested that an online space may serve as an emancipatory and utopian environment for LGBTIQ individuals, and how this research has progressed with the extensive penetration of social media. As this research focuses on the online experience of LGBTIQ individuals, the online context is the most pertinent. However, the influence of media and advertising on social representations and understanding of gender and sexuality cannot be ignored, nor can the continual and ongoing blurring of online and mainstream media environments. While the representation of queer women online and in the media will be explored in greater depth in the next chapter, given these inextricable links, some references to women’s media representation will also be made in this chapter. Since its inception, the Internet has been utilised by minority groups, allowing them to connect and communicate in situations otherwise made impossible due to distance, social expectations, familial relationships and concerns for privacy and safety. Communities founded on homosexuality will be used as examples and case studies of such minority groups who have used the Internet in such a manner. Through these examples, the history and evolution of the use of online environments and communities, and its implications for gender and sexuality will be examined. LGBTIQ user groups use online communities to form connections and share information; as such their context is of interest. Given the ubiquitous use of the Internet in Western culture, and the influence of mainstream media on website content, establishing the ways in which LGBTIQ individuals not only create their own content, but enforce and construct particular depictions of gender and sexuality is relevant. A key area of focus for this research is how LGBTIQ individuals experience online content created for mainstream consumption, so it is important to establish a benchmark of research into their use of targeted online media, and provide an overview of historical depictions of gender and sexuality in wider media. 22 3.2 The online context When we look to the online context, we see an extension of ‘real-world’ attitudes and behaviours, amplified by the speed at which information is now perpetuated. It then becomes a salient question that must be explored: are social norms with regard to gender and sexuality replicated online? Michael Kimmel argues that: ‘Virtually every society known to us is founded upon assumptions of gender difference and the politics of gender inequality’ (2011, p. 2). If this is the case, then does the gendered construction of online spaces make it such that a move outside of binary gender or sexuality constraints remains impossible for those of non-normative genders or sexualities? To take a step back, it is important to ask - why the online context? First, it has been known for over twenty years that the Internet is heavily used by minority groups for communication, information sharing and community formation (Alexander 2002; Cserni and Talmud 2015; Guzzetti 2008; Laukkanen 2007; Munt, Bassett and O'Riordan 2002; Turkle 1995). It is of interest to examine the impact of online communication with both peers and other users on the identity formation of minority individuals. Second, while the Internet is both a visual and verbal medium, a large volume of communication undertaken online still occurs using written language, which, as has been shown, does not necessarily cater for all variations of gender and sexuality expression, rendering some individuals unintelligible. As this research has a particular interest on the concepts of inclusion and exclusion, it is posited that there exists a link between unintelligibility and exclusion. This chapter will additionally consider whether unintelligibility still occurs online, and what impact this has on online users who do not identify with binary constructions of gender and sexuality. The role of the Internet has changed significantly since its inception in the late 1960s. While originally a tool for researchers, in the 1990s, the Internet, in the form of the World Wide Web, came into ubiquitous use. Within ten years, its reach and potential had expanded so dramatically that new forms of media and new methods of consuming media were available worldwide (Goggin 2010). Methods for online communications have become varied and utilise more than just textual communication. Email, social media, instant messaging, streaming video, peer to peer file sharing, blogging, webcam, virtual reality chat and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone calls have all become commonplace methods of communicating and sharing information. Internet usage is now an intricate part of day-to-day life. As of June 2018, there were 14.7 million 23 broadband subscribers in Australia, an increase of 3.6% from December 2017 (ABS 2018). In the United States, in 2016, approximately 118 million households had an Internet subscription (Ryan 2018). Early studies of the Internet highlighted its utopian potential. It was anticipated that users would be able to break down social boundaries and communicate without the confines of gender, sexuality, race and other signifiers. That these boundaries could be stretched and changed, it was hoped, would mean that ultimately they could be overturned and no longer important (McLelland 2002). Earlier research also suggested a sharp boundary between the 'online' and 'offline' worlds, with research focusing on what users do online, without consideration of how these activities align with their offline social contexts (Valentine and Holloway 2002). Valentine and Holloway (2002) reject the notion that the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ worlds are disconnected, and argue that instead these worlds are not mutually exclusive, and instead form part of every-day life. Through a study of how young people use and interpret their online activities, Valentine and Holloway (2002) found that 'virtual' activities are not disconnected from embodied identities. The Internet has the potential to overturn dominant binaries in other areas as well. Alexander (2002) discusses the relationship between authors and readers. Internet users have had the ability to create their own websites since the early 1990s, when the ban on commercialised practices via the Internet was lifted (Goggin 2010). More recently, this practice has shifted into social media spaces. Through the creation of their own websites, blogs, Facebook or other social media accounts, users are able to weave narratives of their own creation, using not just their own lives and experiences but also incorporating artefacts created by other web authors, such as hyperlinks, text and images. In this way, the original author’s authority or dominance is destabilised (Alexander 2002; De Ridder and Van Bauwel 2015). However, this destabilisation of categories and the view of ‘freedom of information’ is also a utopian view. Concerns quickly began to be raised surrounding privacy, intellectual property and ownership (McLelland 2002) and regulatory measures were put in place to both alleviate concerns and protect commercial interests. In this, some researchers were beginning to conclude that despite its utopian potential, the Internet instead reflected traditional hegemonic and patriarchal views (Heinz et al. 2002). 24 3.3 Embodied social norms are maintained in online spaces Online communities can be characterised as having the potential to be both utopian and dystopian. They can be utopian in the sense that socially unacceptable or constrained identities can be further explored, and users may meet others similar to themselves that they might otherwise not meet. However, even though there may be a broader range of categories available, users remain constrained within particular discursive spaces (Laukkanen 2007), and the biases of the ‘physical world’ are often ever-present. The possibilities for self-representation online may seem unlimited and far reaching, however the same language and social biases present in the physical world are carried with many Internet users online (Gross 2007). In this sense, it is just as easy for an Internet user to be rendered unintelligible online, for example by not fitting into any categories provided on an online sign-up form, as it is in the physical world (Butler 2004). Online communities often require the self-categorisation of a user into a certain group to be able to participate fully. For example, most websites require a user to sign up or create an account. In doing so the user must specify their sex. Most commonly the only two available options are male and female. If the user does not identify within binary notions of sex and gender, they are often forced to pick an option regardless, as most websites will not let users create accounts without filling out this field. The user is then trapped in an incorrect social category and further open to the existing biases and notions associated with being a member of that social category (for example, female). This simple example immediately contradicts a utopian and genderless view of the Internet and asks the question of the impact that this has on the self-representations of minority users (Laukkanen 2007). Laukkanen (2007) performed an interesting study of a Finnish online community based on a popular girls’ magazine known as Demi. She studied LGBTIQ users of the discussion board who broke off and formed their own separate online community using Internet Relay Chat (IRC). In this way, she examined the possible self-representations available in both a general community where heterosexuality was the assumed norm, and in a smaller, organically developed community where non-heterosexuality was assumed. In a manner like that described above, all members of the site needed to create their own account and specify their gender. Interestingly, despite the fact that the site was targeted at teenage girls, the default gender option on the sign up form was male, 25 and a user who did not specify gender would default to male (Laukkanen 2007). This suggests that male dominance still exists even in an intended ‘women’s’ space. Laukkanen examined attitudes towards homosexuality and gender self-identification and the ways in which users represented their gender and sexuality in the Demi chat room. She interviewed participants as well as observed interactions between them to further explore these attitudes and found that, while homosexuality was generally accepted, there were those that found it abhorrent and did not hesitate in giving their opinions. These users used a ‘pathologising discourse, in which homosexuality is regarded as sick, abnormal and filthy’ (Laukkanen 2007, p. 83). They spoke openly against homosexuality and even encouraged and provoked others to engage in homophobia. While this community had the potential to be emancipatory for LGBTIQ users, the presence of abusive users and homophobic attitudes, coupled with the enforcement of a gender binary from the moment a user signed up, instead demonstrated that particular identity categories and biases were still firmly in place. LGBTIQ users on Demi called their IRC chatroom #closet. The choice of name for this chatroom is interesting, because, even though this smaller community was formed by the LGBTIQ users of Demi, it implied that there was still something secretive and abnormal about being a member of this group. LGBTIQ users were not completely welcome in the Demi forum, so instead relegated themselves back into the closet. Guzzetti’s work suggests that spaces like the #closet are in fact communities of practice. She states that ‘communities of practice emerge within designed communities through the ways in which participants use online spaces’ (2008). These communities of practice allow online users to participate in groups of like-minded individuals, which may assist in identity formation (Wenger 2007). In #closet, in contrast to the Demi forum, homosexuality was the expected norm. If a user identified as female, it was assumed that she was a lesbian. In the Demi forum, if homosexuality was discussed, it is done so with accepting language. However, the fact that any sort of accepting discourse was necessary suggests that it was not a normalised phenomenon within the community. In contrast, in #closet, LGBTIQ identity was normalised and no accepting discourse was present (Laukkanen 2007). Therefore, users could engage in self-representations in #closet that were not possible in Demi. 26 Another study further supports the notion that widespread understandings of the concepts of gender, sexuality, hegemony and patriarchy are mirrored in the online world. Guzzetti studied the interactions of one woman in a range of online spaces, how other users responded to her and the impact these responses had on her ability to form her identity online (2008). While a key limitation of this study is that only one participant was used, it nonetheless paints a vivid picture of online interactions and portrays a richness that may not have been possible with multiple participants. Saundra, a self-described punk rock fan, participated in a range of online communities around punk rock, a stereotypically male interest. She identified herself as female both through the posting of a photograph of herself as her discussion forum avatar, and by making her gender visible to others on the site. Guzzetti collected data on Saundra’s online interactions through observation, interviews with Saundra, and posing questions to male participants of the discussion forums Saundra frequented. She found that despite attempts at active participation by Saundra, her participation was marginalised by the male members of the community. Guzzetti came across many examples to support this, such as finding conversations referring to female members as ‘manipulative Nazis’ and by her own experience, when questioning male members of the forum about the presence of women on the Internet, receiving pornographic imagery in response. Saundra, in addition, reported that the language utilised by male members was ‘deliberatively provoking... rude, obnoxious, insulting...’ (Guzzetti 2008). In one instance, a male forum member posted commentary that was both racist and sexist. Saundra responded by querying him about the social acceptability of sexism and racism online. She was ignored by many members of the forum and received insults from others such as ‘whiny’ and ‘man-hater’. Guzzetti’s interpretation of this is that, through being silenced, Saundra’s identity as a community member was marginalised. In addition, her post challenged ‘normative’ views of performing femininity online and the response was thus a strong and dominant display of masculinity (Guzzetti 2008). Here it can be seen that in response to crossing the boundary of normative femininity, Saundra was punished for an incorrect gender performance, just as harshly if not more so than in the physical world (Butler 1990, 2004; Guzzetti 2008). Furthermore, this example demonstrates that the norms of masculine cyberculture coupled with the policing of gender performance may render these environments unwelcoming to women. Guzzetti’s research additionally touches on the notion that there is an 27 enforceable and correct way to perform an identity online. This relates back to the work of Butler, Karl and Langer on what it is to be ‘real’ (2004; 2007; 2011). It is not uncommon for women on the Internet to take on a transgender identity to allow them to participate in discourses otherwise closed to them. 3.4 The Internet as queer utopia Guzzetti’s research can be extended to LGBTIQ users online. As has been shown, she found that stereotypical gender performances carried out by many women online, coupled with the strong enforcement of masculine dominance and a heterosexual norm, inhibited women from properly forming or expressing their identities online (2008). Furthermore, any attempts at fighting against these expected notions of femininity were coupled with online abuse, sexism and even sexual harassment. By the same token, we can look to LGBTIQ users, who often find themselves the victims of abusive language and disrespect online. This abuse is usually in relation to not only a perceived non- normative gender performance, but a non-normative sexuality as well. The negative experiences of LGBTIQ individuals online are contradicted by studies which have shown that gay teenagers are coming out at younger ages. This highlights the importance of safe spaces in which individuals can fully form and express their identities. It is theorised that gay teenagers coming out at younger ages is due to the impact of LGBTIQ online communities in fostering safe spaces and providing relevant information and education (Alexander 2002), despite experiencing homophobia and harassment in mainstream spaces. A survey of LGBT youth conducted in 2000 showed that two thirds of participants felt that being online helped them accept their sexuality, and 35% felt that being online was crucial to this. Furthermore, 60% felt that they were not part of an LGBT community in their embodied lives, but 52% of these said they felt a sense of community online (Gross 2007). Similarly Cserni and Talmud (2015) surveyed LGBT youth regarding their Internet use and social capital. They used Internet forum usage, content posting and emotional investment in forums as a measure of Internet usage and found a positive association between usage and social capital. The findings suggest that these interactions online are important for helping LGBT youth to cope with challenges they may find as part of their identity formation. This highlights the ability of the Internet to allow individuals to communicate anonymously whilst at the same time providing the emancipatory opportunity to reveal identities that could not 28 be shared in ‘real life’ (Turkle 1995). However, this is only one such view, and later in this chapter, literature that addresses issues of policing of acceptable queer identities and self-representation within online queer communities will be discussed. Gross quotes an Associated Press story which stated, in reference to early adoption of the Internet, that ‘it’s an unspoken secret of the online world that gay men and lesbians are among the most avid, loyal and plentiful commercial users of the Internet’ (Gross 2007, p. x). Studies have also shown that non-heterosexual users log in more frequently, for longer, and participate in commercial practices online more than any other demographic group (Heinz et al. 2002). However, in contrast to utopian views of the Internet for LGBTIQ users, its commercialisation coupled with the commoditisation of the ‘gay identity’ has led to the creation of online media monopolies who market their websites as ‘communities’ for gay users (O'Riordan 2005). Howard Rheingold (1993) published an influential work on virtual communities which highlighted their potential to challenge the existing monopoly held by communications media on identity and hierarchy. Instead, what we are now seeing is the ‘normalisation of cyberspace’, as the Internet begins to reflect traditional media (Wilson and Peterson 2002). Jonathan Alexander has extensively examined gay websites online, with a focus on those created and utilised by gay men in the late 90s and early 2000s. He studied not only the layouts, graphical features and narratives present on these websites, but also the ways in which these websites were used by gay users online. Alexander identified that many home pages often shared similar features, such as frequent use of identifying symbols like rainbow flags and pink pyramids. Design, layout and the site’s intent were also common between websites. Many of these websites were also based around or included a link to the website author’s coming out story. These stories enabled the beginnings of community formation around shared experiences and allowed other gay Internet users to feel that they were not alone (Alexander 2002). The use of similar design elements has the effect of creating a ‘language’ of gay websites, which can speak to other gay users to identify the website or its author as gay. By the same token, this language can also silence users (Heinz et al. 2002) in a manner not dissimilar to issues of labelling queer identities as discussed in Chapter 2. For example, if a website author does not utilise a particular gay symbol such as a rainbow 29 flag, simply because it does not suit the site’s design, the website may not be identified as gay and the author essentially closeted. The similarities between the websites are also politically telling – that many gay users conformed to a particular standard of web design suggests that creating a website in such a way is a part of performing an appropriate gay identity online. This in and of itself is of interest given that many come to the Internet in search of a gay community and gay role models and then find that to be gay online they must fit a particular image (Alexander 2002). Studies of websites utilised by lesbians and non-heterosexual women has found that the number of websites targeted at this group is significantly lower when compared to the number of websites available for gay men (O'Riordan 2005). The website Gay Girls (no longer in existence) was studied to examine how identity and community was formed in the online space. At the time it was found to contain popular culture and dating advice, and similarly to the websites described by Alexander, also focused on coming out and the creation of identity through performance (Munt, Bassett and O'Riordan 2002). However, this performance and its association with assignment into intelligible identity categories must be examined. Munt et al. describes the postings of a user of the Gay Girls community who was bisexual and frustrated by the hierarchy of authenticity and ‘realness’ between lesbian and bisexual users (2002). The user in question felt that bisexuals were seen as less authentic when compared to lesbians, who were seen to have a stronger identity (Munt, Bassett and O'Riordan 2002). This issue parallels similar issues of authenticity and realness seen between lesbians and heterosexual women both online and in the physical world, where in this case lesbians were seen as lesser or not ‘real’ women (Butler 2004; Hale 1996; O'Riordan 2007). O’Riordan examined gay and lesbian personals and online community websites Gaydar and Gaydar Girls through the lens of identity; more specifically how these websites police acceptable gay and lesbian identities through the placing of members into specific categories (2007). Using Gaydar as an example, O’Riordan highlighted that there was little separation of an online identity from a physical body in this community. The aim of interacting with the Gaydar community was to meet another individual with whom to engage in sexual acts (Harrison 2010; O'Riordan 2007). These interactions were to the exclusion of user’s interactions in communal forums and message boards (Harrison 2010). With this in mind, one’s profile, and thus self-representation online, was subject to strict categorisation to be seen as an acceptable partner (O'Riordan 2007). 30 This has changed gay male subculture online and in turn the purpose of many sub- communities (Harrison 2010). However, by the same token, the Internet can be seen as replicating a commercialised and media view of identity groups and representations and LGBTIQ users are not exempt to the enforcement of these views. Gender and sexuality, as well as its subcategories, are policed on many online community websites, suggesting that despite its emancipatory potential, the Internet is still a site of policed borders and ‘correct’ identity performances. The impact that this has on its users and their self-representations has only recently begun to be examined, and there is little research on the link between representation and user experience. 3.5 Queer online communities in the age of social media As online spaces have expanded to encompass social media, we see these spaces too becoming sites for LGBTIQ community formation, information gathering and sharing and exploration of identity. As with the early online communities in the late 1990s and early 2000s, social media is now used both socially and educationally by queer users. In a study of how social networking sites serve as informal learning environments, Fox and Ralston (2016) found that the most common uses were information seeking regarding LGBTIQ-related issues, observing other LGBTIQs from the perspective of role modelling and learning about others’ lived experience, and online dating. There was some relationship between these types of behaviours during coming out, and interestingly participants also used social media to teach other LGBTIQ individuals about less common queer identities, such as transgender (Fox and Ralston 2016). It is known that LGBTIQ users utilise both the Internet and social media in higher proportions when compared to heterosexuals (Gross 2007; Seidenberg et al. 2017). However, the most common subject in the literature regarding LGBTIQ social media use focuses on identification and study of gay men who are HIV positive (Elliot et al. 2016; Martinez et al. 2014; Rhodes et al. 2016). There is a significant gap in the literature regarding LGBTIQ individuals’ use of online environments beyond sexual health and coming out and identity formation as described earlier in this chapter. There is some analysis and commentary regarding broader LGBTIQ social media use, as well as that of queer women, in the grey literature, though much of it centres around issues of discrimination and homophobia from the social media platforms themselves. 31 Note that grey literature is that which is produced outside of traditional academic and peer reviewed publishing channels. There have been several controversies over the last few years, as social media sites attempt to balance the needs of LGBTIQ users with conservative and normative social views. One such example is the ongoing removal of LGBTIQ content from social media websites, either by algorithms or by upholding reports of ‘inappropriate’ content from homophobic users. On Facebook, the issue is particularly prevalent, with LGBTIQ users having their own pages, which reference LGBTIQ content, deactivated under the banner of hate speech. That these algorithms are even still in use is based on an existing pre-conception in patriarchal society that homosexuality equates to sexual deviance and therefore inappropriateness for mass consumption. There are also issues with the use of re-claimed terms, such as ‘dyke’, which is used heavily by the lesbian community. However, queer Facebook users who use this term have faced suspensions and banning under abusive content rulings, effectively silencing their use of a term reclaimed in the face of decades of homophobia (Lang 2017). This is a simplistic description of the complexity of Facebook’s content moderation policies and practices, however an in-depth discussion of these is out of the scope of this research. The key point to acknowledge is that LGBTIQ users have faced homophobia and harassment on Facebook, both via other users, and indirectly through Facebook’s own algorithms, which have not been addressed by the site’s policies. Recently, China’s Weibo social media platform banned all LGBT-related content on the platform, citing the need to create a ‘clean and harmonious environment’ under China’s cyber security law. The ban was quickly reversed after a huge outcry from Weibo users (Xiao and Xu 2018). That on the surface there has been a groundswell of acceptance for LGBTIQ individuals, particularly around gay marriage, has not yet led to changes on a systems policy level and these pre-conceptions remain. In 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took the American public-school system to task for indiscriminately blocking all LGBTIQ content on school computers and student-provided laptops, including those that link to sites designed to support questioning LGBTIQ youth. This is another policy level decision underpinned by the preconception that homosexuality and other non-cis or non-heterosexual genders and sexualities are a form of deviance or associated with pornography, and therefore not appropriate for children or adolescents. The potentially negative impact this has on the mental health, access to health information and the ability to create online communities 32 on queer youth has been extensively discussed (Anderson 2016; Brabaw 2018; Holt 2011; Holt 2006; Richardson, Resnick and Hansen 2002). In 2017, Twitter faced backlash from the LGBTIQ community for use of an algorithm that limited the accounts of anyone who used the word ‘queer’. Similarly to the incident with Facebook, some queer authors see this as censoring queer users’ ability to reclaim homophobic slurs (Pennington 2018). Similarly, Facebook has held a ‘real name’ policy since 2015, which is seen to harm and silence queer users, who may not be able to use the services authentically for fear of privacy violation or even violence. Given the known positive impacts of social media on the LGBTIQ community, some authors feel that these policies are reflective of the way that LGBTIQ individuals are treated in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field more broadly (Cech and Pham 2017; Pennington 2018). One study found that STEM workplaces with improved gender parity are more likely to provide improved work experiences for LGBTIQ individuals. The authors then hypothesised that broader tolerance of non- masculine gender expression may improve STEM workplaces for both LGBTIQ individuals and heterosexual women (Yoder and Mattheis 2015). 3.6 Social media as queer utopia As has already been discussed, the inextricability of the physical body from the online world coupled with the ever-increasing influence of mainstream media on acceptable representations online has meant that early predictions of a utopian Internet have not come to pass. However, social media still provides potential for the formation of non- normative, non-mainstream communities. While mainstream platforms such as Facebook and YouTube still hold this potential, systemic issues such as site policies and algorithms prevent queer representations, whether intentionally or not. Queer users have established a strong community, with representations of gender and sexuality at its core, on the microblogging site Tumblr. Tumblr is particularly popular with younger non- heterosexual individuals and its content is entirely user generated, with a focus on queer discourse, politics and queer popular culture. Unlike Facebook, Tumblr is unmoderated and allows users more flexibility in their use of multimedia to create their own pages, and by extension, representation of their identity. It does not require a real name, thereby aligning with the realities of safety and anonymity for many queer people, and allowing other forms of expression, such as 33 through drag or transgender. The flexibility of Tumblr also means that the system does not limit particular types of identities by attaching them to a profile; instead users can create intersectional identities and form pages and communities around them. Cavalcante (2018) argues that Tumblr is both a digital and queer utopia by serving as a vehicle for ‘users’ experience of marginalisation in their everyday lives and their hope and desire for something better’ (p. 9). Similarly to Laukkanen’s (2007) description of the IRC #closet chatroom, on Tumblr, queerness is not a peripheral concept, but one that is central to the entire platform. The spectrum of identities relating to gender and sexuality are assumed to be both understood and accepted and users relish not having to explain and educate others as to their meaning (Cavalcante 2018). Similarly to how Facebook generates related content for users, Tumblr users are also at risk of finding themselves in an echo chamber, as Tumblr’s algorithm shows them more and more related content, which can result in what Cavalcante (2018) calls a ‘queer vortex’, when queer content eclipses all other interests that a user may have. However, the Tumblr users involved in Cavalcante’s study did not truly inhabit an echo chamber, as in their everyday lives they still operated within a heteronormative and cis-gendered world. Though initially a utopian environment, free of ads and mainstream media influences, Tumblr began to include advertisements when Yahoo! purchased it in 2013. Shortly after, terms such as gay and lesbian were censored in a bid to reduce adult content on the platform. This resulted in searching for tags such as gay returning no results. Yahoo! eventually fixed the problem as a result of outcry from Tumblr’s users, but the issue happened again in 2017 when Verizon purchased the platform, and introduced a safe mode function for all users under 18, which again blocked LGBTIQ content. Tumblr’s user-base are primarily teenagers and young adults, a large proportion of whom are exploring their sexuality, and Cavalcante points out that these incidents are key examples of the vulnerability of the LGBTIQ population, particularly in corporate digital spaces (2018). 3.7 Conclusion This chapter has addressed the use of online spaces and formation of online communities by queer users. The key areas to note in the literature are that while the Internet was initially seen as having utopian potential for queer users, embodied social 34 norms are maintained in online spaces. Examples of this are found throughout interactions with digital technology, from sign up forms to media that assumes that the default user is a heterosexual male. We can see the reflection of male as the norm in the LGBTIQ community also; even within the literature, gay men are significantly more well studied than lesbians and other non-heterosexual women. Furthermore, studies of websites involving all populations focus on a model of disease, especially HIV. More recent studies involving queer social media use also focus on men, and again look to how these platforms can be used in disease cases. Studies focusing on how queer individuals use and experience social media in their day-to-day lives are considerably lacking. Older studies that focused on gay spaces online at the emergence of the commercialised web also focused on gay men, and the sorts of visual cues they used to represent gayness. Again, this is an area where lesbians are significantly underrepresented. More recently, the literature has brought attention to queer utopias such as Tumblr, which serve to counteract the heteronormative and cis-gendered nature of the broader Internet. Tumblr in particular also counters literature which indicates that even online spaces enforce a prescriptive way of ‘doing’ LGBTIQ, and that in many cases these unwritten rules are enforced by the community itself. However, Tumblr, and the broader concept of queer utopias, are not without their limitations, including the risk of creating echo chambers. That these spaces remain at significant risk of silencing and censorship by the corporations that own them also further underscores the gap in the technology industry in considering all users, not only those who are assumed to be the default. 35 Chapter 4 4. Representation of queer women in the media and online 4.1 Introduction The previous chapter outlined literature that addresses how queer Internet users navigate and interact with online spaces and form communities. It described research that examines both the utopian and problematic aspects of a number of online interactions, including static interactions with websites, and interacting with others in communities. The previous chapter also acknowledged the vulnerability of the LGBTIQ population online, not only to direct homophobia and discrimination from other users, but to silencing and othering. Examples of such othering can be seen through the existence of site policies such as Facebook’s real name policy, and other algorithms designed to reduce inappropriate content such as pornography, but consider LGBTIQ content and terminology as part of this category. The result is the filtering or banning of LGBTIQ content on a number of social platforms. Building on the issues of silencing and invisibility, this chapter addresses the representation of queer women in the media and online. It will begin by examining how women are represented more broadly in the media and online, before moving on to explore how such representations are positioned in the literature. To some extent, this thesis has already established that representations of queer women are significantly lacking in academic texts; a similar lack of representation is found in media. As such, a broader view of women’s representation will be used to establish a foundation in this area of literature; however, examples pertaining to queer women will be included where available. There is a lack of research that specifically asks queer women about their experiences in these contexts. While content analysis has been used extensively to examine representation, its focus on roles or single demographics precludes deeper discussion into the multi-factorial issues underpinning gender representation (Artz and Venkatesh 1991; Rudy, Popova and Linz 2010). Problematic representations will also be explored, including in advertising, and the colloquially named ‘dead lesbian syndrome’ plot device often used in television and movies that feature queer women. 36 4.2 Representation of women in the media and online While the ways in which women are represented in news, advertising, magazines and other forms of media has changed drastically over time, in some cases, the nature of these representations remain highly problematic. The mirroring of social norms in online spaces (Kimmel 2011) has been discussed in previous chapters. Given the number of ways in which the Internet is used as an extension of mainstream media, mirroring of this nature is not unexpected. The media (collectively described as methods of mass communication including television, movies, the Internet and so on) carries with it in Western democratic societies, the expectation that representations of events, cultures and social groups will be unbiased. However, literature has shown that, similar to early views of the Internet, this expectation is primarily utopian. Rosalind Gill (2007) suggests that the idea that the media is a mirror for all society is particularly damaging to our understanding of the relationship between gender and media. If we instead work with the assumption that the media reflects dominant social and cultural groups, we can accept that within media institutions themselves, there are also hierarchies and relationships of power. We can then look to a number of different types of media to examine gender representation. 4.2.1 Representation of women in news media In a broad examination of news media, it was found that women were both less likely to appear in and report on news stories regarding politics, business, economics or sports, but were also more likely to feature in areas that are considered stereotypically feminine, including entertainment and lifestyle (Gill 2007). The Women’s Media Centre in the US performed a more specific study and examined the top 20 US news outlets and found that women produced 37.7% of news reports; and work of a wider scope by women anchors, field reporters and correspondents declined from 32% in 2015 to 25.5% in 2016 (Chancellor and Gray 2017). The disparity of representation in the examples above are not new findings in the literature. Analyses of news content dating back to the 1980s has shown that women are underrepresented in news media (Greenwald 1990; Potter 1985; Rodgers and Thorson 2003). It should also be noted that gender is not the only demographic in which significant disparity can be seen. For example, in a study of national public radio stations in the US, 73% of regular commentators were white men in 2015, a significant 37 increase from 60% in 2003. In 2015, 8% of regular commentators were people of colour, which had decreased from 20% in 2003. No women of colour were regular commentators (Chancellor and Gray 2017). In another study of US newsrooms in 2016, 23.1% of TV newsroom staff were people of colour. When we consider that approximately 38% of the US population are people of colour, this figure is not at parity with actual population demographics. However, an interesting finding the study identified is that 47% of journalists of colour are women, which is actually higher than the 41.6% of white women journalists (Chancellor and Gray 2017). While an in-depth exploration of disparate representations in race, age, class or other demographics is out of scope of this research, it should be acknowledged that issues of representation are both multi-factorial and intersectional. News photographs are another medium that can be examined to consider representation. While studies of photographs as a form of representation originated in print media, when we consider that the Internet is a largely visual medium, the use of imagery must be considered. However, literature examining the representation of women in online news media photography is limited, so studies which examine print media were used as a foundation. It is also worthy of note that there has been a shift in the location of research pertaining to representation of women in media, from academic texts to grey literature from a number of organisations and foundations, such as the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and the Women’s Media Centre. As such, the academic research presented below is dated, however the distribution of representation that it discusses is not significantly different to that found in such organisational reports, even upwards of fifty years later. Len-Rios et al. (2005) refer to studies of newspapers between 1913 to 1983 which found that the proportion of women shown in photographs has actually decreased over time. Blackwood (1983) examined the photographs in 92 issues of The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times from 1980 to 1981, considering them to be liberal-leaning papers. His findings are not dissimilar to those in Gill’s (2007) study, nearly 30 years later, which indicate that more than 75% of men represented are in political, professional or sports photography and the majority of women are portrayed as socialites, human interest or spouses. Blackwood (1983) compares this to a similar study conducted in 1974 and concludes that the disparity between how women are represented in news photos and the breadth of women’s lives is even greater than it was 10 years earlier. 38 The key methodological approach to identifying such statistics is use of content analysis. While this is a useful tool to understand the distribution of media content, in terms of addressing and improving these statistics, as Rodgers and Thorson (2000) have identified, the process is detached from content decision makers. In 2000, researchers collaborated with the photography team at the Los Angeles Times. Market research conducted by the Times was suggesting that women and minorities were cancelling their subscriptions due to stereotyped content (Rodgers and Thorson 2000). Their content analysis findings also agreed with authors previously mentioned (Blackwood 1983; Gill 2007; Len-Rios et al. 2005); women were heavily under-represented, and those representations that were present utilised stereotypes. The results of the analysis were presented to the photography team who initially argued that their photos represented reality (for example, one finding indicated that a number of African Americans were presented as athletes). However, the research team suggested that African Americans were also involved with numerous other activities beyond sports, which the photography team agreed with. However, they also felt that they were hampered by the story itself, which was usually selected by a reporter or editor, rather than themselves, so there was limited scope for the photos that could be taken. While the approach taken by Rodgers and Thorson (2000) was generally positive and suggestive that people working in creative roles are open to thinking beyond stereotypes, it also indicates that there needs to be a stronger focus at changing attitudes at the decision-making level. These issues will be discussed in depth in Chapter 5. Finally, sporting news is another area of representational disparity that should be considered. In 2005, a comprehensive international study of sports media showed that 86% of articles exclusively featured men’s sports and male athletes (Jones 2006). When women are featured in sporting news or photographs (between 1989 and 2004, only 6.3% of airtime on US television), the content more frequently focuses on the sportswoman’s appearance rather than achievements. In a New Zealand study in 1996, women’s sports coverage accounted for 4.4% of total sports news space (Jones 2006). Jones (2006) has examined online media to determine whether similar trends are present. Interestingly, a content analysis of ABC News Online’s coverage of the 2000 Olympic games found nearly equal coverage for men and women when measuring words written. However, there is significant research in both print and online media to indicate that women are stereotyped in photographic sports coverage (Alston 1996; 39 Jones 2003; Kinnick 1998; Sagas and Cunningham 2000). As such, Jones further examined ABC News Online during coverage of the 2004 Olympic games (2006). The initial interpretation showed coverage equating to 54% in favour of images of women athletes. Therefore, it was thought that the results of this study were a departure from the earlier studies that showed a significant discrepancy between men and women. However, a deeper analysis showed that women were still not portrayed equally, particularly when women were more frequently depicted as losers, and a focus on a single athlete (who was part of a team, the members of which were rarely featured) boosted female images by 20%. Furthermore, depictions of women in passive poses nearly doubled compared to the previous Olympics. Stereotypes were also perpetuated by portraying women as tearful and over-emotional (Jones 2006). While a number of the examples discussed above address women’s representation in US and Australian news sources, it should be noted that this is a trend reflected globally in news media. The Global Media Monitoring Project surveyed 114 countries’ news sources and found that in 76% of cases, women make up less than half of news reporters (Macharia 2015). These countries include but are not limited to Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Approximately 10% of countries news sources featured women reporters less than 20% of the time, and 3.5% of countries never featured a woman reporter during the study period. In contrast, one country (Lesotho) only showed women reporters (Macharia 2015). The vastness of the academic literature discussing women’s representation in news is such that this section does not aim to provide comprehensive coverage. Instead, the key areas to highlight are that despite extensive content analysis conducted over many decades, particularly in print media, representations of women in news media have changed very little, and in some cases become even more disparate. Furthermore, the types of representations rely on stereotypes and do not accurately mirror the day-to-day lives of women. The ways in which these stereotypes are used and theories underpinning their use will be further discussed in subsequent sections. 4.2.2 Representation of women in movies and television Representation of women in movies and television is a similarly well studied area to other media categories, such as news, sports and video games. Content analysis of a 40 range of movie and television genres from a range of time periods yield similar results: that women are under-represented; that depictions of women remain heavily stereotyped, and that despite an awareness of these findings for several decades, change in both the number and type of representations has been slow. Women are shown in subordinate or sexualised roles, as seen by body position or provocative clothing. They are seen in traditionally stereotyped roles such as wives, home makers and mothers, and overall their representation has generally negative connotations. The literature also suggests that under-representation is true regardless of media type (Collins 2011). As such, it is not the aim of this section to provide a definitive coverage (of the literature) in this field, but to highlight the key representations of women described in the literature. Specific representation of queer women in the media will be discussed in section 4.3. It is worthy of note that the literature in this chapter should not be interpreted as to say that there are no problematisations in men’s portrayal in the media. Men are often portrayed as dominant, violent, hyper-masculinised and excessively strong (Wallis 2011). However, as this study focuses on the experiences of queer women as pertaining to their user experience of a range of online media, it is important to ground this research in representations of women in media. Therefore, representation of men in media is out of scope. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount Saint Mary’s University conducts significant research into gender portrayals in a range of film and television genres globally. Their recent study examines the impact of the representation of women in STEM fields on women viewers. Unlike literature which focuses on content analysis, they used a mixed methods approach to both examine representational numbers, as well as surveying women to seek their opinions and experiences (Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media 2018a). Studies over a number of years have shown that the discrepancy of women entering STEM fields cannot be explained by ability alone (Ceci, Williams and Barnett 2009). Others have also found that demographics at the university level can influence women entering STEM fields, such as a finding that US Colleges with more women and minorities at the graduate STEM level results in more women in undergraduate programs persisting with a planned STEM major (Griffith 2010). Furthermore, Ramsey, Betz and Sekaquaptewa (2013) found that a welcoming academic environment decreased women’s concerns of stereotyping while participating in the STEM field. 41 Given that numerous studies suggest that a lack of women’s participation in STEM is based on inadequate or inaccurate representations, the study performed by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media aims to correlate the discrepancy in participation with these factors. They found that in the past decade, STEM representations have not improved, with men outweighing women two to one, and over 70% of STEM characters represented as white men. Nearly half of STEM characters were shown as needing to sacrifice their personal lives for their jobs, which the Institute suggests sends a discouraging message to girls and young women considering entering the industry. The study did identify some positive messages regarding women in STEM, such as that women were equally likely to be portrayed in leadership positions, and were shown as equally intelligent and competent (Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media 2018b). In their survey of women and girls, they found that 82.7% of participants felt it was important to see women STEM characters represented in media. The majority of participants who planned to pursue STEM careers were influenced by popular culture characters. However, they were less likely to enter the field if they believed they would face sexism in the workplace (Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media 2018b). Though only one finding, these data are suggestive of the importance of diverse representations of women in media. Recognising the difficulty in conducting content analysis studies on the volume of media available, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media developed an automated audio-visual processing tool that allowed researchers to measure screen time and speaking time. The tool was used to analyse the top 100 grossing films of 2014 and 2015 in the US. They found that 17% of top grossing films had a female lead. Overall, male characters received double the screen time as female characters, and where the film had a male lead, the male characters appeared three times more often than female characters and spoke three times more often. In films where there was a female lead, male characters appeared equal to female characters. In films with a male and female co-lead, male characters received significantly more screen time (24.8% vs 16%) (Davis et al. 2015). In an extensive study of films over the last 16 years, Smith and Cook (2008) found that regardless of the content rating, little has changed in the prevalence of speaking female characters. They felt that despite women beginning to take places at the executive level 42 in the entertainment industry, there have been limited changes with regard to gender parity. Smith and Cook (2008) theorised that this was due to the way in which media plot development functions within the industry, with decisions being made by lower level staff impacting story development. They referred to research that supports the theory that higher numbers of women writers results in more women characters on screen, which also supports additional studies that link a lack of women’s involvement in the creative process of film development to negative portrayal of female characters, a finding not dissimilar to that found in news reporting (Lynch et al. 2016). The above studies are only a handful of examples that demonstrate that women are significantly underrepresented in film and television media. The literature can be examined from a number of angles, and while the specific statistics vary depending on the genre and time period, the results and their meaning are apparent. For example, in a thesis on the portrayal of women in movie trailers, O'Neil (2016) found that in a content analysis of the top grossing trailers between 1950-2015, women’s portrayal was consistent. Women in trailers had less screen time, speaking time and lacked diversity of role. Their portrayal was sexualised, stereotyped, and at times victimised. When examining women’s career choices in film, Hammer (2010) found in an analysis of 117 lead female characters that women in power are isolated, more likely to be portrayed in traditional careers, depicted negatively regardless of career choice, and seen as secondary to men in the workplace. In a study of Disney cartoons, many of which are targeted at young girls, the majority (73%) had a majority male dialogue. Films such as Monsters Inc and Toy Story had over 95% male dialogue. Even in those films with female leads, such as Pocahontas, male characters have close to 70% of dialogue. In Mulan, Mulan’s male side kick, Mushu, has 50% more words of dialogue than Mulan (Anderson and Daniels 2016). Another interesting consideration regarding women’s representation is that a significant amount of the content analysis in the literature is now being conducted by not-for-profit organisations and user-generated content hubs, suggesting that awareness of representation and its surrounding issues has now extended well beyond scholarly thought and in and of itself could be seen as a negative response to the sorts of portrayals of women still being provided. 43 Women’s portrayals themselves should also be considered. As has been alluded to in the above literature, portrayals are generally stereotypical and have not changed significantly alongside quantity of representation in the last three to five decades. The Bechdel test, coined by comic strip writer Alison Bechdel in a 1985 episode of her comic Dykes to Watch Out For (Bechdel 1985) proposes three criteria to examine the presence of gender bias in fiction media. The presence of the following criteria suggests an absence of such bias: 1. It must have at least two women in it; 2. The women must talk to each other; 3. The conversation must feature a topic that is something other than a man. Only a small proportion of films pass the Bechdel test. Of the films that did pass the test, about half of these only passed because women talked about marriage or babies (Power 2009). The same issue highlighted in gender representation in the news can be seen here. Male writers, directors and producers far outnumber female ones, and in films as well as news, we can see the dominant social and cultural biases represented on the screen. Researchers have even automated the Bechdel test to examine the presence of male bias in films, as well as the presence of women on social media platforms (Agarwal et al. 2015). Additionally, the Bechdel test has inspired a podcast of the same name to highlight that the majority of Hollywood films fail this test. While the Bechdel test has its limitations, Power (2009) suggests that the broader question is whether media has a duty to realistically represent women. Taking into account portrayals themselves, the literature suggests that they remain heavily embedded in stereotypical gender roles, though portrayals differ between genres. Romantic comedies, for example, are seen as a women’s genre. Typically, women and men often have relatively equal screen time. However, portrayals are generally highly traditional, focusing on marriage, clothing and heterosexual relationships. O'Neil (2016) notes that the majority of these films are written and produced by men, creating stories that they perceived a female audience would want to see. These films then ‘present conventional, patriarchal ideas about what it means to be a woman’ (Benshoff and Griffin 2004, p. 219). Horror movies are an area in which the literature is less aligned. There has been significant debate as to whether women are more frequently the subject of violence, 44 particularly sexual violence in horror films (Molitor and Sapolsky 1992; Molitor and Sapolsky 1994; Weaver 1990). Linz and Donnerstein (1994) suggest that the victims of horror movies are mostly female, with the majority of violence directed at women. However, Molitor and Sapolsky (1994) and Weaver (1990) in their own content analyses of horror films in the 80s and 90s have found that there is no evidence of a particular bias towards death and violence directed at either gender. Sapolsky, Molitor and Luque (2003) revisited the study a decade later, comparing popular slasher films to action/adventure films in the 1990s, and found that the degree of female victimisation was 39% in slasher films (compared to 7%). However, they also acknowledge that action/adventure films feature a significantly higher number of male characters, and question whether the degree of female victimisation would remain as low if gender representation were at parity. While they identify that violence in slasher films is not solely targeted at female characters, their findings show that women are shown in terror two and a half times longer than men. They also caution against using these findings to presume that slasher films contain sexualised violence. There is some suggestion that horror movies can be viewed as feminist, with the concept of a ‘final girl’ who must take on both masculine and feminine qualities and ultimately survives the ‘monster’ at the end of the film (O'Neil 2016). However, Clover (1992) suggests that traditional patriarchal views of femininity still exist even in the ‘final girl’ representation, with such characters representing the ideal woman. Clover (1992) describes these characters as often having brown hair, a virgin and modestly dressed, when compared to the other female characters who have been killed after engaging in sexual or other illicit activities. As can be seen in the brief overview of the literature above, there is still significant discrepancy between male and female representation across the majority of genres, as well as how women are portrayed, including the types of roles they undertake, screen time and spoken dialogue. This chapter moves on to discuss a specific portrayal of women in media, the ‘strong female character’ which has arisen out of a backlash against the heavily gendered representations of women found in most mainstream media. 4.2.3 Strong female characters in the media and video games The limited scope of how women are represented, or in some cases whether they are represented at all, means we must consider that the media are more than simply 45 representing dominant social or cultural views, but are instead ‘agents of social control conveying stereotypical and ideological values about women and femininity’ (Gill 2006 p. 11). An example of Gill’s viewpoint can be seen in the increasingly common portrayal of the super woman stereotype - the woman who has it all. She is a doting mother, a good wife, keeps a flawless house, holds down a prestigious career and still manages to keep her makeup from smudging. Such a view of women is damaging in numerous ways. Not only does it perpetuate traditional gender roles that a woman should own the greater share of responsibility for her family and the work associated with that ownership, she is also supposed to be fulfilled by her career. Women portrayed in this manner have boundless energy. These portrayals send the message that women who have anything less than this are less. Meanwhile, women are doing exponentially more than the expected social standard of fifty years prior. An interesting offshoot of these portrayals is the ‘strong’ female character. Strong female characters both fulfil and contradict views of idealised femininity. When a female character is considered ‘strong’, it is undoubtedly because she is portrayed with stereotypically masculine traits - physical strength, competitiveness, assertiveness, fearlessness. However, at the same time, this is a very limiting label because it comes at the sacrifice of a range of other character traits, in some cases including personality (Gill 2007). The woman is labelled as strong while at the same time condemned as being outside the norm. She is celebrated yet simultaneously othered by her strength, while male characters are not only expected to normatively have this strength, but the added depth of flaws and idiosyncrasies. Furthermore, the visibility and representation of strong female characters in movies may be taken by some as a victory for feminisms, when in fact the strength being portrayed is masculine (Gill 2007). Though there are limited studies on women’s experience of strong female characters, we can look to the grey literature as a substitute. A number of bloggers on websites that provide commentary on popular culture, such as The Mary Sue, discuss the negative reception of strong female characters, and call on women to ask for greater representations of strength in the media. These authors agree with Gill’s (2007) position that strong female characters are perceived as strong through the enactment of stereotypically male characteristics. Kane (2018) and Leavy (2016) further this by suggesting that the strength these characters 46 exhibit is done so not because they are women, but in spite of that fact. Strong female characters are to an extent a response to the ongoing criticism of ‘weak’ female leads, particularly those characters who only exist as female partners to the male hero. However, we now see female characters who lack subtlety, flaws and weaknesses, creating a binary of femininity vs. strength (Kane 2018; Leavy 2016). However, this is a false binary, as female vulnerability vs. female strength is about more diverse and varied representations of women, not simply feminine vs. masculine. Ultimately, the issue is not dissimilar to that already discussed - representations of women are limited; and the literature is suggestive that even when gender parity is reached based on number of characters, women’s representations remain unequal. One area where study into women’s perception of strong female characters has been conducted is in video games, particularly through the lens of objectification and identity formation. Jansz and Martis (2007) suggest that while study into the impact of video game violence is an extensive field, content analysis of video games has been relatively limited. However, of those studies that have focused on representation, findings suggest that gender is portrayed in a stereotypical manner, and violence is ubiquitous. Studies of identity formation in mainstream media have shown that seeing one’s self represented, and being able to relate to both the character and surrounding narrative is important in being able to identify with the content (Cohen 2001; Jansz and Martis 2007). In their own content analysis of video games, Jansz and Martis (2007) analysed 12 video games released between 2000 and 2003 and found a dominance of male characters overall. However, when examining the role of the characters, there was little difference between number of lead male or female characters, though there were significantly more male supporting characters (70%). They also examined the depiction of the lead game characters and found that the majority of the female characters (77%) were hypersexualised, with large breasts and buttocks, and ‘sexy’ attire, compared to 25% of male characters. More recently, Lynch et al. (2016) performed a content analysis of female characters in video games spanning 31 years. They preface that a lack of female employees in video game development coupled with a number of instances of sexism found in online games suggest that game development companies do not value women’s voices, and this is reflected in game design. They theorise that this is not a phenomenon unique to game 47 development and was inherited from the already male-dominated computer science industry during the 1980s when female employees were speculated to be only 3%. The hypersexualisation of female video game characters is also addressed by Lynch et al. (2016), citing evidence that sexualised female characters discourage women from participating in gaming, as they feel the content is designed for heterosexual men. Second, objectifying female characters in this manner is seen as derogatory, and marginalises women as gamers. Interestingly, while female characters often appear in highly revealing clothing which is often impractical for the tasks they may perform (particularly strong female characters), they are not necessarily depicted as subservient to men, or incompetent. However, women gamers remain deterred, suggesting that egalitarian roles alone are not enough to provide adequate and equal representation. As in television and film, female characters in video games who are represented as ‘strong’, are those with masculine characteristics, who play a stereotypically male role in the narrative. This aligns with the work of Gill (2007), which was discussed previously in this chapter. Coupled with a hypersexualised appearance, the presence of these masculine traits does not protect these characters from the male gaze (Lynch et al. 2016). In their content analysis, Lynch et al. (2016) found a correlation between the increase in sexualisation of video game characters with advances in graphic technology that made more detailed character rendering possible. However, after 2006, these data show a decrease in sexualisation, suggesting that the gaming industry may have responded to the heavy criticism from women gamers. Despite this, there was a correlation between type of game and level of sexualisation of women. Fighting games and action games, primarily advertised at men, had the highest level of sexualisation. Role playing games (RPGs) were some of the lowest (Lynch et al. 2016), and while there is no evidence of causality, it is interesting that data also suggests that women play RPGs more frequently than other game genres (Williams et al. 2009). Furthermore, games rated for teenagers did not differ in their representation of sexualised characters when compared to games rated for mature audiences, which is particularly important for teen girls, when literature is suggestive that exposure to sexualised strong female characters can have a negative impact on body image (Pennell and Behm-Morawitz 2015). 48 Throughout this section, we have seen that despite greater representation of women in media and video games numerically, and the introduction of the strong female character archetype, women’s representation remains problematic across a number of factors. Strong female characters correlate masculinity as strength and prevent these characters from having any significant character growth, flaws or relationships. In video games, while numbers of female characters are increasing, sexualisation of these characters remains a significant problem for women gamers, and to some extent is suggestive of game developers’ continued devaluing of women’s voices and perpetuation of the male gaze. The next section of this chapter will address how similar representational trends are seen in the advertising industry. 4.2.4 Gender, sexuality and advertising Previously, this chapter has addressed the concept of ‘strong female characters’ who take on masculine traits, often at the sacrifice of female ones. Gill (2007) notes that advertising plays a large role in perpetuating but also extending this image. She draws reference to a UK advertisement with the tag-line ‘I can manage a family, I’m sure I can run a business’. While this advertisement invites women to participate in the business world, it renders invisible the fact that they will likely participate and continue to manage a family (Gill 2007). This section will address the types and proportion of representation of women in advertising and examine the literature’s stance on the impact of these representations on women as consumers, both of products and the commercials themselves. Content analyses of commercials have found that women are less likely to be shown working, and when they were, they were more likely to be shown in clerical positions. Though there is some suggestion that use of stereotypes are declining, they are still highly prevalent (Hentges, Bartsch and Meier 2007). The majority of women in commercials were under 35 years old (70%), whereas almost half of men (41%) were aged between 36-50 (Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley 2003). In their own content analysis of prime time commercials, Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley (2003) found that commercials maintained the same ratio of male to female characters as they did 20 years ago. In the 21-50 year age demographic bracket, women and men were relatively equal as primary and secondary characters, however examining these results further, it was found that women were disproportionately over-represented in health and beauty product commercials. In car commercials, approximately 70% of characters were male, 49 though more than half of car sales are made by women. Aside from health and beauty, women are more likely to be used to represent domestic products, whereas men are shown as product authorities and the majority of voice overs (Bartsch and Burnett 2000; Hentges, Bartsch and Meier 2007). There is some suggestion that children’s commercials contain more gender stereotyping than adults, and that patterns of gender representation are mirrored when compared to adult commercials. However, the use of stereotyping at an age where children are beginning to understand how gender functions in society potentially makes these representations more problematic (Hentges, Bartsch and Meier 2007). Advertising has also played a role in shifting the representation of women to suggest that appearance is more important than skills considered to be essentially feminine, such as cooking. This message is shown through a fetishised young, hairless, thin and heterosexual body (Gill 2007). Yet at the same time, advertising, as well as television, portrays women as independent, seeking to make decisions regarding appearance, lifestyle, and purchase in order to please themselves, rather than a man (Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley 2003). But, as Gill (2007) aptly asks, if this is the case, then why is the ideal standard of beauty for women young, able-bodied, thin and hairless? In a study of the impact of exposure to media which shows thinness in girls as ideal, Hargreaves and Tiggemann (2003) found that some boys exposed to the same ideals rated thinness as important in a potential girlfriend, suggesting that women are still embodying these ideals both due to and in support of the male gaze. However, it should be noted that a proportion of boys in the story were not impacted by the ideals demonstrated in the study (Hargreaves and Tiggemann 2003). Foucault addresses these messages in advertising as a form of discipline against the female body. Bartky (1990) uses Foucault in her analysis to note: The woman who checks her makeup half a dozen times a day to see if her foundation has caked or her mascara run, who worries that the wind or rain may spoil her hairdo, who looks frequently to see if her stockings have bagged at the ankle, or who, feeling fat, monitors everything she eats, has become, just as surely as the inmate of the panopticon, a self policing subject, a self committed to a relentless self surveillance. This self surveillance is a form of obedience to patriarchy. It is also the reflection in woman’s consciousness of the fact that she is under surveillance in ways that he is not, that whatever else she may become, she is importantly a body designed to please or to excite. There has been induced in many 50 women, then, in Foucault’s words ‘a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’ (Bartky 1990, p. 80). The normalisation of these actions, even these thought processes, via the media, enforces this discipline, but at the same time renders invisible other groups, in particular non-heterosexual women. In fact, any woman who, for whatever reason, does not conform to the media’s objectified requirements are crucified in the press (Gill 2007). There is no better example of this than the Australian media’s treatment of Julia Gillard. As a female politician, Gillard was subject to comments regarding her hair and choice of partner, vilified and her femininity questioned over her decision not to have children, but rarely asked about her policies. Battle lines were drawn in gender, rather than politics, to the extent that it can be argued, and rightly so, that her treatment was not standard political banter, but in fact sexual harassment and workplace bullying (Summers 2012). Women outside the norm rarely see their lives reflected in advertising (Gill 2007). If anything, some are used in hypersexualised forms in advertising designed for men. Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley (2003) suggest that television advertising may be more irrelevant to women today than 20 years ago due to the use of dated, stereotypical characters. Overly feminised women portrayed as lesbians draw on pornography to establish familiar formats, but evade criticism by claiming that the advertisements focus on women’s mutual desire, rather than objectification of their bodies by heterosexual males (Gill 2007). This portrayal of lesbianism does not represent the lives of real lesbians, nor does it make any more acceptable non-normative versions of femininity. The question that must be asked becomes - is it more important for the media to maintain the status quo with regard to gender, or to sell products to as wide a range of people as possible? The use of media to preserve hegemonic norms will be discussed in section 4.4. 4.3 Representation of queer women in the media The previous sections have focused on broader representation of women in the media; however, as this study focuses specifically on the needs of queer women, the literature pertaining to their representation will be examined. Literature regarding queer women is in and of itself, problematic, as the majority of literature focusing on queer issues labels itself as focusing on LGBTIQ or ‘gay and lesbian’ representation, when it actually 51 focuses on gay men. Gay men are often used as a proxy for a community that in fact has a number of intrinsically different and diverse identities and subsequently representational needs. There is also a dearth of literature explicitly examining the representation of queer women in the media. Within the body of LGBTIQ literature, topics focus on health, particularly HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Specific representation of queer women is often discussed through the lens of invisibility or symbolic annihilation. Symbolic annihilation refers to underrepresentation or absence of representation of certain groups in the media. Some literature argues that the media, by never or rarely showing imagery of certain groups, in its action of reflecting social norms, sends a message to audiences regarding the value of such groups (Klein and Shiffman 2009; Tsai 2010). Literature across a number of areas, including aged care, health care services and education is suggestive that representation is inadequate in all these sectors. However, when compared to the volume of literature focusing on the needs and experiences of gay men, the literature itself is even more inadequate. For example, when Ellen DeGeneres was open about her sexuality on her TV show in the mid-1990s, the show was cancelled and she subsequently experienced years of unemployment. Harrison (2001) argues that queer individuals have their own cultural experiences that are at times incompatible with these services. The notion that sexuality is private equates it with invisibility. Like studies that examine women’s representation in media, the majority of studies of LGBTIQ and representation of queer women rely on content analysis. As such, there is similar variability between sources, which can be accounted for by differences in media studied, and variability in coding approach between authors. Additionally, queer women are an area significantly understudied, and as such, grey literature and organisational reports have been used to provide supplemental data regarding representation. In a study by GLAAD, of the 895 characters that appeared regularly on primetime US television across three channels between 2016 and 2017, 43 (approximately 5%) were LGBTIQ. This is the highest proportion since GLAAD began studying queer representation (Chancellor and Gray 2017). In 109 films from major US studios in 2017, 12% (14 films) contained LGBTIQ characters, with gay men the majority at 64%. There were no films that included transgender characters. Of the 12% of films containing LGBTIQ characters, 36% (five films) contained a lesbian character 52 (Townsend, Deerwater, Stokes, et al. 2018). As can be seen, representation of queer women mirrors that of heterosexual women in that they are significantly underrepresented when compared to either gay or straight men. However, lesbian representation is in and of itself significantly lower. Stereotypes are used heavily when representing LGBTIQ individuals in media. In shows which featured nearly entirely gay casts, such as Queer as Folk, the characters fulfil the image of the stereotypical gay man whose lifestyle revolves around clubs, casual sex and drugs. Similarly in Will and Grace, which has been criticised for perpetuating stereotypes about gay men (Fisher et al. 2007), the gay male characters, Jack and Will, are obsessed with fashion and are active in the bar scene (Chung 2007). However, where queer characters are present, they are often shown in an asexual manner. For example, in Will and Grace, Will is rarely shown engaging in homosexual behaviour, though the heterosexual character Grace is often depicted in sexual relationships with men (Fisher et al. 2007). Furthermore, Chung’s (2007) article, though its title refers to ‘Deconstructing Lesbian and Gay Stereotypes in the Media’, provides only gay male examples of media stereotypes, and uses the term ‘lesbian’ as a catch all category alongside gay men, further highlighting the problematic nature of the representation of queer women in both the media and scholarly thought. There is a lack of literature specifically discussing lesbian stereotypes in film and television; though it is difficult to ascertain if this is due to the lack of central lesbian characters, or due to the lack of study in this area. In their qualitative analysis of television programming, Fisher et al. (2007) suggest that despite changing social attitudes, television’s depiction of queer issues remains rare, and a view of compulsory heterosexuality remains firmly in place. However, few quantitative studies of queer representation have been conducted, and Fisher et al.’s (2007) paper reduces LGBTIQ references into one category ‘non-heterosexual’, which makes it impossible to ascertain specific representation of queer women. However, the study did find that where non-heterosexual content was present, it was often in a comedic context and contained stereotypical and negative portrayal of LGBTIQ individuals. 53 Earlier, the Bechdel test was discussed as a means for evaluating gender-based representation in the media. In 2014, GLAAD introduced the Vito Russo test, to provide a way of examining representation of LGBTQ characters in film. Its criteria include: 1. The film must include an LGBTQ character. 2. The character must not be defined by their gender identity or sexual orientation. 3. The character must be crucial to the plot. In the year of its creation, 2014, less than half of major studio films that included LGBTQ characters passed (GLAAD 2014). In 2018, 64% of major studio films that included an LGBTQ character passed. However, it must be noted that passing the test does not guarantee that a film does not include problematic or otherwise offensive portrayals of queer women or other LGBTQ individuals (GLAAD 2018). 4.3.1 Representation of queer women in advertising In advertising, research suggests that only 0.06% of people featured in advertising are a member of the LGBTIQ community. A recent marketing study that examined representation in advertising found that lesbians felt the least accurately portrayed (Roderick 2017). Stereotypes are more prevalent in advertising and these focus on tropes that ensure that lesbians still conform to acceptable femininity, such as ‘lipstick lesbians’, who are highly feminised and sexualised; ‘femme lesbians’, who are highly feminine, but not sexualised; ‘domestic femmes’, who are shown only in the context of household chores or raising children; and ‘soft butches’ who may have stereotypically lesbian characteristics such as short hair, but still adhere to acceptable notions of femininity (Nölke 2018; Roderick 2017). According to Nölke (2018), the femme lesbian is the most common portrayal in advertising specifically targeted to queer women. Nölke (2018) argues that the use of the ‘lipstick lesbian’ ensures appeal to the heterosexual male gaze, mirroring lesbian pornography targeted at heterosexual men. While gay men are seen as the ‘dream consumer’ in advertising, few studies have focused on queer women as they are often seen as less economically powerful, and associated with feminist views of anti-capitalism. Butch lesbians, bisexual and transgender individuals remain invisible, either in an absolute sense, or through symbolic annihilation, in which these groups are actively excluded or trivialised. However, similarly to broader studies into LGBTIQ representation, the majority of 54 literature around advertising focuses primarily on representation of gay men (despite using LGBT or similar monikers in title or description). Though there is a slow shift to LGBTIQ-specific representations in advertising targeted directly at the LGBT community, as opposed to mainstream advertising, there has been little analysis in the literature. Nölke (2018) criticises the use of content analysis, suggesting that it overlooks the intersectional nature of sexuality; that is, that sexuality goes beyond only gender and we must also consider other forms of social hierarchy, including race, age and class. Nölke (2018) conducted a longitudinal and intersectional study of LGBTIQ representations in LGBT-specific publications, and found an increase in representation overall between 2009 and 2015, with significant increases in imagery around marriage and family, coinciding with acceptance of gay marriage in a number of countries. Despite this, the key representation found in these advertisements was of the stereotypical Caucasian middle-aged gay man. Even within LGBTIQ-specific media, lesbians accounted for only 32% of representations, with bisexual and transgender representations almost non-existent. Examining the specific intersections in the advertisements studied, of the 240 possible intersections, 230 of them were invisible. While the unidimensional analysis described earlier suggested that white gay men are the most prominent representation, this was further confirmed by the intersectional analysis, with white gay men and white gay young adults comprising 76% of all gay male characters. White middle-aged lesbians and young adult lesbians comprise 11% and 7% of total representations respectively, totalling 55% of the specifically lesbian portrayals (Nölke 2018). That the intersectional analysis was unable to gather data regarding racial or class diversity, or other sexualities on the LGBTIQ spectrum suggests a lack of representation. Ultimately, a reductionist view of the gay male identity continues to be seen as the truly visible identity for acceptable queerness. Nölke (2018) questions whether the LGBTIQ community actually see themselves represented adequately in these targeted advertisements, or whether they actually further alienate the groups they are trying to address. There is some argument that by portraying LGBTIQ couples through a heterosexual lens, advertisers are aligning to heterosexual values and invoking sympathy in heterosexual viewers, suggesting that heterosexuals are in fact the 55 true targets of these advertisements. If we consider advertising through this lens, then further research is required to understand the true impacts on the LGBTIQ community. In their guidelines to targeted marketing toward the LGBTIQ community, McNamara and Descubes (2016) found that there was a high level of cynicism towards it, as advertisers tried to use ‘one size fits all’ approaches to address the whole LGBTIQ community. In many cases, targeting was not overt and used signals to ‘tip’ towards LGBTIQ consumers. However, they have shown that LGBTIQ consumers prefer overt imagery, and imagery that does not use stereotypes, such as that they are obsessed with sex. Some advertisers have explicitly targeted gay males, hoping that the lesbian market will also be satisfied, but research has shown that this technique is ineffective. A key recommendation in McNamara and Descubes’s (2016) guidelines is that advertisers should think about each individual cohort in the LGBTIQ acronym, and that specialised media outlets may not have the best reach for LGBTIQ viewers. Other studies have found that incorporating LGBTIQ symbolism in mainstream advertising does not result in a negative reaction from heterosexual viewers (Oakenfull, Mccarthy and Greenlee 2008). Finally, members of the LGBTIQ community have been known to extensively research a company that depicts itself as LGBTIQ-friendly in advertising, so McNamara and Descubes (2016) recommends that companies do not target marketing towards the LGBTIQ community if they do not have appropriate internal policies in place. Tsai (2010) supports the literature that lesbians in commercials are vastly underrepresented when compared to gay men. The majority of imagery of lesbians in television commercials used the symbolism of dramatic sexual tension between two feminine women, but did not use other lesbian symbolism, such as butchness or other unconventional gender performance. There is some suggestion that the use of femme lesbians objectifies lesbians in the same way heterosexual women are objectified in advertising, and if so, means that these commercials ultimately sanitise queer culture by demonstrating hegemonic femininity and traditional gender roles. As can be seen, queer women are rarely represented in the media, and when they are, representations are so lacking in dimension as to be able to establish a proper character, and to some extent such that not even stereotypes are applied. Where stereotypes are applied, they use sanitised depictions that ensure palatability of lesbians to mainstream audiences, such as femme lesbians. The representation of queer women lacks the 56 diversity and lived experience of what it means to be a queer woman, when their queerness is used as a plot device to further a heterosexual character, or when the character is incidental to the story (Jackson 2018). While femme lesbians are overrepresented when compared to other lesbian identities, butch lesbians are invisible. Tsai (2010) refers to symbolic annihilation, which results in the silencing and erasure of particular sub-groups within a minority group. Through the promotion of more acceptable aspects of the minority group, media representations can exclude those minorities even more distant from the ‘mainstream minority’. Tsai (2010) discusses this in terms of butch lesbians when compared to femme lesbians, but we also see this invisibility when comparing lesbians with gay men under the LGBTIQ umbrella. 4.3.2 ‘Dead lesbian syndrome’ As the literature has established, representation of queer women remains significantly low when compared to both heterosexual women, and as against gay men. One area where queer women are considerably over-represented is in character deaths on a number of popular TV shows on mainstream US networks. In television and other storytelling mediums, tropes are often used as a recurring pattern. For a trope to be effective, it must be recognised by the audience. For example, research in advertising has shown that advertisements are more appreciated if the trope is understandable (van Enschot 2014). ‘Dead lesbian syndrome’, a subsection of the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope, is used in popular culture in which a queer character, most frequently a lesbian or bisexual woman, is killed in order to further the plotline of a heterosexual character (Stokes et al. 2017). In the 2015-2016 season, 10 of the 35 queer female television characters were killed (Waggoner 2018). In the 2016-2017 season, more than 25 queer female characters were killed, and backlash from queer audiences has been notable, particularly on social media (Stokes et al. 2017; Waggoner 2018). When representation of queer women is already so low, the creative decision to kill these characters sends a toxic message to audiences (Stokes et al. 2017), serves to reinforce hegemonic gender norms, and further demonstrates whose voices are valued at the creative level. Though the trope has been used since 1976, particularly for shock value (Waggoner 2018), ‘dead lesbian syndrome’ is only recently beginning to gain recognition in 57 literature, particularly after such a significant number of queer female character deaths in 2016. Xena: Warrior Princess and The 100, two shows celebrated for both strong female and lesbian themes, both utilised this trope, with Xena being murdered in the last episode of the series, soon after expressing her love for her partner, Gabrielle. Similarly, in The 100, Lexa is murdered in a manner quite senseless to the show’s broader plot, one minute and seven seconds after consummating her relationship with her lover Clarke, the show’s female lead. Lesbian media source Autostraddle studied US television series from 1976 to 2016 and found that only 11% featured a queer female character, and of these, 35% of them died in some way and only 10% were provided with a demonstrably happy ending (Hogan 2016; Millward, Dodd and Fubara-Manuel 2017). The death of Lexa occurred after the episode had been heavily publicised as representing LGBTIQ themes only days before (Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura 2018). Waggoner (2018) examined the social media reaction of fans to the death. Notably, the show’s writer lost 47,000 followers on Twitter within 24 hours of the air date. Lexa’s death resulted in activism from fans via social media, who created campaigns regarding LGBTIQ representation (Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura 2018; Waggoner 2018). Fans also accused the show’s writers of ‘queer-baiting’, a phenomenon by which media is advertised to have positive queer representation in order to increase ratings, but then either does not acknowledge an LGBTIQ relationship canonically, or kills an LGBTIQ character. Furthermore, lesbian fans began to express anxiety over the fate of Clarke and Lexa’s relationship a year before the episode aired, due to the actress who plays Lexa having received a regular contract on another TV show. The producers themselves responded to the fans and reassured them of the survival of the relationship, as well as showing support for LGBTIQ causes (Guerrero- Pico, Establés and Ventura 2018). A number of fans also boycotted the show, resulting in a drop in ratings. Numerous hashtags emerged on Twitter, allowing fans to express their dislike in a public forum, alongside other likeminded individuals, such as #LGBTFansDeserveBetter (Guerrero- Pico, Establés and Ventura 2018; Waggoner 2018). Three weeks after the show’s air date, its writer issued a public apology for the death of Lexa, claiming that he meant no harm. However, Waggoner (2018) argues that given the hegemonic values that television continues to portray, the writer couldn’t truly understand the impacts of the 58 creative decision. Furthermore, Waggoner (2018) suggests that queer women expect the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope, particularly as Lexa’s death mirrors the death of Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 2002, also moments after consummation of her lesbian relationship with Willow. The use of social media by queer women to create backlash against harmful representations of lesbians and bisexuals in television is an emerging site of analysis and one which is a rich opportunity to examine the experiences of queer women in reaction to particular instances of representation. However, critique of the ‘dead lesbian syndrome’ trope itself is not new, and discussion can be found on queer websites such as AfterEllen.com, Autostraddle.com and TVTropes.org (Millward, Dodd and Fubara- Manuel 2017). There has been limited scholarship regarding the reaction of queer women to their own representation, however the two recent papers focusing on social media reaction provide another dimension from which to examine the representation of queer women (Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura 2018; Waggoner 2018). 4.4 Stereotypical representation preserves hegemonic norms The previous section began to discuss the issue of silencing and symbolic annihilation of cohorts within the broader LGBTIQ community, particularly queer and bisexual women and transgender individuals. The literature has also been suggestive that media representations of queer women, particularly in advertising, does so through a lens of acceptable heterosexuality (Nölke 2018; Tsai 2010), further contributing to silencing through inadequate representation. However, the literature is also suggestive that even where there are representations of queer women in the media, those representations are either so limited or stereotyped that their main outcome is to preserve hegemonic norms. Nölke (2018) refers to this as ‘a hierarchy of respectability in which only a certain type of heteronormative gayness is accepted’ (p. 245). It has been demonstrated in studies of video games that women who are repeatedly exposed to negative depictions of female characters disengage from video games. Lynch et al. (2016) cites social identity theory to explain this finding, such that individuals wish to see the social group with which they identify cast in a positive light. In this way, media can show which groups have particular social status, while simultaneously ‘othering’ others. There is also some suggestion that despite a group being represented in media, it may not result in increased recognition or representations that mirror a 59 group’s lived experience. Waggoner (2018) refers to television series which, while representing queer female characters, focus on relationship and interpersonal issues, rather than their broader lives. In many cases, queer female relationships focus on marriage and children, mirroring the key storylines seen in media that represents heterosexual women (Benshoff and Griffin 2004; Jackson 2018; O'Neil 2016). In many plots, the queer female characters would eventually end up partnered with male characters, further enforcing heteronormative and hegemonic norms and contributing to the erasure of bisexual women (Waggoner 2018). It is also important to note that online environments such as social media are becoming inseparable from television, yet despite unprecedented access to discussions in places such as social media on the positive impact representation has on queer communities, producers continue using tropes such as ‘dead lesbian syndrome’ discussed in the previous section (Waggoner 2018). Chung (2007) argues that where stereotypes, in addition to limited or heteronormative representations of homosexuality, are depicted, they contribute to heterosexuality being positioned as superior to homosexuality. Particular depictions of acceptable homosexuality also contribute to issues with aging and body image within the LGBTIQ community. Older LGBTIQ individuals often suffer social isolation due to a combined issue of a lack of positive media representation of elderly people in general, and where LGBTIQ representations are present, depicts them as young, rich Caucasian males. Similarly, aside from a handful of butch characters, media depictions of queer individuals focus on a young and thin body. Studies have shown that gay men and lesbians are at a higher risk of body dissatisfaction, issues with self-esteem and eating disorders. Furthermore, the invisibility of butch women from media representations may result in marginalisation socially. However, within the LGBTIQ community, femmes often suffer invisibility, and are seen as presenting heteronormatively and inauthentically (Nölke 2018). It is therefore possible that not only are these repeated messages of acceptable homosexuality contributing to negative sentiments within the LGBTIQ community, but reinforce the cultural message of compulsory heterosexuality (Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley 2003). Bandura’s social cognitive theory can be applied here, in which the media can provide opportunities for viewers to model their beliefs and attitudes (Fisher et al. 2007). Ultimately, however, the limited scope of how women are 60 represented, or in some cases whether they are represented at all, means we must consider that the media are more than simply representing dominant social or cultural views, but are instead ‘agents of social control conveying stereotypical and ideological values about women and femininity’ (Gill 2007, p. 11). 4.5 Conclusion This chapter has discussed the literature around both representation of women, and representation of queer women. It has been shown that in both cases, representation is significantly lacking. Where representation is present, it utilises stereotypes and limited depictions of what it means to be either a queer or heterosexual woman, with little alignment to the lived experience of these viewers. For both queer and heterosexual women, representation in the media remains embedded in compulsory heterosexuality, preserving current hegemonic norms. Within specific representation of the LGBTIQ community, gay men are seen as the pivotal identity that should sufficiently represent all LGBTIQ community members, though literature is beginning to identify that this is not the case. However, we continue to see erasure of bisexual and transgender individuals, and symbolic annihilation of subsets of the queer female community, such as butch women. In mainstream media, women’s media associates women with traditionally feminine topics, such as beauty or homemaking, which contributes to further erasure of any woman who falls outside of the heteronormative sphere, but particularly non-femme queer women. The literature has begun to explore a link between inadequate representations of women in media and a lack of women in creative positions in news, media and other areas of production, though it has not extended this study to whether queer women hold these positions. The next chapter will begin to examine the concept of specifically designing for queer women, particularly online, and how common user experience design approaches align with queer needs. 61 Chapter 5 5. User experience and designing for queer women 5.1 Introduction The previous chapters have provided an overview of the theory surrounding gender and sexuality, including limitations of current language in describing experiences that are considered non-normative. Literature around queer spaces and online communities was then explored to establish the online context and examine how embodied social norms are maintained in online spaces. The embodiment of social norms in online spaces is not a surprising finding, given that the online social norms mirror those seen in mainstream media, including those seen as problematic (Morrow, Hawkins and Kern 2015). The literature is extensive in its discussions of how representations of women in mainstream media have changed little in several decades, and are still focused on heteronormative and hegemonic views of femininity. Though there is less extensive literature on representation of queer women in media, similar trends can be seen around depictions of queerness that are deliberately designed to be appropriate in a heterosexist framework. The thesis will now move on to address the frameworks and approaches to user experience (UX) design, and their contribution to the design of online experience. In both areas of representation of LGBTIQ individuals online and in media, the majority of the literature focuses on gay men. In many cases these findings are used as a blanket understanding of the needs of all LGBTIQ individuals, which is a limited approach. Similarly, there is limited literature on designing experiences specifically for those that identify on the LGBTIQ spectrum, and a particular lack for queer women. As such, this chapter will provide a high-level introduction to user experience design as a concept, before engaging in a high-level critique of some of the more commonly used UX frameworks. It will then explore the literature that surrounds the reproduction of cultural norms that can be seen in media and their parallels in design. Finally, inclusive design recommendations that exist in the grey literature regarding inclusive design particularly for queer women, will be discussed. 62 5.2. User experience design and engagement The literature is divided in its definition of user experience design. While there seems to be some functional consensus among user experience designers about what the process entails, and its expected outcomes, the literature discusses it through a number of lenses and theoretical frameworks. Within the industry and grey literature, the approach is mostly functional and aligned to the nature of commercial design processes. However, within the academic literature, a number of theoretical approaches emerge. It is not within the scope of this thesis to delve into a multidisciplinary analysis of user experience design or human computer interaction (HCI); as such, common definitions will be discussed, and the standard processes established to provide context for the methods with which websites such as those provided to the participants in this research were produced. Hassenzahl (2013) defines designing a user experience as a conscious process that coordinates controllable interactions (e.g. purchasing a movie ticket) with uncontrollable ones (e.g. uncomfortable movie seats) while still reducing negative interactions (e.g. reminding viewers to switch off their mobile phones). The outcome of this process is the orchestration of an emotional response (i.e. experience) to the interactions. Marcus (2006) defines experience even more simply as: a user’s interaction with available touch points, whether that be the product or service, or the company that has developed it. He acknowledges that the field is focusing increasingly on content, brand and user emotions, as opposed to utility and function. Forlizzi and Battarbee (2004) take a broader stance when considering the user experience to further include beauty, seduction and the experiential aspects of the experience, particularly in the context of technology usage. At its most basic, UX design relies on an understanding of who will use a product, including the users themselves, tasks and their environment, to ultimately create an experience whereby they want to continue to use the product (Usability.gov 2018). There are a number of variations of UX processes, and a plethora of resources targeted at UX designers available in the grey literature. UX design is also often referred to as user-centred design (UCD) processes, some of which will be outlined later in this chapter. Though UX principles can be applied to any design task, for the purpose of this thesis, UX, design and engagement refer to the online environment. For computer-based interactivities, the majority of UX frameworks are based on the International 63 Organisation for Standardisation’s Standard 9241-210 (International Organisation for Standardisation 2015). The Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C) outlines the basic tasks that encompass the process for designing web applications (Smith, Thorp and Henry 2004), including: • analysing the user or audience, including creating personas • creating a user task list • analysing potential information architecture and workflow • creating the design, including storyboards, navigation, mock-ups and prototypes • evaluating the design with users and conducting appropriate iteration • implementation and deployment. IDEO, a US design and consulting firm, reject the term of user-centred design entirely, instead favouring human-centred design, which they describe as a process to create ‘products, services, experiences and social enterprises’ that are underpinned by people’s core desires (IDEO 2015, p. 9). Their definition of human-centred design also assumes that all problems, including global and systemic issues such as poverty and gender equality are solvable. Others, such as Law et al. (2008), acknowledge the variability in the industry and discuss the goal of establishing a shared definition of user experience. They highlight the difficulties in doing so due to the often-subjective nature of the factors which make up user experience, including emotional, aesthetic, affective and experiential. Furthermore, the ways in which designers analyse and determine the success of a user’s experience is changeable and can focus on the user’s interaction with a single aspect of a website, product or company, the entirety of the interaction, or anywhere in between. Fragmented and pluralist methods are often used when approaching the concept of user experience and experience design, further complicating the production of a definition. A potential explanation for the difficulty in being able to define user experience design is the literature’s struggle to define experience itself. Though Marcus’ (2006) earlier definition of experience was technology-agnostic, Hassenzahl (2010) describes the difficulties in defining experience in the technological space. He describes experience as ‘a story, emerging from the dialogue of a person with her or his world through action’ (p. 8). He suggests there is a tendency to attempt to define experience via the 64 technology used to create it. However, experience is about creating meaning through the device (Hassenzahl 2013); technology can only support the experience. There has been a shift in design, from a focus on the aesthetics, to making products fulfil particular needs, to enabling a meaningful experience (Norman 2011). This is in line with cultural shifts that have seen western society move from one of materialism, to one of experience (Hassenzahl 2013). As with difficulties in defining experience, the literature and industry still struggle with how to measure the effectiveness of a user’s experience. A commonly used metric is engagement, but there is also significant variability in how engagement is considered. A great deal of the literature on engagement focuses on the commercial context, examining the effectiveness of advertising and engagement. For example, Calder, Malthouse and Schaedel (2009) found that individuals can interact with online media on both a personal and social level. In both types of engagement, they found a positive correlation between engagement and advertising effectiveness. There is, however, no agreed upon metric to identify engagement. Whereas in the early days of the commercial Internet, page visits were used, social media has changed the online landscape to include social interaction including liking, commenting and sharing as a measure of engagement (Luarn, Lin and Chiu 2015). In another study, examining participation in e-government issues, Vicente and Novo (2014) uses two types of online participation: reading and sharing opinions about political issues, and taking part in online petitions and public consultations as measures of engagement. Marcus (2006) explores engagement from a different perspective again and discusses evaluation of experience through the lens of the user themselves, such as ethnographic study, shadowing and focus groups, to better understand a user’s socio-cultural context, in addition to standard usability testing. If we consider the difficulty in measuring engagement, and with interactions between users on social media platforms now being used as a metric, it is important to consider sentiment analysis as a potential way of supplementing such data. With a current focus on microblogging platforms such as Twitter, media organisations are increasingly seeking to examine user interactions to extract sentiment towards products and services (Kouloumpis, Wilson and Moore 2011). Though sentiment analysis is not a new area, the challenge in mining sentiment in social media is the breadth of topics discussed, and 65 the significant use of casual and shorthand language (Kouloumpis, Wilson and Moore 2011). Sentiment analysis will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 6. Others are using sentiment analysis to extract specific sentiments within a document, acknowledging that a user can provide multiple sentiments across a range of subject matter. Here, the focus is breaking sentiments down into positive, neutral or negative opinions towards a subject at hand (Nasukawa and Yi 2003). Lindgaard et al. (2006) found, in their study of how quickly users form an opinion about a web page’s visual appeal, that this process occurs within 50 milliseconds. Considering this finding in the context of users who are not catered for using industry standard design approaches suggests that their first impression is of high importance if they are to return to the page with positive sentiment. Furthermore, research suggests should the first impression be negative, a user’s subsequent visits will be more likely to invoke negative sentiment, even if the website is highly useable and provides relevant information (Hassenzahl and Tractinsky 2006; Lindgaard et al. 2006). Mersey, Malthouse and Calder (2015) argue that similar to user experience, the literature has no precise definition for engagement as a concept, and in many cases that the definition is dictated by advertisers. They view online engagement as a collection of experiences, rather than a singular experience. If online engagement is seen as collective experiences, then user experience design processes could be considered limited as they generally focus on a particular task or singular website at hand. However, commercial design processes remain centred in specific processes and frameworks, which will be discussed in the next section. 5.2.1 Common UX design frameworks There are a number of UX frameworks used by the industry, and the selection of a UX framework is determined by a number of factors, including stage within the design and development process, available resources, existing approaches within a particular organisation, and personal preference. Some UX frameworks are more difficult to implement in a production context than others. Two of the most commonly known frameworks are IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking Framework, and IDEO’s Human- Centred Design approach, and these will be outlined below. In addition, there are a number of other frameworks that may be selected due to their simplicity (e.g. BASIC) 66 or due to a particular product development stage or need. Therefore, I will also consider BASIC UX and then Google’s HEART framework. IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking Framework IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking framework is designed for large, dispersed development teams. Its website claims that use of the framework can double the speed of shipping products to market, reduce development time by one third, and provide a return on investment of 300% (IBM n.d.). The framework is positioned as one which will solve user problems while being able to work in an enterprise level environment. It consists of three guiding principles: 1. A focus on user outcomes 2. Continual iteration of the product 3. Empowerment of diverse teams Its iterative focus suggests observing users and taking on real world feedback in a participatory design context, with a focus on observing users of the product in context. On the IBM website, it is stated that the framework encourages UX practitioners to understand users’ hopes and goals but ultimately focus on the context or use cases of the product and its interrelationship with other people, products and environments (IBM n.d.). The incorporation of a ‘sponsor user’ who contributes to the design team as a subject matter expert aims to retain user input throughout the project life cycle. In their case study of IBM’s user experience framework, Vredenburg (2002) describes designing the ‘total user experience’. However, their description of this experience focuses on ensuring that products are easy to use as the primary goal. While claiming to have moved beyond the graphical user interface alone and using multi-disciplinary teams to address the breadth of user senses, there is little acknowledgement of the socio- cultural context of the user in specific use case studies. IDEO’s Human-Centred Design Approach IDEO’s Human-Centred Design Approach is a framework for design thinking that can be applied in a UX context, with the aim of using UX design to solve social problems. The framework divides the design thinking process into three stages: inspiration, ideation and implementation. The framework is less process and use case focused than IBM’s framework, and instead provides a number of research techniques and guidelines for how to use them most effectively for UX researchers (IDEO 2015). 67 BASIC UX BASIC UX is an open source UX framework developed by Dan Smith with the aim of addressing the difficulty of utilising UX frameworks in the production context (Smith 2016). It provides five principles: 1. Beautiful: is the product aesthetically pleasing? It is known that products that users consider attractive are perceived as easier to use? (Meyer 2017) 2. Accessible: can ‘everyone’ use it? Here ‘everyone’ refers to users with a range of abilities, including vision issues or motor skills. 3. Simple: does it make life easier? Does the design provide optimal numbers of choices to allow users to complete tasks? Does it visually balance white space and graphics to produce an intuitive interface? 4. Intuitive: is it easy to use? It is important that a system provide clear pathways and adequate feedback such that the user knows how to complete a task, and that the task has been completed. 5. Consistent: does it match the system? The use of style and design elements throughout the system should be consistent and reuse existing elements and behaviours wherever possible. Google’s HEART framework Google’s HEART framework measures both happiness and engagement and then examines these alongside adoption, retention and task success. Here, engagement in particular is measured by how long or how much a user interacts with a system. While it can provide a good snapshot into user experience, it is limited in that it defines happiness through such metrics as perceived ease of use or net promoter score (Interaction Design Foundation 2016). However, it is task-focused and assumes that lower metrics in these areas are a result of a task being difficult or cumbersome to complete and doesn’t provide scope for examining sentiment more broadly. Comparing the frameworks It is important to note that a common theme between the frameworks is how they position user experience and consider their users in the holistic view of design as a process and as a commercial venture. In particular, though they claim to focus on the user, the majority of the frameworks focus on the outcome (i.e. development of a 68 shippable product) or the process of developing or designing a product in a team setting. Mentions of users and how to interact with them were somewhat cursory and in many cases superficial, which further drove the need for this research to provide additional ways in which to consider and examine user experience. Though some frameworks were well developed in terms of keeping users at the forefront and contributing to the design process continually (such as IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking Framework), even they did not provide guidance or consideration of the range of lived experiences in a user group or how to ensure that by focusing on a particular subset of users. Designs should not alienate or diminish the lived experiences of any group. If a task focus is the aim, then these frameworks are appropriate. But, in reducing users to tasks, it could be argued that the frameworks are too high level to function without lessening or removing participant identities. These frameworks do not focus on non-functional or non-task related requirements that would result in better engagement, such as the messaging used in imagery, the use of language and other approaches to inclusivity. Inclusivity in many cases is defined as accessibility and is understood to mean accessibility for users with disabilities. Though inclusion for disabled users is of crucial importance, inclusion for queer users should not be thought of in the same way, as the implication that queerness is a disability is discursively harmful (Tirrell 2017), nor should queer users be ignored. It is, however, important to point out, that IDEO’s Human-Centred Design Approach makes a point of including the concept of ‘extremes’ - users that they define as not only outside the target user group but on the far ends of the spectrum from this group (IDEO 2015). This rare acknowledgement that users beyond the target group may use a solution, system or website is refreshing, but in the wider review of UX and HCI approaches examined as part of this thesis is unusual and not something often seen reflected in practice. However, this research indicates that the inclusion of ‘extremes’ is of significance in ensuring that designers and wider organisations do not erase the identities of potential users. It is important to point out that all UX frameworks have varying degrees of merit in a design context, and selection of a task-focused UX framework is entirely appropriate in a number of scenarios. 69 5.3 The reproduction of cultural norms in design In order to design a particular experience, it is essential to understand the user, in as many facets as possible. One such important facet is culture. It is known that people from different cultures have different beliefs, values, and attitudes (Khaslavsky and Shedroff 1998). Individuals bring these cultural factors with them whenever they use a website or product, and there have been documented cases of misunderstandings around interactions due to a design being incorrectly positioned for a particular cultural user group (Khaslavsky and Shedroff 1998). Marcus (2006) discusses the technological shift in the previous decade that has allowed products and services to be accessed by an increasingly diverse user group. Content published online immediately has global access, and while the field of HCI originally focused on usability and efficient performance of websites, the expansion of the discipline to include UX design as described earlier has cultural implications. In previous discussion of evaluation of experience and engagement, Marcus (2006) mentioned the importance of understanding a user’s socio-cultural context in both designing and evaluating a product. This is a stance that is oft ignored in the industry context (Wachter-Boettcher 2017), and though it appears a positive step when considered through the global design lens, it still risks reproducing stereotypical cultural norms, as well as excluding users who are on the fringes of their own cultures, such as those with diverse sexualities. Ultimately the literature continues to most frequently think about user experience as a function of the tasks that users need to fulfil. There has been a shift from a purely scenario-driven development approach, which mainly considers a user’s task flow, to user stories. User stories include user personas, which aim to provide design and development teams with a detailed character that they can relate to, including their values, fears, weaknesses and over-all goals (Gruen et al. 2002). However, a considerable weakness of the deployment of personas in user stories is that they continue to embed the user in a task-focused framework, rather than embed the task in the user’s broader context. Furthermore, if users are so called ‘edge cases’ (IDEO 2015) then they will continue to be excluded from such an approach, as personas tend to focus on primary user groups. 70 A particular example of looking beyond the standard archetypes in design is the universal design movement. Though universal design as a concept has been criticised for being impossible to truly implement, as a movement, it has been particularly valuable in raising awareness for disabled users as an oft forgotten minority group who may need to use a range of everyday products. Newall and Gregor (2000) discuss the concept of equitable use, such that a design should be useful and marketable to any group of users. However, they also argue, the constraints imposed on the designer are not always practical (if this is taken literally). A related field, inclusive design, also termed universal usability, requires that designers consider all potential user groups, again including minority groups such as the disabled. The issues described above remain in commercial design processes today, but there is likely a disconnect between the ideals described in literature and the realities of working in the STEM industry. Ultimately, it is rare that universal design as described by Newall and Gregor (2000) or IDEO’s human-centred design framework’s acknowledgement of ‘extremes’ (IDEO 2015) are reflected in design processes. Instead, we see a replication of cultural norms not dissimilar to that described in media representations of women occurring in the design sphere for a large proportion of users. In her book, Technically Wrong, Wachter- Boettcher (2017) explores in depth a number of examples of how technology design enforces particular hegemonic norms, encodes biases, alienates and in some cases even harms a significant number of users, and the impacts that encountering these online experiences has on the user groups which were not considered in their design. She explores the socio-cultural makeup of technology teams. The prominent hegemonic attitudes that her analyses demonstrate are reflected in major systems and platforms that are used every day by millions of users. While users have confirmed that they prefer to be exposed to information that aligns with their views, they are routinely exposed to content that both aligns with and challenges their views in online environments (Cavalcante 2018). However, what is not clear in the literature is the impact that this has on queer women, who we already know from studies of representation and engagement in online communities, rarely see their views represented. Wachter-Boettcher (2017) argues that there is a significant disconnect between the culture of design in technology firms and the design of products and services which are 71 appropriate for as many users as possible. She describes a number of failures in design that have resulted in harm to users due to invocation of racial or homophobic bias and other harmful dominant socio-cultural norms. For example, Google’s automatic photo tagging feature came under fire when it automatically tagged a series of photos of a black user as ‘gorilla’. Google’s response was that image processing for black skin required a different algorithm than white skin, but Wachter-Boettcher’s (2017) question is, if this was known, why was the appropriate algorithm not developed, considering that 38% percentage of the US population is dark-skinned (Chancellor and Gray 2017). Wachter-Boettcher (2017) argues that if we look to the composition of the teams that develop such products, we see suggestions that the products themselves are reflections of the values of the teams that develop them, suggesting a significant failing in a true user experience design process. Looking at Google’s development team, in 2016 they reported that 1% of their development staff were people of colour. Development teams argue that these kind of mistakes are not intended, and that to develop for the so called edge cases makes product design impractical. However, Wachter-Boettcher (2017) suggests that these sort of historical biases are being encoded into AI-type algorithms, which has significantly further reaching consequences for any user who does not belong to the dominant cultural norm. For example, she discusses software that looks for patterns in words to populate functionality such as recommendation engines. These types of software are ‘trained’ in word recognition by providing them large volumes of data to make associations. However, the original data are reflective of historical biases, such as ‘man is to woman as computer programmer is to homemaker’ (Wachter-Boettcher 2017, p. 138), meaning that the software relies on outdated social norms in providing future content to users. In earlier chapters, the issue of male-dominated teams designing media experiences on the assumption of what women want was discussed. The same issue is seen in designing products for women online. Wachter-Boettcher (2017) describes the experience of a woman who wanted to track her menstrual cycle, and so searched for an appropriate mobile phone application to do so. The resultant experience was negative; apps used highly gendered aesthetics such as pink and floral motifs and assumed that a woman’s key reason for using the app was fertility, rather than asking the user. It also made assumptions that all users were in heterosexual relationships. One such period tracking app, Glow, has an entirely male founding team, and has since attempted to reposition 72 their app by launching a second app specifically for period tracking, rather than fertility. However, the new app is still embedded in significantly gendered assumptions, describing sex as only heterosexual, and using demeaning colloquialisms such as ‘girls’ (Wachter-Boettcher 2017). It is important to note that Wachter-Boettcher (2017) acknowledges that designers don’t deliberately intend to produce products that are intentionally racist or homophobic, however she posits that it is important to consider the cultural context in which they are developed. She cites Silicon Valley as an example, and cites numerous examples of routine sexism, racism and exclusion of staff who are not young, white and male. She further argues that if these organisations do not acknowledge these sorts of exclusionary practices within their own walls, and further that the industry does not reflect the diversity of the users whom it is producing for, then it is unlikely that there will be consideration that these same practices are replicated in the products they produce. It has also been suggested that technology design could become more responsive to flexible gender in a user base if male bias in both technical culture and product design were removed (Rode 2011). As discussed earlier in this chapter, the use of personas, stories and scenarios can result in narrow thinking about users, particularly if users fall outside those personas. There is a risk that once completed, designers and developers no longer think beyond those personas and only design for the characters contained within, thereby further contributing, though unintentionally, to the exclusion and silencing of other user groups. Wachter-Boettcher (2017) discusses the concept of defaults in technology. Though generally considered a time-saver for users, examining defaults can also be used to identify the sorts of cultural norms and biases that are embedded in design. For example, in a study of fifty ‘endless runner’ style mobile games, it was found that nine contained non-gendered characters, such as animals, but of the remaining forty-one, all but one offered a male character, but less than half had a female character. Furthermore, of those that did have a female character, only 15% were included as a default option, and the rest were available for purchase. Even more concerning was the purchase price for female characters, on average nearly twenty-eight times the cost of the original app (Wachter-Boettcher 2017). 73 Considering the combination of personas with defaults provides additional examples of design reproducing cultural norms. For example, Etsy, an online marketplace focused on handmade goods sent users an alert prior to Valentine’s Day in 2017. It read: ‘We’ve got what he wants. Shop Valentine’s Day for him’ (Wachter-Boettcher 2017, p. 33). Etsy’s team includes women, however in this case the imagined ideal user was a heterosexual woman, and consideration was not given to those users who would fall outside of this category. 5.4 Inclusive design for queer women In their exploration of feminist research in online spaces, particularly discussing the problematic lack of distinction between categories such as personal and private, or personal and political, Morrow, Hawkins and Kern (2015) acknowledges that the Internet exists, reflects and sometimes reproduces problematic social structures, including patriarchal norms. They discuss the concept of visibility and how Internet technologies such as blogging provide a space to make typically invisible issues visible, such as women’s domestic label. They ask the reader to consider how online spaces contribute to invisibility and silencing, but do not yet have a solution. The limitations of user experience design as a field, coupled with the make up of and culture within technology design and development teams, continue to contribute to the invisibility of queer women and non-heterosexual users more broadly. While some literature is beginning to acknowledge these issues, such as Wachter-Boettcher (2017), the wider literature remains focused on UX design as an extension of HCI. By putting users central to the design process, to some extent considers the previously discussed issues already solved. However, there is limited literature that considers the impact of the ‘edge case’, and even then, UX processes remain heavily task-focused. As such, the grey literature has been examined to identify specific recommendations for designing for queer women. Furthermore, designing for LGBTIQ individuals remains problematic in so far as LGBTIQ users are often seen as one group, when they are in fact separate populations (Institute of Medicine 2011; McNamara and Descubes 2016). Even in the recommendations outlined below, it is worthy of note that it was difficult to locate and identify recommendations specifically for queer women, and some areas of grey literature continue to discuss queer UX as an encompassing area. 74 Universal design, though problematic when considering queer users due to its links to accessibility in the context of disability design (Tirrell 2017), is at least considering the needs of queer users. Suggestions include taking particular care around gender, such as a free text field or the option to have no gender, ability to hide identifying information and not making assumptions around gender presentation, such as using signifiers for ‘woman’ that include pink or dresses (Bringolf 2018; Ricardo 2018). Ricardo (2018) also recommends an intersectional approach when developing marketing materials, as depicting only a small example of a larger demographic will not depict the broader lived experience of a range of users. This recommendation particularly aligns with issues identified in targeted marketing towards LGBTIQ users (McNamara and Descubes 2016). In direct contrast to Wachter-Boettcher’s (2017) Etsy case study, Ricardo (2018) also recommends avoiding assumptions about users’ relationships, and to particularly avoid assumptions that women only partake in heterosexual relationships. Ricardo (2018) also calls for cultural change at the company level, and identifies that it is not enough to simply diversify staff, as Wachter-Boettcher (2017) also acknowledges. Reyes (2018) acknowledges the use of gender scripts in the design process, which result in designers making a number of assumptions regarding how users behave. These assumptions are then translated into specific product features. Wachter-Boettcher (2017) cites an example in which, despite female members of staff conducting significant user research with other women for the design of a smart watch, male staff members refused to consider them, and designed a product based on their own assumptions of what women wanted, which ultimately failed. As the literature has demonstrated, these assumptions can be exclusionary, silencing and harmful. As such, Reyes (2018) discusses the intersection of queer theory with design processes and how it can be used to break down such assumptions around strict gender categories. Though discussed from a health perspective, The Institute of Medicine (2011) recommends that in order to be able to design inclusively for queer women, a number of perspectives should be considered including: • stress and stigma experienced by queer women; • the specific lived experience of queer women in both the long and short term; 75 • the intersectional nature of queer, acknowledging that sexuality is only one factor that makes up the identity of a queer woman; and • a queer woman’s socio-cultural context. Prochner (n.d.) recommends that designers should seek to understand the complexity and ever-changing nature of queer subjectivities, particularly around sex and gender. There is also some suggestion that assumptions should be multi-directional; thus far the literature has only highlighted where designers make assumptions that result in harm to users. It is suggested that if design researchers identify a product that they feel might be harmful to a user, that the finding should be validated with the user. Here we see an example of where user experience design can be extended into participatory design, with the aim of increasing inclusivity in design and reduction of stereotypes (Prochner n.d.). 5.5 Conclusion This chapter has provided a high-level overview of the user experience design field, noting the complexity that surrounds an agreed upon definition of user experience design, engagement and experience itself. To some extent, this variability is seen reflected in UX design processes and how users are considered in practice. Despite a shift from HCI and task-focused approaches to user-centred and experience-focused processes, there remains a strong focus on usability over lived experience. As with studies of women’s representation in the media, the literature is suggestive that hegemonic cultural norms in the technology industry continue to result in the reproduction and enforcement of particular assumptions about who users are and how they are engaging with a range of products and services. The limited literature around how to design inclusively for queer women makes a number recommendations, many of them underpinned by the removal of harmful stereotypes and use of assumptions around gender. However, these recommendations seem tokenistic when considered against the scale of the cultural shift within the technology industry that the literature suggests needs to occur before true inclusive design for queer women can occur. 76 Chapter 6 6. Methodology 6.1 Introduction The previous chapters have outlined the importance of considering gender and sexuality in online contexts, with particular reference to the continuum now formed between mainstream ‘offline’ media and online spaces. Use of the Internet in mainstream culture is ubiquitous, and ongoing research has been conducted to explore how LGBTIQ individuals use online spaces to construct their identity (Alexander 2002; Guzzetti 2008; Laukkanen 2007; Munt, Bassett and O'Riordan 2002; Turkle 1995), although there is still much work to be done. The previous chapters also discussed the issue of intelligibility, acknowledging that the majority of communication undertaken online occurs in written and visual languages that do not cater for all variations of gender and sexuality, rendering individuals unintelligible. This chapter outlines the use of an interdisciplinary mixed methods approach to explore the ways in which queer women experience websites. The chapter combined methods which assume fixed identities, demographics and social characteristics, such as those used in advertising and marketing, with more fluid approaches that acknowledge the often-unstable nature of queer identity. It took a constructivist approach to identity formation, acknowledging that it is both ongoing and contextualised. An exploration of the way participants perceived their online experiences and how this contributed to the sentiment of those experiences was conducted alongside considerations of the design and content, and interactions with a series of websites, some selected by participants and others provided. The approach taken in this thesis builds on previous research (Alexander 2002; Fraser 2009), allowing for an ongoing scholarly engagement and analysis of queer use and representation (Alexander 2002). This chapter first outlines the research questions and demonstrates how feminist positionings and queer theory, underpinned by post- structuralism, were used to inform and define the methodology. It goes on to discuss the situatedness of the researcher herself and the importance of acknowledging the multiple and shifting roles, relationships and levels of power present throughout the research. Finally, the chapter details the research process. 77 6.2 The research questions Previous research (Fraser 2009; Gross 2007; Heinz et al. 2002) cites the Internet as something seen as removed from day-to-day lived experiences. This research seeks to step forward from this and acknowledges the blurred lines, even inseparability of online and physical spaces. The key research questions to be addressed by this thesis are: 1. Are queer women aware of how they are represented in media and online environments? 2. How do queer women respond to inappropriate, inadequate or stereotypical representations in online environments? 3. How can designers better align representations of queer women with their lived experience in an online design context? 4. What changes need to occur to typically used UX design frameworks to better accommodate and represent queer women? 6.3 Methodological approach It is important to address the methodologies developed and demonstrate their appropriateness to answer the research questions. Two key standpoints have been taken in developing the methodology; feminist positionings, and queer theory. These two theories are steeped in post-structuralist thought. While it is not the aim of this research to explore post-structuralism in great depth, some of its key tenets have been used as a starting point for further thought. Post-structuralism takes its focus on the differences between people, how these differences are constructed, and how they impact lived experiences (Sullivan 2003). It allows us to analyse the meaning of categories that we take for granted, such as woman, gay, straight (Bohlmann n.d.). Given that an underlying question of this research seeks to examine how certain discourses are normalised in online spaces, it is important to step back and look at their construction. While Lyotard talks about ‘grand narratives’, discourses and practices that are universal in a given context, leaving no room for difference (Sullivan 2003), Foucault, in Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison, refers to them as normalising discourses. He examines the ways in which these discourses constitute difference by degree, and questions how many degrees of difference are necessary before a person is no longer within the norm. A link can then be drawn between unintelligibility and othering here. Historically, post structuralism 78 and feminist positionings have been used in research that examines discourse construction, embodiment and power (Fraser 2009; Sullivan 2003). Judith Butler (1990), one of the foremost academics in feminist post-structuralism, argues, like Foucault, that there is no truth outside of that which is socially constructed. If we take this position, we must accept that individual identity is also socially constructed. Individuals may self-define or identify with mainstream social categories. In this way, individuals maintain their agency, but frame themselves within socially constructed paradigms. Queer and feminist approaches advocate for the agency of individuals in defining their own truths. However, it should also be considered that this flexibility within dominant discourses that allows for marginalised minority voices is also a mechanism for reinforcing dominance (Hodges and Kress 1988). Relationships between individuals, discourses and their social context require continual deconstruction as they continue to evolve. Therefore, it is important to consider an adapted post-structuralist approach that acknowledges the impact that experience can have on either continuing or disrupting power. A critique of discourse analysis as a general approach is its ignorance of evolving relationships (Bohlmann n.d.) - as such, this research seeks to account for agency by acknowledging both the subject and their experience and explore how this relationship leads to further experiences and the formation of sentiment, whether within existing categories or outside of them. The feminist and post-structuralist approaches proposed share some overlap with action research, which aims to challenge and unsettle power arrangements that are entrenched within everyday relationships, cultural and institutional practices. Post structuralism is a useful tool for analysing the discourses that create these arrangements, and feminist theories, though contentious, can contribute to this approach by focusing on power relations that lead to gender inequalities that are seen as normal. Given the strong focus on gender in this research, a feminist standpoint is valuable in examining the normalisation of inequalities (Frisby, Maguire and Reid 2009). While it is important to identify the value of this approach, it is equally important to critique its limitations. A particular criticism of feminist theories is that they have become elitist through the use of highly jargonistic language (Frisby, Maguire and Reid 2009). Others, such as Sullivan (2003), highlight the potential for both feminist and queer theories to silence people of colour and the disabled. While particularly positivist 79 approaches to research provide clear guidelines, approaches and methodological alignments, the same cannot be said for feminist approaches to research. While this research takes a feminist approach to post-structuralism, this is but one approach to feminist research, and there are many equally valid ways to conduct such research (Clegg 1975). Instead, others (Agozino 1995; Clegg 1975) have argued that what is feminist about research is not the methods used, but the questions asked and the way results are interpreted. This suggests a commitment to anti-positivism, and aligns with post-structuralism’s approach to analysing the discourses that lead to the stereotyping, categorisation and ultimately subordination of women. The value of queer theory as a supporting methodological approach is seen here as this research seeks not only to identify and analyse these discourses, but also disrupt them. As discussed, this research aims to use feminist post-structuralist approaches to analyse the construction and meaning of normative categories. In practice it will ensure consideration is given to both the development of the research questions, data collection and interpretation against existing categories, while queer theory will be used to design, analyse and interpret the data in ways that disrupt these categories (Fraser 2009). As has been seen with feminist approaches to research, there is no one approach, nor one definition of queer theory. Queer thinking argues for the acceptance that subjects and subjectivities are tenuous and continually evolving, therefore an approach to address this must be in itself continually evolving and resist definition (Nash and Browne 2012). Queer theory utilises a similar approach to feminist post-structuralist thinking, but extends it to suggest that heterosexual understandings of sex and gender are the central organising principles of western society and all social relationships and institutions within it. Queer theory wants to make visible the notion of fluidity within these understandings and therefore the relationships which they connect. In doing so, it can challenge not only these relationships, but the categories they form and the impact this has on those within the heterosexual/homosexual binary, as well as those who fall outside of it. It further seeks to address the privilege of heterosexual as natural and homosexual as the ‘other’ (Nash and Browne 2012). If we accept that the self is created through immersion in culture, and thus constructed through relationships with systems of power, knowledge, and others within that system 80 (Sullivan 2003), we can begin to use these standpoints to examine the discourses created by websites, what this means for intelligibility of users, how this contributes to their sentiment towards the websites and ultimately their experience online. When we consider the issue of being unintelligible, or ‘other’, it is important to take a critical stance. A number of authors (Butler 1990; Eklund 2011; Hale 2006; Langer 2011) discuss ‘othering’ from a negative or exclusionary perspective, assuming that the impacts on identity formation or experience are stunting or of a lesser value to those in the constructed norm. However, queer theory provides us a valuable tool in examining and acknowledging the constructed nature of lived experience, and in that, creating one’s own identity, systems of knowledge and categorisation. That this differs between individuals highlights queer theory’s power to disrupt the concept of a norm and is evidenced by the huge variation within the queer community in terms of the use of labels, or active resistance against labels, with respect to sexuality and gender. Yet simply self-defining as queer is not enough to move one outside of normalising discourses. Even within the queer community, there are ideals, norms and expected behaviour, evidenced by the mistrust of femme lesbians and the simultaneous invisibility and contempt suffered by bisexuals. Modern queer narratives still focus on the figure of the white, affluent male and ignore women, people of colour, and the disabled. As such it is important to ensure that in designing this research, these normative ideals are not further enforced. Given the constant flux of ‘queer’ as a category, quite representative of the theory itself, we must consider approaches to data analysis, when examining normative categories, where there is in fact no one norm. Here the subjectivities and experiences of participants will be crucial, and it is imperative that data interpretation is done in such a way that does not privilege one experience over another. 6.4 Situating the researcher Feminist and queer theories, through their acknowledgement of constructed discourses and identity, allow the researcher to explore and examine the issue of power between the researcher and the researched. Feminist approaches call for reflexivity that acknowledges the position of the researcher and examines the research encounter (Clegg 1975). 81 The relationship between researcher and participant is in and of itself artificial, in that if not for the research, the researcher and participant would otherwise usually not have any relationship; therefore, it is crucial to acknowledge both the positioning and situated nature of the researcher throughout this project. It is important to explore this researcher’s own relationship to the subject at hand as well as the participants. To take a feminist post-structuralist approach, the researcher must recognise their own proximity to the research (Fraser 2009). This can be multidimensional. For example, as a lesbian woman, the notion of shared experience of being a member of a minority group means I may be able to form different relationships or have different understandings of participants than those outside of marginalised groups. As an Internet user, I have experienced many of the biases, issues of unintelligibility and invisibility that have led to the research questions. Yet as a user experience and digital designer by profession, I am often positioned and compelled by industry standards as having to enact the very biases and implement the same highly stereotyped, normalised and demographic based frameworks that this research seeks to analyse and deconstruct. Unlike the clear objectivity and unbiased approaches to research dictated by positivist approaches, using a feminist or queer approach seeks to continually examine not only the relationship between the participants and their own experiences, but the relationship between the researcher and participants throughout the research project. As such, it is not fruitful to remove my own experiences from the research. Instead, using a feminist and post-structuralist framework, I acknowledge my own positioning. According to Foucault (1980): Power is employed and exercised through net-like organization. And not only do individuals circulate between the threads; they are always in the position of simultaneously undergoing and exercising this power (p. 98). In her research into LGBT identity formation, Fraser (2009) noted that disclosing her sexuality to participants improved rapport and enabled particular understandings that may have been challenging for heterosexual researchers. Combined with a history of negative research experiences, particularly in psychological research, there is a perception that the population may be less mistrustful of LGBT researchers. Following Fraser’s approach, being upfront about my own sexuality may help to make participants more comfortabl01e (2009). Feminist approaches to research suggest that involving participants should go even further, allowing participants to be involved with the 82 analysis of data and taking their interpretations of their own data on board (Agozino 1995; Clegg 1975). This approach is important in acknowledging and disrupting the traditional (and somewhat unequal) power dynamic between a researcher and participant. Traditional guidelines suggest that research should be one-directional, with the researcher asking all the questions and the participant providing all the information (Agozino 1995). However, Oatley (1981) suggests that from a feminist and queer perspective, to disrupt the power dynamic as well as to commit to a reflexive account of shared experiences, the researcher should expect to share as much as the participant. 6.5 Undertaking the research The research utilised an interdisciplinary and mixed methods approach. Interviews, surveys and reflective activities were undertaken by 36 participants aged 18+ years of age. An additional participant, aged 16, also approached the researcher and requested to participate. Her inclusion was granted after signed permission was provided from a legal guardian. The following section will outline individual aspects of the research process including ethics, participant selection, research instruments, data collection and analysis. 6.5.1 Ethics Ethics is an important consideration in all aspects of a research project, but particularly during the development of the research design and implementation, as ethical considerations must be incorporated into this design. Ethics approval for this study was granted under program approval of the Interaction Design and Human Practice laboratory at UTS. Ethics protocols were strictly followed regarding providing appropriate information to participants, gaining consent, and maintaining confidentiality. The processes for these are explained in the following sections. 6.5.2 Participant selection and exclusion Participants were recruited via social media including Twitter and Facebook (see Appendix 1). Through these online spaces, the researcher has access to an extended network of LGBTIQ contacts and through the process of ‘re-tweeting’ or ‘sharing’, the invitation was disseminated. It was planned that if the initial approach did not generate the required number of participants then the search would be extended via Facebook 83 Groups and online forums, such as Same Same, OutNation or Empty Closets, but this proved unnecessary. A website was set up (see Appendix 2) to both invite participants and provide more information about the study and participants were advised to contact the researcher via the site. For invitations to participants distributed via Facebook or Twitter, participants were invited to contact the researcher via Facebook Messenger, Twitter Direct Message, or simply by completing the initial survey. At this time, participants were provided more information around the research and consent processes (described below). As this study sought to examine the online experiences of LGBTIQ users, users who self-identify within this group were preferred. However non-LGBTIQ users were not excluded in order to provide a ‘control group’ against which the experience of LGBTIQ users could be compared. Should non-LGBTIQ users have been excluded from the study, then it would not have been possible to ascertain whether the themes that arose from the experiences discussed were exclusive to queer women, or applied to other groups as well. Furthermore, the approach used resisted the labelling and categorisation of individuals based on normative social categories, and as such this was not a selection criterion. Participants were asked to self-identify their gender and sexuality using open text boxes in order to remain true to their own felt identities, rather than forced to align with selected categories. The study aimed to create detailed and vivid insights into participants through ongoing interaction. Ultimately, detailed discussions with participants occurred, particularly during the interview phase. As such, large numbers of participants were not required. It was expected that 10-12 participants would self-select, to balance appropriate amounts of data with project feasibility, however a total of 35 participants were included in the study, including five who participated in the initial study pilot. The study aimed to be as inclusive as possible, therefore it did not exclude participants on the basis of sexuality or gender, however, the following groups were excluded on the grounds of feasibility and consent issues: • Participants had to be over 18, particularly as the subject matter in the research addressed sexuality. While participants had to be legally and ethically able to consent to participation in research, having an upper limit on age, or in fact, placing participants into age-based demographic categories was not required or 84 fruitful in the context of this research. For younger individuals, particularly those who were not yet ‘out’, consideration had to be taken regarding their safety, privacy, and particularly issues of power. • Participants had to be daily users of the Internet for browsing/recreational purposes. As the study aimed to examine experience against web development frameworks, it asked users to regularly reflect on the websites that they viewed. If participants were not regular Internet users, the technology may have provided an unnecessary barrier to completing the study, and furthermore the interaction with the websites would not have been reflective of their day-to-day engagement with online media. The use of social media to recruit participants was a successful application of the snowballing principle described by many (Browne 2007; Heckathorn 1997; Kalton and Anderson 1986). Browne (2007) describes the difficulty with ‘surfacing’ potential participants in non-normative populations (in her example, non-heterosexual women). She suggests that the use of the researcher’s own connections can help to reach those who would otherwise be unresponsive or difficult to locate. The interpersonal communication conducted by the participants throughout social media networks is reflected in how the call to participate may be distributed and shared, and the required number of participants reached through degrees of separation from the researcher. Heckathorn (1997) describes an issue with the snowball sampling approach, mainly that the sample is never truly random, instead it is selected through reliance on the initial sample. This was reflected in the sample, as some participants who initially volunteered were known to the researcher. However, as the study progressed, the degrees of separation increased, and when asked where they found the call to participate in the study, a number of participants cited individuals who had shared the Facebook post or Tweet that had no relation to either the researcher or initial participants, suggesting that in this case a degree of randomness began to occur. For the purposes of this research, the snowballing approach was highly effective; and generated significantly more responses than were expected at the outset of the study. When asked how they had come across the study, many participants indicated that they had seen the post shared by a Facebook contact, or retweeted on Twitter. Many of the later individuals who had shared the call to participate were not known to the researcher, suggesting that the concept of sharing in and of itself is a form of 85 snowballing, whether it results in a successful recruitment or not. Participants were all Australian, with one participant living overseas. Being Australian was not a requirement of the research, and likely a side effect of the snowballing approach. Though the concept of disrupting the power dynamic between researcher and participant has been considered throughout the project, and bi-directional sharing of information was an important part of the interview process for all participants, the decision was made to de- identify all participants using a random code prior to data analysis such that all data could be examined discretely and without bias. 6.5.3 Information and consent After agreeing to participate in the research, participants were provided with an information sheet (Appendix 3) and consent form (Appendix 4), prepared according to University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) requirements. The information sheet outlined the tasks that the participants would be required to complete, the timeframes, and contact information for the researcher. This documentation would be provided to participants’ nominated email addresses or as an attachment via an online chat service (e.g. Facebook Messenger). Consent was requested from participants at each stage of the research, in order to provide the participants opportunity to confirm their continued willingness to participate. Dependent on the current activity, consent was either provided verbally (a phone interview), or acknowledgment via completion of a survey. After agreeing to participate in the research, participants were sent an initial survey via email or chat link. Participants were notified via the survey cover sheet (see Appendix 5) that completion of the survey constituted consent. For interviews conducted via online chat, participants were asked to provide written consent in the chat window before the interview commenced, and were reminded at regular intervals that at any time they could withdraw consent and cease the interview for any reason. A similar approach was taken for face-to-face interviews. Confidentiality was an important consideration in all phases of the research. As the majority of the research participants identified as LGBTIQ, it was imperative that no participants were identifiable or subject to any breach of confidentiality. Although there is a perception that society is growing more accepting of LGBTIQ people, the risks of 86 violence, harassment and estrangement from family are still high for many members of this group. Participant confidentiality was assured during both data collection and data analysis by the use of pseudonyms and removal of any reference to other identifying information such as name of workplace or educational institution or home suburb. Additionally, as all participants were sourced via online environments, participants were able to assume a fake online name if they wished. While participants were given the option of conducting the study face-to-face (e.g. at a library, or cafe), all preferred to do so over email and phone. One participant opted to conduct an interview via FaceTime. 6.5.4 Research methods The following research methods were used to gather the data that formed this research. This section describes the intersection of the method with the methodological approach and addresses any issues or limitations of the method. Keeping in mind the use of feminist post-structuralist thinking processes, and queer theory, in all aspects of the research design, Fraser (2009) highlighted the importance of ensuring that data collection strategies do not reinforce assumed or stereotypical categories, nor emphasise heteronormative power structures. Questionnaires The research utilised questionnaires in its initial stages. Participants were asked to identify the websites (both social media and other) that they use most frequently (see Appendix 5). Participants were also asked to categorise the websites according to genre (such as news). Based on these categories, websites within similar categories that the participants did not report viewing frequently were selected by the researcher with the purpose of providing participants websites that were similar in theme or function but not part of their day-to-day browsing experience. It was important to include websites from similar categories, but which were not part of participants’ every day browsing, to be able to examine initial emotional responses to new designs and content. From this, the list of websites for ongoing reflection and analysis was established. The majority of fields in the questionnaire were free text to ensure that participants were not forced into incorrect categories, particularly with regard to gender identity and sexuality. It is acknowledged that this is non-standard for questionnaires or survey instruments; the implications as such are discussed in section 6.7.2. 87 Clegg (1975) discusses the rejection of the survey method within feminist (and here I add queer) methodologies, on the basis that they cannot be used to capture the lives of women. However, I would extend this argument to suggest that, if used as a means of capturing demographic information, surveys do not capture the lives of any individual, instead they align individuals to a ‘best fit’ arbitrary category determined by the survey writer. Clegg’s (1975) argument is still valid, however, as she discusses that surveys generally created for women assume that their life experiences are limited to the home and family. This is a very narrow representation of women, who in fact exist across many social categories. Furthermore, since the language of surveys adheres to this normative, and as Clegg argues, patriarchal language, they can render women’s experiences ‘unspeakable’ (1975). As such, it is imperative that the language in surveys does not perpetuate existing categories, nor does it silence or remove agency from participants. From the perspective of queer theory, the use of surveys must also be considered. In particular, demographic questioning fixes identities and subjectivities to a category and to one moment in time. Queer theory views both subjects and subjectivities as fluid and perpetually evolving based on their experiences in the world. As such, Nash and Browne (2012) question whether it is valuable to collect data that is changeable. The same argument can be applied to interviews here. The solution to this issue is not simple nor entirely transparent, however it requires continual reflection on the part of the researcher in terms of ensuring that participants are not fixed in categories nor that oppressive power dynamics are enforced. Involving the participants in the review of how data are ultimately categorised and the narratives written based on these data is one approach that can assist in mitigating this concern. Photo narratives and reflections Participants were given a series of reflective tasks (see Appendix 6) to conduct when viewing the selected websites. The reflective questions were developed after the initial questionnaire results were collated and analysed to ensure relevance to the types of websites regularly visited by participants. Participants were also given the option of submitting a voice recording of their thoughts. Participants were sent their reflective questions via email or SMS (based on preference) and asked to submit them in the medium of their choosing (e.g. email, Facebook message, SMS, voice recording). 88 Participants then returned their responses, and where relevant, screen grabs of the websites they visited. Data from photo narratives were then used to inform the semi- structured interviews. Photo narratives are a series of guiding questions to prompt a participant to tell a story of their experience while looking at a particular image; in this case the concept was extended whereby the participant was examining a website. Photo narratives, and associated reflections were used to answer research questions 1 and 2 below: 1. Are queer women aware of how they are represented in media and online environments? 2. How do queer women respond to inappropriate, inadequate or stereotypical representations in online environments? Mulligan, Scanlon and Welch (2008), in their work on art, community and inclusion, used photo narrative as a method to involve people who might suffer some degree of social isolation. This is an interesting approach in the context of this research. Members of the LGBTIQ community are known to suffer higher degrees of social isolation when compared to the general heterosexual community (Alexander 2002). Furthermore, this research aims to explore a link between visual design as a discursive, and thus potentially heteronormative, practice, and experience. Mulligan, Scanlon and Welch (2008) used surveys to provide a broad view of the participants, however it was the photo narrative technique that allowed them to target social groupings who found participation in their community problematic. Similarly, this technique can be used in this project to identify and explore problems with existing designs and online spaces, and impact on experience. Semi-structured participatory interviews Interviews were held with participants following receipt of the photo narrative data. Each interview ran for on average 45-60 minutes and was conducted either via phone or an online medium (e.g. Skype, Facebook chat), depending on the location, availability and preference of the participant. The purpose of the interviews was to: • form a picture of each participant and their online usage; • expand on the information provided by participants during the photo narrative part of the study; 89 • further understand participants’ emotional responses to online environments; • understand how participants read, interpreted and categorised the information they were exposed to, and its impact on their experience; and • allow them to situate themselves within the research. These conversations were recorded with participant consent using an iPhone and transcribed manually into Microsoft Word. The interview process used a semi- structured open questioning approach. The semi-structured interviews were used to answer the following research questions: 1. How can designers better align representations of queer women with their lived experience in an online design context? 2. What changes need to occur to typically used UX design frameworks to better accommodate and represent queer women? Similarly to questionnaires and surveys, there are methodological issues that must be considered when using interviews as a method. As mentioned, the use of fixed categories, which can be seen through closed interview questioning, prevents the deconstruction and destabilisation of the data collected, and also removes agency from participants to determine their own positioning. Furthermore, the traditional approach to interviewing puts in place a hierarchy of power between the researcher and participant (Agozino 1995), and the expectation is such that the researcher asks all the questions, and the participant is a ‘source of data’ (Oatley 1981). In the interest of objective research, the researcher should have no emotional involvement with the interview. However, others (Cotterill 1992; Oatley 1981) disagree with this approach to data collection and similarly to Clegg (1975) suggest a narrative approach, or what Cotterill (1992) calls a participatory model, by way of removing the hierarchy between researchers and participants. While the participatory model has its own criticisms (discussed later in this chapter), it is thought to be better than a patriarchally-centred research approach (Cotterill 1992; Lyons and Chipperfield 2000). A guided conversation is a more appropriate approach to this method. Oatley (1981) calls this ‘nonhierarchical interviewing’ and argues for its use not only in terms of politics (here, its alignment with queer theory) but additionally the quality of the data collected. By involving the participant in the process, there is less chance of drawing false conclusions. 90 6.5.5 The websites studied A list of websites to use for the purpose of this study was compiled based on a random selection of websites identified by participants in the initial questionnaire, as those that they viewed regularly, as well as some selected by the researcher in similar categories (Table 1). These websites were based in Australia, the US and the UK. Social media websites such as Facebook were excluded due to their inclusion of an infinite number of other websites via the newsfeed; instead participants were asked to separate their social media usage from their wider browsing. The target audience and assumed demographics of each website were considered, ensuring a wide range of coverage. It should also be acknowledged that there is a limitation within most feminist-based media research concentrated in developed media economies such that it focuses more so on the representation of white women over women of colour, however the selection of websites was driven by those identified by participants in the initial questionnaire. It was acknowledged that the categories and demographics used by media and advertising in the creation of such websites are based on normative and stereotypical categories (Gill 2007), which was important to provide this research with a starting point from which to deconstruct and disrupt such categories. 91 Table 1: The websites studied and participant categorisations Website Description Website category After Ellen From the website: ‘Founded in 2002, AfterEllen.com quickly became the largest and most Pop culture/ comprehensive website dedicated to the representation of lesbian/bi women in popular culture. Since entertainment website http://www.afterellen.com/ then, the site has continued to expand its reach beyond coverage of lesbian/bi pop culture and is now the go-to resource for a lesbian/bi perspective on all entertainment news.’ Autostraddle From the website: ‘Autostraddle is an intelligent, hilarious and provocative voice and a Queer female progressively feminist online community for a new generation of kickass lesbian, bisexual and community hub, news https://www.autostraddle.com/ otherwise inclined ladies (and their friends).’ and entertainment Brain Pickings From the website: ‘Brain Pickings is my one-woman labor of love — a subjective lens on what Personal blog / matters in the world and why. Mostly, it’s a record of my own becoming as a person — information sharing https://www.brainpickings.org/ intellectually, creatively, spiritually — and an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a website good life.’ Femail From the website: ‘Check out the latest fashion, beauty, health, relationship and diet tips for women News / tabloid website from the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ femail/index.html GoFugYourself GoFugYourself is a blog focusing on comedic recaps of celebrity fashion. Its tagline is ‘fugly is the N/A new pretty’ and the site covers ‘fashion disasters’, recaps of red carpet events, TV and the http://www.gofugyourself.com/ movements of the British Royals. 92 Website Description Website category The participants did not explicitly refer to a genre or purpose for the GoFugYourself website; instead citing it as having been created for women, potentially in their 20s-30s. More implicitly it was implied that the purpose of the website was to keep up to date with celebrity trends and gossip and shared similarity with women’s magazines. IFL Science From the website: ‘We’re here for the science - the funny side of science. Quotes, jokes, memes and Scientific information more. We’re dedicated to bringing the amazing world of science to you!’ sharing website http://www.iflscience.com/ Mamamia Mamamia is an Australian independent women’s website. It claims a readership of approximately News / women’s four million Australians per month. While the site began as a blog on the experience of motherhood, magazine website http://www.mamamia.com.au/ it has expanded to now cover social commentary, politics and entertainment. On its ‘about us’ page, it describes its stance as in favour of improving women’s representation in the media, pro-body positivity, an advocate for children’s rights and safety, a platform to voice abuse and mental health issues, and in favour of humanitarian actions for refugees and climate change. Star Observer From the website: ‘The Star Observer is the online presence of a monthly magazine distributed News website across Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and select regional Australian locations. It http://www.starobserver.com.au/ provides in-depth independent journalism across issues facing the LGBTI community.’ Taste From the website: ‘taste.com.au aims to deliver an experience that is useful, practical and enjoyable Recipe catalogue - with simple search tools and themed recipe collections to make it easy for you to enjoy great food. website http://www.taste.com.au/ Cooking and eating is all about sharing experiences. taste.com.au is here to make that happen 93 Website Description Website category through our online forums and comments and ratings that you can add to individual recipes.’ The Age From the website: ‘The Age has the latest local news on Melbourne, Victoria. Read National News News website from Australia, World News, Business News and Breaking News stories.’ http://www.theage.com.au/ Tom’s Hardware From the website: ‘The Tom’s Hardware editors proudly consider themselves members of the Computer hardware enthusiast community. The team includes experts in CPUs, graphics processing, motherboards, sales and reviews http://www.tomshardware.com/ cases, display technology, system memory, consumer and enterprise storage, power supplies, peripherals, smartphones, tablets, games, gaming consoles and more.’ Taking Shape (formerly TS14) From the website: ‘Taking Shape is a global leader in plus-size clothing with stores in Australia and Online clothing store New Zealand. For over 30 years, Taking Shape has been a cornerstone brand for curvy women, https://takingshape.com.au/ specialising in fashion forward designer collections in sizes 12-24.’ Note that those websites with less than five responses were excluded from the data analysis due to lack of data. These can be viewed in Appendix 7. 94 6.6 Participant data analysis After de-identification, data from the participant interviews, questionnaires, and reflections were coded manually using a paper-based approach and then later entered into Microsoft Excel, to provide a way to assist the researcher develop categories, connections and new interpretations of the data. 6.6.1 Generation of emergent themes To draw themes from the participant responses, a systematic approach was taken to working through the data. First, the photo narrative responses were examined, and organised by websites. The responses were then used to inform the semi-structured interviews. An initial scan of potentially emergent themes was conducted. Participant responses were found to have focused on three key areas - website purpose, representation and emotional response. Responses for each website were organised against these three categories, and emergent themes captured. Each theme was then written on a post-it note and grouped according to affinity mapping principles (Dorrington et al. 2016). Similar or duplicated themes were consolidated. Using the thematic networks approach described by Attride-Stirling (2001), the emergent themes (basic themes) were grouped into organising themes (see Figure 1). The participant photo narrative responses, originally organised by website, were then mapped against the themes to validate them. As discussed further in section 6.7.5, the photo narratives were richer than expected, so interviews were to some extent used to validate the existing data, rather than gather new themes. However, each interview transcript was examined and sorted by quotes that were specific to websites included in the study, and those which were more generalised discussions regarding online experience. All data were then examined together to be mapped against the themes that emerged from the photo narrative reflective data and used to validate the emerging themes. Finally, themes were mapped to individual websites. 95 Figure 1: Structure of a thematic network (adapted from Attride-Stirling, 2001). 6.6.2 Sentiment analysis As a supplement to thematic analysis, and acknowledging its limitations, participant data were combined with sentiment analysis as a way of further strengthening a framework for participant engagement, acknowledging here the importance of emotional response in engagement. Sentiment analysis was also used to contribute to answering Research Question 2: How do queer women respond to inappropriate, inadequate or stereotypical representations in online environments? Sentiment analysis, in its more contemporary applications, uses machine learning to classify texts based on a predefined and ranked lexicon, based on the emotional value of individual words. Sentiment analysis originated in studies of psychology, with research examining whether analysing a person's verbal behaviour could indicate their psychological state (Gottschalk and Gleser 1969). The Gottschalk-Gleser Content Analysis Method originated from this research and hypothesised that the way in which people express themselves may provide clues to how they may be feeling (Gottschalk and Lolas 1989). Much of the uses of sentiment analysis have focused on polarity - whether text is ultimately positive or negative (Pang and Lee 2005). There has been some research into 96 a more advanced approach, such as using sentiment analysis in a predictive way. For example, Pang and Lee (2005) used sentiment analysis when applied to movie reviews to infer an implied numerical rating, such as a number of stars. While more sophisticated forms of sentiment analysis leverage machine learning to indicate both the person who holds the sentiment, and the thing to which the sentiment is felt (Kim and Hovy 2006), the sentiment analysis approach used in this thesis is known as a knowledge-based technique. Knowledge-based sentiment analysis classifies text by use of a lexicon of affect words. For example, the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) is a commonly used set of 1,034 words that are characterised based on a number of affective dimensions (Stevenson, Mikels and James 2007). ANEW and other such lists were developed before microblogging and other such Web 2.0 applications of sentiment analysis. It is this and other word lists that Nielsen (2011) evaluates against his model, known as AFINN, which is the lexicon of affect words used in this thesis. (Please note that AFINN is not an acronym, but the title of the lexicon, based on a portmanteau of the author’s name – Finn Årup Nielsen). Nielsen (2011) has constructed a word list which was specifically used for sentiment analysis on Twitter data. The list was constructed to include common Internet vernacular, including obscenities, slang and abbreviations such as ‘LOL’. Nielsen’s (2011) list, AFINN, which ranks individual words on a scale of -5 to 5, was used to rank the sentiment of participants’ emotional responses toward particular websites. Though his framework has not yet been validated beyond use on Twitter, it holds relevance to this research given the key areas of discussion with participants related to specific websites and web experiences. Particularly in the photo narrative aspect of the study, participant responses were generally short in length and to the point, not unlike tweets of 140 characters. The limitations of sentiment analysis must all be considered. One limitation found in the Gottschalk-Gleser Content Analysis Method is that there is not yet a means to address non-verbal behaviour, and Gottschalk and Lolas (1989) suggest there is no explicit grammar that can be used for non-verbal behaviour. However, this is an appropriate parallel for interactions online, where body language is absent in the majority of communications. Other limitations include accuracy; on average automated sentiment analysis appears to be approximately 70-80% accurate compared to the same words or 97 phrases being validated by a person (Wright 2009). To address this particular limitation in this research, sentiment scores were calculated manually using AFINN. More recently, applications of sentiment analysis have been applied to product reviews, ratings and recommendation engines as organisations attempt to automate the identification of relevant content, both to serve back to users, and to improve content (Wright 2009). Given its prevalence in marketing and other industry contexts, it is important to consider the use of this method in an academic context. First, as this thesis focuses on designing online experiences, it is steeped in the critique of existing user experience frameworks and other design approaches. These frameworks are industry frameworks used in the production of online media on a day-to-day basis. One of the objectives of this thesis was to develop a framework that is applicable to the industry context; as such, the use of methods already familiar to and used by industry practitioners was important. Other methods for analysing sentiment were considered, such as the Appraisal Framework developed by Martin and White (2005), but it and other theories were found to be too academic and rely too heavily on theoretical approaches that would be unfamiliar to industry practitioners. Furthermore, qualitative research alone was not suitable as this research required themes to be directly comparable to each other. My own aim within this research was to be able to quantify and compare themes to determine whether and to what degree queer women were aware of the types of representations found online and in media (Research Questions 1 and 2). It is also worthy of note that there are already overlaps between industry and academic research that can be found in the field of UX. For example, Dorrington et al. (2016) used user-centred design methods in conjunction with a range of qualitative techniques including user interviews, content analysis and affinity mapping, to design assistive devices. One of the key aims of his study was to improve user experience of the device. Finally, the application of sentiment analysis to thematic analysis as a means of ascertaining the affect of themes is a novel approach, and has applications in both industry-facing UX research (e.g. to user interviews) and in academic research. The use of sentiment acknowledges that participants’ emotional responses are ultimately required to understand participant experience. The thematic analysis previously presented lays the groundwork in identifying whether particular issues 98 relating to a theme were discussed by participants, but does not acknowledge the sentiment with which the themes were discussed. The aim here is to provide both a grounding to the thematic results, as well as an additional set of tools that can be used to examine LGBTIQ online experience. Sentiment analysis is most commonly used for emotional responses to an experience. While participant responses were divided into those that were explicitly emotional (e.g. ‘I love this’) and broader responses, even the broader responses for the most part contained elements of an emotive response. A key challenge of the use of sentiment analysis here was whether synonyms for words contained within AFINN were present. To address this challenge, where necessary, the lexicon was extended to accommodate synonyms and scores added appropriately. The original and expanded lexicons can be found in Appendix 14. Those responses that could not be scored against the lexicon, but contributed to thematic generation, were excluded from sentiment analysis. In the context of designing user experiences, where the focus is generally on the user's ability to complete a task, and not their emotional response, providing a mechanism to identify these responses is beneficial. Furthermore, being able to quantify them in a systematic way can provide industry practitioners with a mechanism to compare the different user groups of a product, or test different versions of a product with the same user group. Such a comparison can be performed in a richer and more meaningful way than only examining ease of use. While there are some limitations to this approach, such as possible misinterpretation of tone during a digital interaction (further discussed in section 6.7.7) or missing words in the sentiment analysis lexicon, there are mechanisms for addressing these constraints (discussed above). An area to note is the role of subjectivity in analysing emotional responses; care must be taken when interpreting the data. As not all participant responses that may contribute to the generation of a theme will be emotive in content, it should also be expected that not all responses will contribute to overall thematic sentiment. Furthermore, that all responses were provided in writing via email, which lacks the cues of body language and tone, means that the results of the analysis via these frameworks should be used as a tool to gaining insights regarding user experience and to guide the researcher towards reasons for positive or negative experiences, rather than as data from which a high level of statistical validity could be expected. 99 6.7 Reflection on the application of the methods With the exception of sourcing participants, which the researcher expected to be a more challenging aspect of the research, generally the methods worked as expected. Some approaches worked better than expected. The sections below outline some areas of the applications of the methods that warrant further reflection and discussion. 6.7.1 Difficulty in sourcing participants The research study set out to identify and recruit participants who identified along both the spectrum of gender and LGBTIQ sexuality. However, early on in the research it became apparent that while snowballing (Browne 2007; Heckathorn 1997; Kalton and Anderson 1986) was an effective means of recruitment, it was time consuming and took numerous reminders to hit ‘critical mass’. Furthermore, as gender and sexuality-diverse participants are not always readily identifiable due to issues around privacy, safety, discrimination, or simply personal preference, knowing that the calls for participants were being distributed among social circles which included LGBTIQ individuals was not something that could be ascertained until responses to the call began to be received. However, while it was a slow process, taking over six months to recruit a number of participants from which valid generalisations could be made, that participants were able to be sourced from mainstream rather than ‘queer’ channels was heartening. Furthermore, as a key part of the study seeks to examine queer experiences on mainstream websites, that participants were sourced from areas that reflect those studied provides a level of consistency when examining the participant responses. 6.7.2 A broad range of sexualities The researcher expected to gather data across the LGBTIQ spectrum. In the initial questionnaire sent to participants who responded to the study advertisement, both gender and sexuality were indicated with an open field box, allowing participants to respond in the manner that best reflected their self-identification, including the option not to use a label. While a small number of participants did this, the majority (approximately 81%), used ‘standard’ labels (e.g. gay, lesbian, bisexual, or a variant thereof), the most common of these being ‘bisexual’ (approximately 30%). However, it is difficult to ascertain if this was how participants truly identified, or whether they chose to portray themselves in a way that would allow them to be intelligible to others (Butler 1990). While some participants shifted their responses (e.g. a participant 100 identified as pansexual and lesbian in the questionnaire, but then only referred to herself conversationally as lesbian during the interview), it is again difficult to know if this is for purposes of intelligibility or simply for easier conversation. 6.7.3 Participant gender distribution Though this research set out to gather data from a roughly even number of male and female participants, access to male participants proved extremely difficult, with the large majority of initial volunteers being female (32 females, 5 males – note not all these participants followed the study to completion). On reflection, it was felt that this outcome may relate to the gender of the researcher, and this is also seen in other studies. For example, Sallee and Harris III (2011) examined the differences between two studies conducted with male participants, one with a male researcher and one with a female researcher. They found that the researcher’s gender may have had an influence on data collection. While their research particularly focused on the way that gender was performed differently by the participants towards a male vs. female researcher, the fact that these differences were apparent suggests that the considerably higher number of female participants who signed up to the study may be because of the gender of the researcher. The research also suggests that women who study male settings experience difficulty in both acquiring participants and creating rapport (Sallee and Harris III 2011). This was consistent with what was experienced by the researcher in this study. While overall, accessing participants was a lengthy and difficult experience, accessing male participants proved difficult to the point that the study’s focus was shifted to examine the experience of LGBTIQ women. Oatley (1981) suggests that matching the gender of researcher and participant can minimise issues around power dynamics, however the experience of the researcher throughout this project suggests that this is a simplified view of the potential hierarchies of power in the research process, and this is in agreement with Cotterill (1992) and Sallee and Harris III (2011). Oakley herself responds to some of this criticism in a later article in which she reflects on the process of conducting feminist research is not as simplistic as first envisioned and cannot be fitted into a framework. It instead requires further exploration of what participants are willing to contribute (Oatley 2016) as well as an acknowledgement of the ultimate purpose of the research (Lyons and Chipperfield 2000). It must also acknowledge some of the variables that Cotterill refers to in her 101 earlier study; differences in power, race, age and disability (1992). In the case of this research, it must be additionally acknowledged that there exists a hierarchy within the LGBTIQ community, and prior preliminary studies conducted by the researcher (not included in this thesis) demonstrated difficulty in accessing members of the transgender community, despite the researcher identifying as LGBTIQ herself. As such, while an attempt to make a rapport was always made, interviews were not viewed as unsuccessful if rapport did not occur (Cotterill 1992; Lyons and Chipperfield 2000). Sallee and Harris also found that the male participants in their study who responded to the female researcher demonstrated responses that matched social expectations of how men should interact with women, as opposed to how men interact with other men (2011). This is therefore worthy of consideration when analysing data from the male participants. Women conducting research with other women may be viewed as ‘insiders’ (Sallee and Harris III 2011) and this is also consistent with earlier research that suggests that interviews between women are more fluid (Cotterill 1992). While a mixed-gender research team may result in richer results, the fact that the large majority of participants identified as LGBTIQ should not be discounted. As a minority population with a long history of stigmatisation and involuntary medicalisation (being homosexual was only removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973), a hesitancy from women who identify as LGBTIQ to interact with non-female or non- homosexual researchers is easy to understand. As such, in the context of this study, having a female, LGBTIQ-identified researcher build rapport with the participants was important. 6.7.4 Websites vs. social media In the pilot study, participants were asked which websites they viewed most frequently. The researcher was expecting standalone websites with more ‘static’ content, as one of the study’s areas of inquiry was to examine the design and content of the pages in relation to experience. However, the majority of participants considered social media such as Facebook and Twitter as websites, which though technically they are, were not ideal candidates for the study. That the content updates so frequently, in some cases within seconds, means that exposure to content and differing design is so transient that it would be impossible to correlate experience with any one type of design. 102 Furthermore, each participant’s social media feed would differ based on their ‘friends’ or other contacts, meaning it would be impossible to know that two participants assigned the same site were viewing at least similar content. As such, upon reflection on the pilot data, pilot participants were asked to specify their most frequented non-social media websites, and the larger study was revised to include two separate questions on the questionnaire - one asking non-social media website usage, and the other specifically asking about social media. The modification takes into account that some participants don’t use social media regularly but do browse a select group of sites. It also accounts for websites that do change their content on a daily basis, such as news websites, however maintain consistent themes, types of content and design. Furthermore, some participants commented that their social media feeds may not be representative of the wider web, due to the fact that they ‘curate’ feeds by friends who are generally like-minded, which they identified could create an echo chamber. As such, asking participants to select non-social media websites allowed the study to explore their experiences outside their own social or safety groups, while still being consistent with the categories of websites that participants tended to use. 6.7.5 Photo narratives and interviews At the outset of the study, it was expected that the photo narratives would generate preliminary data that the interviews would later be used to extend. However, while photo narratives were still used to inform the interviews, the amount of data and the themes that emerged from the photo narratives were unexpectedly rich and detailed. Participants gave high quality and well-thought out responses to the questions (see Appendix 6). As such, while the researcher gave the participants the opportunity to extend their responses during the interviews, in many cases it did not reveal new data or themes; as such the interviews were used to confirm and validate the existing themes. 6.7.6 Photo journals The completion of the study was delayed significantly by a photo journal component. Originally, participants were asked, after completion of the photo narrative, to complete a photo journal of their online browsing (Appendix 2). The photo journal had asked participants to provide a screenshot and reflection of their daily browsing. However, despite numerous reminders, the majority of participants did not return a photo journal. Of those that did, the data were not valuable and did not add to the existing themes, nor 103 provide any validation. When participants were asked if they would rather skip to the interview, the majority quickly replied and were happy to do so. It is then worth considering that perhaps one of the contributing factors to the difficulty in finding participants was that in reading the summary of study tasks, participants felt that keeping a photo journal was too onerous. Combining this with the fact that the study offered participants no compensation, it is understandable why participants may have struggled to prioritise the time required to compile a photo journal. 6.7.7 Digital interactions Participants were offered the option to complete the study in a way that best suited them, including email, phone, video chat (e.g. Skype) and, if they lived in the same city as the researcher, face-to-face. While email was the preferred method of completing the photo narrative, of all the participants, only two opted to use a digital method of completing the interviews (Skype and Google Hangouts). The rest of the participants opted to complete the interview by phone, bar one opting to complete it via Facebook chat. There are many possible explanations for this preference, from concerns about safety or privacy to simply lack of time. 6.7.8 A mixed methods approach This research uses a mixed methods approach, as defined by Bazeley and Kemp (2012). The broad definition of mixed methods research is one that includes more than one methodological approach, approach to collection of data and/or type of analytic strategy. There is increasing recognition of the benefits of applying multiple methods or approaches to a particular research problem, such that the problem is viewed through a number of lenses. At the same time, integrating disparate methods has been cited as being understudied (Bazeley 2009; Bazeley and Kemp 2012). That the use of mixed methods is understudied highlights the importance of the methodological approach of thesis in injecting new knowledge into the field. Bazeley (2009) argues against the rhetoric that qualitative and quantitative data should be treated as separate, and that to do so can be unhelpful in the context of mixed methods research. Such was found in this thesis, and as such, the value of integrating methodological approaches through all steps of a mixed methods process was realised (Bazeley 2002, 2009). 104 One of the key drivers of using a mixed methods approach in this research was to enable the integration of methods used in the user experience design, marketing and broader web industry with those used in academic research. Bazeley and Kemp (2012) sees this as a way of creating new understandings of the research topic, which was a key aim of this thesis. Bazeley (2002) also suggests that a failure of researchers to clearly explain the rationale for use of mixed methods design has led to confusion about the study design and potentially the utility or value of mixed methods in and of itself. As such, in this research, the value and importance of a mixed methods approach both as a tool to answer the research question and as an approach to allow this research to be repeated and implemented in industry cannot be understated. 6.8 Conclusion This chapter outlined a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on tenets of post- structuralism, feminisms and queer theory to examine how LGBTIQ individuals ‘read’ websites, and the impact that this has on their user experience and engagement. The chapter describes the issues encountered when using post-structuralist feminist approaches in a participant group known to have fluctuating or unfixed identities. Its aim, however, is not to solve these issues; instead it reframes them as components reflective of participant identities. That LGBTIQ participants either do not have fixed identities or have identities that do not conform to the standard labels found in demographic studies, for example, is not an issue, but instead is a crucial part of identities that must be reflected in the research design. As such, the importance of involving the participants in discussing, categorising and interpreting the responses provided in the photo narratives, during the interviews, is highlighted. The following chapters describes the emergent themes that arose from this methodological approach and goes on to describe a hierarchy of themes based on participant responses. They address emotional responses associated with particular websites and themes, and begin to form the link between these responses, participant lived experience and user experience. 105 Chapter 7 7. Results: Thematic analysis 7.1 Introduction The following chapter presents the findings of the thematic analysis and identifies the ways in which participants engaged with the series of websites included in the key study, and presents the themes which emerged as participants engaged and reflected on these spaces. This thesis aims to use these themes to develop a framework through which the online experience of LGBTIQ users can be examined. That the themes which emerged are pertinent to areas of LGBTIQ lived experience and subjectivity, including representation, stereotyping, portrayal, inclusion and exclusion cannot be understated, and will be demonstrated throughout this chapter. Discussion, reflection and engagement with the themes can be found in subsequent chapters. The chapter is organised such that participant responses to the emergent thematic groupings are segmented by gender and sexuality, with the aim of identifying thematic areas that participants were most attuned to and further exploring the participant experience. 7.2 Demographic distribution of participants Participants were asked to complete three key parts of the study - a questionnaire, the photo narrative task and an interview. The details of these methods and selection processes can be found in Chapter 6. The questionnaire was used as an expression of interest as well as to capture basic demographic data about participants. While the number of participants who expressed interest in the study via the questionnaire exceeded 40, only those who went on to complete the photo narrative task were counted in the final data. A total of 30 participants responded to the photo narrative part of the study, with 22 identifying as female, seven identifying as male and one identifying as undefined. A total of 23 of these participants continued on to the interview, with 18 identifying as female and five identifying as male (Table 2). This research is interested in the subjectivities of individual participants and how they describe their gender and sexuality. For the purpose of this chapter, the term queer, as a positive and reclaimed 106 term, has been used to represent the queer experience, with an additional focus on the experiences of queer women. It is certainly not the intent of this research to erase additional categories, and this will be discussed further in the subsequent discussion chapters. Table 2: Participant distribution by gender. Gender Photo narrative task Interview task (n=23) (n=30) Female 21 17 Male 7 5 Undefined 1 0 Transgender female 1 1 Total 30 23 In Table 2 it can be seen that a small number of participants opted not to continue with the study between the photo narrative and interview tasks. These participants were fairly evenly distributed between the gender groups. It is notable that significantly more female participants than other gender identity groups are represented in the study, despite initial calls for participation focusing only on a participant’s sexuality. Potential explanations for this are also explored in Chapter 6. The distribution of participants by gender through this study is further visualised in Figure 2. 107 Participant gender distribution Female Male Undefined Transgender female n=1 n=1 Photo narrative task (n=30) n=7 n=1 Interview task (n=23) n=5 n=17 n=21 Figure 2: Participant distribution by gender. Of the 30 participants who expressed interest in the study, the distribution of sexualities identified was far broader than the number of genders. While socially we expect to identify a homosexual’s sex via their sexuality label (i.e. gay = male, lesbian = female), in this study participants were asked to select labels that they felt most appropriate to their lived identities. As such, the link between sex, gender and sexuality is removed. Interestingly, ‘lesbian’ is the only truly gendered category seen in Figure 3, with the majority of other categories containing participants from numerous gender groups. I explore this breakdown further in the discussion chapters, but for the purpose of this study, I am interested in examining sexuality through two lenses: the responses of queer participants when compared to heterosexual participants (Table 3 and Figure 3), and additionally queer women when compared to queer men (Figure 4). However, again I acknowledge that significantly more participants who responded to the study were women, so while the experiences of other groups may support the generation of the themes discussed later in the chapter, I focus on the experiences of queer women. 108 Table 3: Participant distribution by sexuality. Sexuality Photo narrative task Interview task (n=30) (n=23) Queer 23 17 Heterosexual 7 6 Total 30 23 Figure 3: Participant distribution by sexuality. If we look at the distribution of participants between the two tasks, we can see that the proportion of the two groups is roughly similar between the two research tasks, despite the drop off of participants between the two. A similar trend is reflected in Figure 2 with the distribution of participant gender. That on average 75% of participants identified as non-heterosexual in some form is also expected due to the call for participants focusing 109 on LGBTIQ experiences. However, the call for participants also noted that heterosexual individuals were welcome to participate, so the on average 25% participation from heterosexual individuals is also not unexpected. Distribution of queer women and men across the research tasks 18 16 14 12 10 Queer women 8 Queer men 6 4 2 0 Photo narrative task Interview task Figure 4: Distribution of queer women and queer men across the research tasks. 7.3 The websites On the questionnaire, participants were asked to list the top five websites they visited daily, excluding social media platforms, and assign them an initial category. Free text was used so as not to bias the participants’ interpretation of the sites. Websites were then redistributed amongst participants semi-randomly such that participants were assigned five websites with a mixture of those in categories similar to those they normally viewed, and those in entirely different categories. Note that four pilot participants received four websites to review. To broaden the pool of websites, well known websites from within the same categories (e.g. news sites, entertainment sites) were selected by the researcher and provided to participants. The websites assigned to participants, and the participant categories, can be found in Chapter 6. 110 The participants’ gender and sexuality were not considered during website assignment; but the final distribution can be seen in Figures 6 and 7. Website distribution by gender 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 Participant numbers 2 0 Websites Women Men Transgender woman Undefined Figure 5: Websites distributed by gender. 111 Websites distributed by sexuality 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 Participant numbers 2 0 Websites Queer Heterosexual Figure 6: Websites distributed by sexuality. The distribution of websites by both gender and sexuality roughly follows the distribution of participants, with approximately 75% of women and 75% of queer participants being assigned each site. However, as it can be seen from Figures 2 and 3, the breakdown of gender and sexuality is not an exact match, demonstrating that there is some degree of exclusivity between gender and sexuality. It can also be seen that no men in the study received the Autostraddle website and similarly no heterosexual participants received After Ellen or GoFugYourself. Websites were assigned randomly and since there were less male and heterosexual participants when compared to queer participants, there was a lesser likelihood that any one website would be assigned to a participant. 7.3.1 Website purpose and perceived audience As part of the photo narrative task, participants were asked to describe the website’s key audience (Table 4). The purpose of this line of questioning was to identify whether there were aspects of a website’s design that caused participants to ‘read’ it as being for a particular demographic. Further lines of questioning were then used to reveal whether this resulted in feelings of inclusion or exclusion, should participants fall out of the 112 demographic they identified. Whether the demographic identified matched the likely demographic the website was aiming to target was also of interest. Table 4: Website target audiences, as identified by participants. Website Target audience After Ellen Women, lesbians and the wider LGBTIQ community. Autostraddle Women who identify on the LGBTIQ spectrum. Brain Pickings Non-specific; individuals interested in the topics discussed. Gay men saw it as targeted at women. Femail Heterosexual women, 20s-40s. GoFugYourself Women, 20-30 year olds. IFL Science All ages with an interest in science. Mamamia Women in the 20-40 age bracket, primarily mothers. Star Observer The LGBTIQ community, with a focus on gay males. Taste All individuals interested in food, mums and those who cook for the household. The Age Heterosexual men. Tom’s Hardware Computer users, men. Taking Shape Plus sized women. (TS14) 113 That participants identified all bar one of the websites supplied in the study as being gendered (as previously indicated in Table 4), is worthy of note. It was interesting to note that of the 12 websites in the study, only one was perceived by participants to be non-gendered. This was the IFL Science website. IFL Science focuses its content on a general and wide range of topics pertaining to science and technology. That it is common knowledge that this website has a female creator did not lead participants to automatically assume the content was for women; particularly given the majority of the study’s participants identified as women. The participants instead felt that the broad range of topics offered something for everyone. Children, teens, adults – interested in science. To promote education and awareness! (Ashleigh, bisexual woman). To share stories about scientific discovery with people who enjoy science (Caleb, heterosexual male). Also taking into account that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) topics are generally perceived to be of male interest, despite recent campaigns to encourage more women to join STEM fields, that the IFL Science website was perceived to be non-gendered is worthy of note. I like the site no matter who made it, but I like it more because a woman is the brainchild behind it, because there was widespread assumptions that the website was created by a male (June, gay woman). Interestingly, the Brain Pickings website also has a known female creator, and while some participants noted that they felt the content was non-gendered, gay male participants in particular identified the site as being for women, and generally associated it with feminism. The justifications behind the categorisation additionally suggest stereotypical views of women. Looks like a collation of someone’s favourite articles. Possibly to do with female rights. Could be a feminist. Based on information written and the wording of the articles (Warren, gay man). Designed to appeal to women, particularly older women – larger than average font size used for older people, text featured relates to compassion and deep emotional contemplation (Matthew, gay man). 114 Women and the transgender participant, regardless of sexuality, did not identify a particular gendering of the website, and instead focused on the content and layout. I feel happy to find something worthwhile to read and think about – the Must Read list appeals to me and my interests in art, creativity, personal development (Madeline, heterosexual woman). The design is relatively neutral and doesn’t appear to be catering to any particular demographic in any traditional clichéd way. I find it hard to think of a particular demographic that this might be aimed at (Ellen, transgender woman). The perception of who the Taste website was targeted at was interesting – comments were quite general during the photo narrative part of the study, but discussions became lengthier during the interview. The key perception was that the way in which the Taste website displayed a range of food, and used neutral colours was in line with a sentiment of ‘food is for everyone’ and therefore the website is generally not gendered, however participants also noted the perception that it is the mother in the household that still does all the food preparation and then is more likely to be accessing the website. People who cook – the general housewife and heteronormative people (Amy, lesbian woman). I’d say for everyone, it doesn’t feel like a ‘female only’ or ‘male only’ type of website (Georgina, lesbian woman). In this case it was difficult to distinguish from participant responses alone whether the website design indicated signs of gendering, or if participants brought their own pre- conceptions to their viewing and interpretation of the site’s messages. One participant noted that there were ‘female only’ or ‘male only’ types of websites, however this is insufficient data to generalise that gendering is inherent within web design in and of itself. In a cursory examination of the Taste website, the site’s colours are blue, green and white, it is open and bright and pictures of the food feature prominently. There are no pictures of people on the site and no gendered calls to action. There is a perception that recipes for children will be targeted at mothers; however the Taste website only has a ‘feed your family’ category. Within the category there are no indications of what sort of family compositions are targeted, only example recipes that would feed larger numbers of people. 115 The other 9 websites’ audiences were identified primarily by gender, with some additionally being identified as for a particular sexuality group. In particular, After Ellen and Autostraddle, well known sites for LGBTIQ women, were identified as such. However interestingly, Star Observer, a site that advertises itself as being for the wider LGBTIQ community, garnered discussion from participants such that they concluded that while the website didn’t actively exclude LGBTIQ women, it was still felt to be aimed at men. The transgender woman in the study felt that it was exclusionary to transgender and intersex individuals, despite the site featuring the complete LGBTIQ acronym in its tag line. Website created to supply news and information to a GLBTI community, in particular gay men (Fred, gay man). Participant Sabrina (bisexual woman) highlights that Star Observer is created for queer identifying people more broadly but feels that it focuses particularly on sexually active men, due to a number of stereotypically gay male signifiers, such as a number of articles on safe sex and STDs that affect gay men. She also notes that while there’s nothing explicit to signify to queer women that the site is not aimed at them, she has seen inappropriate comments against women in the site’s comments in the past. In contrast, transgender participant Ellen feels that the site is more explicitly exclusive, taking issue with the statement ‘the gay agenda’, and the possibility that this sort of statement could signify to the transgender community that they are not the primary users. She felt that it could be expected from a mainstream news source, but not an explicitly queer website. The most definitive responses from participants regarding both gender and sexuality came about in discussions of the Femail and The Age websites. In both cases, participants were quick to state that these websites were exclusionary to LGBTIQ individuals, and The Age, additionally exclusionary to women. This was identified through the use of imagery on both websites - on Femail, women saw photos that did not match their lived experiences of what it meant to be LGBTIQ, and similarly heterosexual participants did not feel the site’s female images matched their experiences of being a heterosexual woman, despite identifying it as being targeted at heterosexual women. Thus, there was a mismatch between what the creators thought heterosexual women wanted and what heterosexual women actually wanted. 116 For example, gay participant June took particular issue with the Femail website, suggesting that its content implies women are only interested in stereotypically female topics, such as fashion, babies, and men. Similarly, transgender woman Ellen felt that the site was ‘determined to exclude’ her, with imagery focusing on thin, white cis- gendered women. Lesbian woman Rachael was explicit in stating that as a gay woman she felt entirely excluded and invisible by the website. On The Age newspaper website, women noted that the majority of images were of men, and that those of women were associated with what were considered trivial issues, rather than news items of note. There was a particular vein of anger from participants regarding the position of women displayed on the site, as well as the tone of the articles and topics featured in headlines. [This website is created for] Caucasians, men – the only woman on the page looks like she’s trying to make herself beautiful and is obviously topless and submissive, the men are featured in portraits of dominance or power (Ashleigh, bisexual woman, in relation to The Age). [This website is created for] Straight white males over 30, probably, because most things are. It’s careful not to insult their fragile masculinity by having any pink or featuring any of the ‘news’ that you’d see on Femail (Erin, bisexual woman, in relation to The Age). I haven’t really even been able to pay much attention to the article headlines but they all just sound like they would be some man’s opinion on something (Darcy, lesbian woman, in relation to The Age). Interestingly, however, participants did not find that Femail, with its lack of male imagery or stereotypical male topics of interest, was exclusionary to male Internet users, nor did participants note that After Ellen or Autostraddle were exclusionary to LGBTIQ men. 7.4 Emergent themes according to participant gender and sexuality The high-level thematic framework that was established in order to examine the user experience of non-normative groups consists of three global themes: 1. Representation and stereotypes 2. Relevance 3. Inclusion and exclusion 117 Table 5 below shows the global, organising and basic themes identified. Interpretation of these themes can be found in subsequent chapters. Table 5: Global, organising and basic themes identified from participant responses. Global theme: Representation and stereotypes Organising themes Basic themes Masculinity • Masculinity is fragile • Men are threatened by ‘female’ activities Lived experience of • Support is not the same as representation (of lived users experience) • Invisibility of LGBTIQ lived experience • Male users are used to being explicitly catered for • Prioritisation of experience comes from within the community Pre-conceptions • Preconceptions (general concept) • Unspecified or male-targeted designs are viewed as genderless • Female creator implicitly makes a site more relatable to women • Computer hardware is viewed as a male activity • Pre-conceived meanings of words and images alter first impressions of sites • Neutral designs are viewed as female • Site creators segregate content based on pre-conceptions of gender Portrayal of women • Portrayal of women (general concept) and stereotypes • Stereotypes (general concept) 118 • Idealistic or unrealistic views of women’s bodies • Female issues are seen as failures • Women as a source of profit • Women are judged and judge each other on appearance • Women are expected to be interested in beauty/fashion • Women are not expected to be interested in world events. • Gendered advertising and design for women • Women are expected to be mothers Portrayal of • Representation of queer women occurs through use of LGBTIQs images and stories • Even in dedicated media, stereotypes prevail • The gay male experience is prioritised • Within female LGBTIQ individuals, lesbianism is seen as most important Representation • Only certain types of women’s bodies are shown • Male voices are prioritised • User-generated content is a strategy to counter lack of representation • Lack of women on mainstream websites • Representation through images and content is important (e.g. invisibility of trans, intersex and lesbian users) • Relatability and representation go hand in hand Global theme: Relevance Organising themes Basic themes Advertising • Advertising is more noticeable than design and content • Body shaming can occur through advertisements • Over use of advertising can impact first impressions 119 • Context is important in placement of ads • Non-gendered advertising can change the perception of a site in a positive way • Advertising is disliked Design • Recognisable patterns influence first impressions and emotional responses • Gendered design can target specific groups • Images without people are read as neutral • Secondary cues other than recognisable design patterns help participants categorise sites • Long form, focused designs are unique • Recognisable patterns aren’t always markers of good design • Representation is visible in design choices Website content • Relevance dictates emotional response • Design is seen as secondary when content is relevant • Content needs to match user lived experience to be relatable • Use of manufactured controversy to capture attention • Preference for content can outweigh quality of design • Relevant content drives user behaviour • Perceived manipulation results in negative emotional responses 120 Global theme: Inclusion and exclusion Organising themes Basic themes Exclusion • Only certain content is appropriate for women • Neutral is read as inclusive by normally excluded groups • Humour as a form of exclusion • Motherhood is exclusive • Female targeted designs are ‘other’ • Design can be used to exclude groups of users Assumptions • Cis-gender is assumed • Heterosexuality is assumed Invisibility • Exclusion leads to invisibility • Invisibility of all non-heterosexual, non-white, non-male groups • Lesbians are invisible in mainstream media • Invisibility of LGBTIQ / non-white women Inclusion • Gender is not assumed • Inclusion leads to positive emotional responses • Heterosexuality is not assumed • Use of appropriate language can make exclusive topics inclusive Though this chapter is focused on identifying the ways in which participants interpreted the provided websites, leading to the generation of themes, and themes will be discussed in greater detail in subsequent chapters, it is important to spend some time understanding the themes themselves. A more detailed discussion of the themes will provide context through which to better understand the results presented below. 121 At the global level, the three themes of ‘representation and stereotypes’, ‘relevance’ and ‘inclusion and exclusion’ are both discretely separate, and irrevocably intertwined. At a high level, they can be defined in the following way: 1. Representation and stereotypes - the ways in which different demographics of website users are represented within the content of the websites they consume. A number of factors contribute to how a demographic group might be represented, with stereotypes playing a key role. 2. Relevance - whether the design, content and associated aspects of websites, such as advertising, are relevant, not only to the interests of website users, but align with how website users are represented. The representations in and of themselves must align with a user’s lived experience to be perceived as true and relevant. 3. Inclusion and exclusion - in and of itself, this global theme refers to whether website users feel included or not, in not only the content that is provided but also the subtler messages about who the content is intended for. This again speaks to both representation and relevance. Content that is not relevant, based only on topics of interest, may not garner feelings of inclusion and exclusion. Content that is not representative, makes particular assumptions, or renders particular groups invisible, however, can lead to feelings of exclusion. Therefore, the three global themes have their own discrete meanings, but together contribute to a broader framework that speaks to a website user or participant’s experience and engagement. While in the context of this study, the focus is the use of this framework to examine the experiences of queer women in online spaces, wider applications of the framework in the context of web and user experience design will be explored in later chapters. The organising and basic themes will now be described in more detail. 7.4.1 Representation and stereotypes The organising themes within the global theme of representation and stereotypes address a number of key areas. The first, masculinity, describes the interaction of Western patriarchal views of masculinity with how content is perceived and gendered, and the ways in which participants respond to such content. 122 Lived experience of users speaks to the importance of whether or not a participant or website user can see their own lived experience represented in the content. This speaks strongly to the concept of relevance, and the two areas are clearly related, however the ways in which participants spoke about lived experience aligned more strongly with how they saw themselves represented in online environments. In particular, that certain lived experiences held more value than others, and therefore that some were worthy of representation and others weren’t. For those that weren’t, the concept of invisibility was important, particularly with regard to LGBTIQ lived experiences, and here there is a strong link between representation and exclusion. On the topic of whether one’s lived experience is more highly valued and thus represented, themes emerged suggesting that identification of value and therefore prioritisation comes from within the community itself, which suggests that LGBTIQ created spaces may not be immune to this issue. The organising theme of pre-conceptions spoke strongly to gendered pre-conceptions that were identified in a number of websites. These pre-conceptions related to both gender roles and interests, but also spoke to particular aesthetic representations of design, for example that designs specifically targeted at men were viewed as genderless, but those targeted at women were viewed as explicitly for women. Pre-conceptions also refer to the pre-conceptions that participants themselves brought with them when reviewing content, for example that particular colours or fonts denoted that the website was for a particular demographic. That these pre-conceptions contribute to how meaning is made within a particular design and thus how it is interpreted, suggests that pre-conceptions of particular groups of users influence how they are represented on websites. There is a strong link between pre-conceptions and the organising theme of portrayal of women, and also stereotypes. While these began as two separate basic themes, ‘portrayal of women and stereotypes’ was merged into one theme when it became apparent that participants saw the majority of female portrayals as stereotypical. The themes of unrealistic body standards, expectations that women should have particular interests, expectations around motherhood, and the way content is gendered and sold to women contributes strongly to how women are represented on websites. Again, there is an inextricable link between representation and relevance here - if a woman does not feel that stereotypically ‘female’ topics are relevant to her interests, then she will not feel that the site is representing her lived experience accurately, and vice versa. At a 123 basic level, the link to inclusion or exclusion may be less clear here, but when I also examine the sentiment behind the responses to websites that generated a lot of themes in these areas, the link between all three global themes becomes strong. Similarly to the portrayal of women, the portrayal of LGBTIQs warranted its own theme as the themes generated suggested that these portrayals and representations in and of themselves were embedded in stereotypes, even within media dedicated to the LGTBIQ community. Prioritisation of lived experience within specific LGBTIQ representations was discussed, as was the link to relevance, as a number of queer users did not find that even the specific LGBTIQ representations matched their lived experience. These instances were also suggested to be particularly exclusionary. Finally, representation itself was discussed more specifically, with further emphasis on the prioritisation of particular representations, the importance of accurate representation, and how users make sense of content - that is, whether content is relatable, and whether users are accurately and adequately represented, go hand in hand. 7.4.2 Relevance The organising themes within the global theme of relevance address areas more closely linked to the more technical aspects of website design - content development, visual design, and advertising. However, within these areas, participants spoke to the messages that these areas delivered around both gender and sexuality. Advertising as a concept was widely disliked, both from a usability and interaction perspective, but also through the lens of relevance itself and whether advertising was relevant to the participants who were engaging with it. That they had no choice but to engage with it was raised and contributed to its negative perception, but interestingly the ways in which participants were represented in advertising spoke as much to its negative perception as did the ‘annoyance factor’. Participants spoke of body shaming and strongly gendered advertisements, particularly targeted at women, using stereotypical representations, thereby demonstrating a strong link back to the global theme of representation and stereotypes. The organising theme of design was split between areas such as recognisable patterns and the ways in which participants categorise sites, but it was the ways in which these patterns and categorisations spoke to whether or not a site was relevant which was of 124 interest. In particular, participants spoke of design and advertising similarly as not relevant to them from both the perspective of relevance, and how the topics that creators had assumed were relevant for them were not of interest, but additionally that ultimately representation of different user groups was visible in design choices. The organising theme of content was also not dissimilar, and the content of a website was suggested to need to be relevant as well as contain appropriate and accurate representation. The importance of this was such that participants would see design as secondary if content was relevant, suggesting a link between user behaviour and relevance. Emotional response to content was also key here - content was viewed more favourably if it was both representative and relevant. 7.4.3 Inclusion and exclusion There were four organising themes identified under the global theme of inclusion and exclusion. These focused on inclusion and exclusion themselves, and two additional areas, assumptions and invisibility, which linked strongly to whether inclusion or exclusion was felt. Exclusion itself addressed the concept of the ‘other’ and here the link between relevance and representation is clear. Content that is not relevant and not representative to the point that it leads to feelings of ‘othering’ is suggestive of exclusion. That only certain content is appropriate for women, for example, and that design can be used to explicitly exclude groups of users more broadly, was discussed under this theme. Assumptions about users links strongly to stereotypes and pre-conceptions but here they are discussed through the lens of gender and sexuality - if particular genders or sexualities of users are assumed within a website’s design or content, there is potential for participants to feel excluded, ultimately to the detriment of their perception of the website. Similarly, invisibility, a side effect of both othering and assumptions, falls within the concept of exclusion and in this context speaks to the prioritisation of specific groups over others in terms of both representation and relevance. Finally, inclusion is discussed from the perspective of what participants expect to see on websites that meet their needs in terms of appropriate representations of lived experience, representations of their perceived identities, and relevance of content more broadly. 125 7.5 Representation and stereotypes 7.5.1 Gender The Tables 6.5 and 6.6 below have been organised to show correlations between the organising themes, gender and sexuality in specific detail. Tables have been separated by the three global themes, which form the overarching categories of the user experience framework. The tables have been broken down according to the tasks participants undertook as part of the research - the photo narrative responses, and the interviews. Table 6 shows the numbers of participants, distributed by gender, whose responses to the photo narrative and interview tasks in relation to particular websites contributed to the emergence of the themes below. The table indicates the contribution to the organising themes. A participant may have made numerous comments in relation to a basic theme; for the purposes of this analysis, Table 6 indicates numbers of unique participants who participated in a particular task (e.g. the interviews) and made at least one response contributing to a basic theme within the wider organising thematic group. The aim here is not to look for statistical significance, but instead to look for suggestive trends, ultimately taking into account the voices of the participants in a manner true to user-centred design principles. The use of the terms ‘women’ and ‘men’ below are in reference to the study participants, rather than generalisations of all women and men. It should also be noted that while transgender individuals were underrepresented in the research, they lend a unique perspective. As such, the data from the transgender participant (n=1) is included for discussion. For distribution of participants by gender against the basic thematic level, please see Appendices 8-10. 126 Table 6: Distribution of organising themes relating to representation and stereotyping by gender. Organising themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Participant totals Women: n = 21 Women: n = 17 Men: n = 7 Men: n = 5 Transgender woman: n = 1 Transgender woman: n = 1 Undefined: n = 1 Masculinity No responses W M T 1 0 0 Lived experience of users W M T U W M T 5 2 1 1 9 1 1 Pre-conceptions W M T U W M T 3 3 1 0 9 2 0 Portrayal of women and W M T U W M T stereotypes 9 2 1 1 13 2 0 Portrayal of LGBTIQs W M T U W M T 10 2 1 0 9 1 1 Representation W M T U W M T 20 2 1 1 16 3 1 127 Within the broader thematic area of representation and stereotyping, there is a strong response to both the photo narrative and interview tasks, with women discussing all but one thematic area (masculinity) in the photo narrative task, and all areas in the interview task. Women spoke more strongly about all thematic areas in the interview; it is likely that this is due to the open interview structure, which provided the participants with the opportunity to talk about their photo narrative entries in greater depth. In the photo narrative task, men did not speak as strongly about the majority of themes as women, with the exception of the lived experience of users and pre-conception themes. However, in the interviews, women spoke more strongly than men in all thematic areas. If we look to themes with particularly strong responses from women, the photo narrative tasks generated the themes of ‘portrayal of women and stereotypes’, ‘portrayal of LGBTIQs’ and ‘representation’. Of the first two themes, nearly half of the women indicated responses that contributed to these thematic areas. In the area of representation, all but one woman provided responses that contributed to this theme. Overall, these data begin to suggest that these three areas of representation are of importance to women web users. Conversely, in all themes bar one, less than one third of men contributed to thematic generation. The theme of note, ‘pre-conceptions’, resulted in discussion from almost half of the men, suggesting this area is worthy of further exploration. In the photo narrative task, the transgender woman, Ellen, responded to all thematic areas bar masculinity. Due to the fact that only one transgender woman participated in the research, further exploration of this user group would need to be undertaken to draw definitive conclusions. If we look to the responses within the interview data, in all thematic areas bar masculinity, more than half of the women responded, suggesting that the areas of lived experience and pre-conceptions are also worth noting. Those areas that were particularly strong were portrayal of women and stereotypes, and representation, at 13 and 16 women respectively (17 women interviewees in total). In the interviews, representation was a theme generated by all bar one woman, as it was, too, in the photo narrative task. 128 It was of interest that only one participant, who identified as female, commented in the thematic area of masculinity. It was expected that male representation would be an area discussed by all participants regardless of gender, but instead discussion focused on male representation only through the lens of stereotypical or limited representations of women, or the invisibility of LGBTIQ representation. Further discourse around this area will be examined in Chapter 9, but potential explanations could include: • the location of participants in Western patriarchal society, where particular representations are the norm; and • the images of men featured in the websites provided to participants generally depicted white, heterosexual and cis-gendered males, which aligns with the demographic of male participants who volunteered for the study. In all bar one thematic areas (representation), less than half of the men responded. If we then explore the responses relating to representation, we see suggestions that men may not relate to a website that is specifically targeted at women, whereas women do not relate on the multiple dimensions outlined by the organising themes. That is, women don’t relate because they do not feel represented, that their lived experiences are not present, that they are portrayed stereotypically, and so on. This will be explored by examining example participant responses below. The women in the research discussed narrow and limiting views of women within the provided websites. As can be seen, there are strong ties between the organising thematic areas of representation, lived experience and pre-conceptions. Participant Ellen speaks of her frustrations around the limitations in content that are targeted at women, particularly the pre-conception that the stereotypical areas of fashion and makeup are all that a woman should be interested in. That websites aimed at women dictate particular types of bodies as appropriate is further discussed by Beth in relation to the GoFugYourself website below. However, from the perspective of Ellen as a transgender user, this is of particular relevance, as there is a plethora of literature in feminist and transgender studies that discuss challenges felt by transgender individuals in relation to the intelligibility of transgender bodies as women. I hate these type of sites that play on how a woman should look or dress and how a woman is somehow less worth if she is not ‘dressed right’ as decided by someone else’s standards (Beth, woman, no label, in relation to GoFugYourself). 129 That participant Beth can identify with the broader issue of correlations between a woman’s value and her appearance suggests that the messages contained within the GoFugYourself website regarding how women should present themselves resonates with her lived experience. However, the clearly negative tone of her comment suggests that these are stereotypical representations based in a particular pre-conception of how women should look and behave, which does not align with her values or how she sees that women should be represented. I looked at this page, and the first thing I see is a man, and he’s a politician, and he’s a man, again, and then there’s like two guys underneath that, and the only woman on the page is half naked and splashing water in her face trying to look beautiful, and it just struck me as so normal. I hate that that’s normal (Ashleigh, bisexual woman, in relation to The Age). Participant Ashleigh above discusses the normalisation of stereotypical views of women in websites, in this case in relation to The Age newspaper. As the participants identified this website as being targeted at men, this comment warrants further discussion. There are strong ties between the thematic areas of representation, lived experience and pre-conceptions, particularly in the interview responses, in so far that gendered pre- conceptions and stereotypes can lead to representations of a particular gender or sexuality group that don’t match a particular set of lived experiences. As discussed, almost all of the women participants in both the photo narrative and interview tasks particularly commented on representation as both an organising and global theme. The impact of this on user experience and engagement with particular content, as well as implications around participant identity will be further explored in subsequent chapters. Women who did not generally feel that websites represented or matched their lived experiences from the perspective of gender discussed this from a number of angles, including comments on existing in a wider patriarchal society, as well as thoughts around reacting to lack of representation. I just feel that in general, like if the world was a video game, like your default protagonist... like it actually is, in video games, is, y’know, a straight white male, like y’know. An adult, y’know. Like it’s the default (Erin, bisexual woman). Another participant, Madeline, discussing the Femail website, took issue with the social expectations of women portrayed on the site, identifying the role of the media in shaping social norms. 130 They’re trying to make us all into little housewives! (Madeline, heterosexual woman). Though not a website included in this study, one participant raised the Buzzfeed website during an interview, as an example of a site that was attempting to go against stereotypical representations of women, particularly in its use of imagery. I remember seeing a lot more sort of photos of both males and females. When I did click into the parenting page out of curiosity the first thing I saw was a dad with a child rather than y’know a mother or whatever. That was kind of interesting (Darcy, lesbian woman). The thematic areas of lived experience and pre-conceptions were responded to less strongly across all gender groups, and included more responses from men than the themes relating to representation, two men and three men in the photo narrative task respectively (seven men total completing the photo narrative task), and one and two men in the interview tasks (five men interviewees). Responses from men in this thematic area were limited to comments on the perceived target audiences represented within the websites provided and did not address wider issues surrounding representation. While men’s responses mostly focused on the link between relatable content and lived experience in relation to representations of sexuality, one man, when discussing the sites Brain Pickings and TS14, which he perceived to be targeted to women, felt that he could not relate to them. Because they were aimed more at the female gender, I felt that I couldn’t relate to the information (Warren, gay man). Another man, James, felt similarly about the Mamamia website, starting his comment by simply mentioning relevant topics, but then linking the relevance of those topics to their gendered nature. These linkages in and of themselves are based on the same stereotypical representations and pre-conceptions that women in the study have identified that problematises the websites for them. It didn’t really appeal to me because it just didn’t cover the subjects that I wanted to see or interest. A lot articles on opinions of this or opinions on that, yeah... it’s generally what I would expect from a site like that, like when I was looking at it, I thought it was probably aimed more at a women’s magazine type of audience. So I thought this reads like a women’s magazine (James, heterosexual man). James echoes earlier sentiments made by women participants in relation to male- targeted websites, though women found some websites not specifically catering to 131 women also offensive. The Age and Star Observer, both newspaper websites, were accused quite consistently by women of representing women in a stereotypical or negative light, or excluding them entirely, and this is worthy of further discussion, if the premise that current affairs and news should be something accessible to as broad a segment of the adult population as possible is accepted. As one participant sums up: I get a vibe when I read political articles as well that the person who is supposed to digest it is not really me. It’s someone with more power than me (Ashleigh, bisexual woman). Further discussion surrounding the importance of representation within website content can be found in Chapter 9. These results suggest the areas of online experience that participants most connected with - in so far as they expect their gender to be represented in a meaningful and holistic manner, portrayed appropriately, and be able to access content that is in line with their lived experience. They have further begun to establish a link between participant- identified gender groups and particular thematic areas. The correlation between these thematic areas and particular websites will be further explored later in this chapter. 7.5.2 Sexuality Table 7 shows the number of participants, distributed by sexuality, who contributed to the organising theme of representation. Similar to Table 6, a participant may have made numerous comments in relation to a basic theme; for the purposes of this analysis, Table 7 indicates numbers of unique participants who participated in a particular task (e.g. the interviews) and made at least one response against a basic theme within the wider organising thematic group. Here, participants are grouped into two categories - queer, or heterosexual. 132 Table 7: Distribution of organising themes relating to representation and stereotyping by sexuality. Organising themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Participant totals Queer n = 23 Queer n = 17 Heterosexual n = 7 Heterosexual n = 6 Masculinity No responses Q H 1 0 Lived experience of Q H Q H users 8 1 13 1 Pre-conceptions Q H Q H 7 0 10 4 Portrayal of women Q H Q H and stereotypes 10 2 11 5 Portrayal of LGBTIQs Q H Q H 12 1 9 1 Representation Q H Q H 19 2 16 4 Building on the previous results that examined representation through the lens of gender, I now look at the same thematic area through a lens of sexuality. 133 In the photo narrative tasks, queer participants commented more strongly in all areas, with the most notable being portrayal of LGBTIQs (12 queer vs. one heterosexual), and representation (19 queer vs. two heterosexual). Portrayal of women and stereotypes also garnered strong responses, with queer participants commenting much more frequently than heterosexual participants against this thematic area. In the interview task, responses were stronger in both groups. It was of interest that over half of queer participants responded in all thematic areas bar one (masculinity). Within those areas, the strongest thematic areas were lived experience of users (13), portrayal of women and stereotypes (11) and representation, with all bar one participant commenting in this area (17 queer interviewees). Heterosexual participants commented strongly in pre-conceptions (four), portrayal of women and stereotypes (five) and representation (four) (six heterosexual interviewees). When the responses from both groups of participants were examined further, (expecting both groups to comment from a place of specific sexuality), there was an apparent divide in the responses. Queer participants spoke specifically about the relationship of their various queer identities to the thematic areas, whereas heterosexual participants spoke more broadly about their lived experiences beyond sexuality, or in some cases discussed the content of the websites in relation to how the wider LGBTIQ community was represented. This awareness of the prioritisation that exists within the LGBTIQ community, around issues of representation of a range of individuals along the sexuality spectrum was notable. Like obviously around Mardi Gras, when mainstream media latches on to those two weeks where they’re like yay, gays and lesbians. But it’s mainly just aimed at gays and lesbians. You don’t see much at queer, bi, trans, intersex, it’s mainly just oh gays and lesbians, they’re the only ones (Miranda, heterosexual woman). Some comments suggested that heterosexual participants found the content generally positive, and it was only the focus on sexuality or gender that wasn’t their own that made relating difficult, with Miranda going on to say: The only reason I feel I can’t relate is that I’m a straight cis female and the content is obviously aimed at the LGBTI community (Miranda, heterosexual woman, in relation to Star Observer). 134 Specifically addressing the area of lived experience, lesbian, gay and bisexual users discussed the importance of this area extensively, particularly in the interviews (13 queer vs. one heterosexual). In addition to issues of invisibility and exclusion, which will be discussed later in this chapter, a particular area of discussion was the issue of heterosexual writers speaking on behalf of the LGBTIQ community. Participants felt that this was inappropriate, as a heterosexual individual did not share their lived experience, and so may not be able to represent it in a meaningful way. Bisexual woman Rachael notes that she doesn’t feel like a heterosexual person can tell her anything regarding queer lived experience, but she would be interested in hearing about the lived experiences of other queer people. Sabrina goes on to add: If you’re trying to write a really insightful article you better damn well to have spoken to people involved and you better not be heavily paraphrasing them, you better be taking what they said into consideration (Sabrina, bisexual woman). In some thematic areas, participants were unable to separate gender from sexuality. A gender divide was also still apparent in relation to lived experience, with participants citing the difference between female and male targeted LGBTIQ websites, such as After Ellen and Autostraddle, which target women in relationships with other women, and Star Observer, which claims to target the whole LGBTIQ community, but was read by both male and female participants as mainly targeting gay men. The reason behind this sort of gender segmentation requires further exploration, but may stem from the community’s tendency to prioritise the lived experience of particular groups over others. Queer female participants in particular were quick to point out the lack of representation of their lived experiences in websites such as Star Observer, but praised Autostraddle and After Ellen. Those participants who had not visited Autostraddle and After Ellen prior to participation in the study expressed surprise and happiness at the existence of the websites. Bisexual women Lilith and Sabrina both note positive emotions regarding the existence of pro-LGBTIQ websites, with Sabrina going onto say that she appreciates when heterosexuality is not assumed or the main focus of articles relating to sexuality or social topics. The comment made by Sabrina below is particularly pertinent to the thematic area of lived experiences from a number of angles. Though this will be considered in more depth in the discussion chapters, while LGBTIQ participants of all genders have discussed a sense of invisibility and a lack of representation within the wider 135 heterosexually targeted online environment, Sabrina highlights a lack of acceptance of queer women even within the LGBTIQ community. The phrasing used to end her comment ‘we’ve all been there’ suggests that this is a shared experience that is both expected and accepted. I mean I know they are for example the Sydney Star Observer, they’re sites that have sprung up from papers, which makes plenty of sense, which I would assume would have a similar sense of community to them, though we all know the Sydney Star Observer is full of, like, angry older gay men who are not interested in the opinions of young gay girls, but... we’ve all been there (Sabrina, bisexual woman). Interestingly, this awareness of the prioritisation that exists within the LGBTIQ community extended into the heterosexual participant group, as noted by Miranda earlier, when commenting on the way Mardi Gras is reported by mainstream media. The thematic area of pre-conceptions was commented on strongly by queer participants (seven in the photo narrative and 10 in the interview task) but notably heterosexual participants also provided comments that mapped to this theme (none in the photo narrative but four in the interview task). Participants demonstrated how pre-conceptions of a particular gender or sexuality could result in a mismatch of the site’s content with their own lived experience, but also demonstrated how their own pre-conceptions influenced their interpretation of site concept and design. This did not appear to be specific to either group. For example, associations with colour on Brain Pickings: It’s very yellow. Seems to be female orientated (Warren, gay man). Another participant, when discussing the Taste website, identified that while there was nothing visual on the website to give her a particular impression, her own pre- conceptions based on the type of website it was (a recipe website) and social assumptions that cooking is a heteronormative female activity influenced her experience and ability to relate. I think it just presumed heteronormative, presumed hetero people. There was nothing... if there was any photo on there I know it would be male female, it would be absolutely no dykes on there (Amy, lesbian woman). There is a relationship between lived experience and portrayal of LGBTIQs, and queer participants spoke at length about this thematic area. Participants discussed signifiers on particular websites that identified them as ‘safe’ or targeted specifically to ‘queer’ users. 136 The words as well. Lesbians. It’s right on my screenshot right there. That’s it. And trans is there too actually (Ashleigh, bisexual woman). The importance of how a website for queer women portrays its target audience, and the sorts of assumptions it makes in doing so. Sabrina compares the strategies employed by Autostraddle against those used by The Age. So they don’t tend to go headfirst into things assuming that the consumers are, like for example, they never say that they are a site for lesbians, they say they are a site for ladies who like ladies, and they are quite careful that that is obviously inclusive of everyone who falls into that circle on the Venn diagram. Which you just... can you imagine The Age doing something like that? (Sabrina, bisexual woman). In conversations regarding how websites could improve their portrayal of LGBTIQ individuals, with the aim of being more inclusive, it was noted that token gestures could in fact do more damage, and would not be read by participants as a representative portrayal, suggesting that more than simply images are required to achieve true representation. I don’t know if it’s useful to just, y’know, let’s just include all these people, let’s add a few pictures in to make people feel, y’know, we’ve got two same sex people in this picture or whatever, or like, if it’s not done well, it can be even... it can exclude even more (Colleen, queer woman). That themes emerged in all facets of areas relating to representation suggests that participants of the relevant sexuality groups felt that these were areas that impacted their experience and ability to relate to the websites shown. Participants were open about the lack of representation in website content. For example, gay woman June notes that there is such limited representation of gay women in mainstream TV shows and movies that she feels she has to search for it. Wendy goes on to say: I don’t really put too much energy into being bothered by it, but I guess my combination of Australian plus lesbian isn’t something that I see reflected in the content that I consume at all (Rachael, bisexual woman). In some cases, it is difficult to separate gender and sexuality when looking at the thematic areas. For example, areas of lived experience and pre-conceptions were noted by participants of a broad range of queer sexualities, far more so than the comparative rate of heterosexual participants. However, that heterosexual women noted these areas 137 to a high degree suggests that, while queer participants have a particular awareness to these themes, considering the participants in broader terms such as gender can still demonstrate the impact of a mismatch in lived experience, pre-conceptions and representation. This suggests that users who are not heterosexual males may not be feeling accurately represented. It also underscores the inextricable link between gender and sexuality in how participants self-identify. These results begin to establish a link between participant-identified sexuality groups and particular thematic areas. The correlation between these thematic areas and particular websites will be further explored later in this chapter. 7.6 Relevance 7.6.1 Gender Using the same approach as Table 6, Table 8 presents the number of participants, distributed by gender, whose responses to the photo narrative and interview tasks contributed to the emergence of themes relating to relevance. 138 Table 8: Distribution of organising themes relating to representation and stereotyping by gender. Organising themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Participant totals Women: n = 21 Women: n = 17 Men: n = 7 Men: n = 5 Transgender woman: n = 1 Transgender woman: n = 1 Undefined: n = 1 Advertising W M T U W M T 9 1 1 0 6 3 1 Design W M T U W M T 10 4 1 0 12 4 1 Website content W M T U W M T 14 4 0 1 11 5 1 Across the three thematic areas within the global theme of relevance, there were strong responses from both women and men. During the photo narrative task, within areas of advertising and website content, women responded more strongly than men (nine vs. one and 14 vs. four respectively). It was noteworthy that in the area of website content, the difference the numbers of men and women was not significant when considering the number of men and women in the study, and more than half the men responded in this area. The transgender woman responded in the areas of advertising and design, but not website content. When looking at the themes of advertising and website content, the number of responses from women decreased slightly between the photo narratives and the interviews, which is not consistent with the other data in this global theme. 139 However, as interviews were semi-structured, this can be explained by participants to some extent guiding the conversation. That these topics weren’t mentioned as frequently compared to the photo narratives may not mean they are less important; simply that the participants focused the interview on other areas, particularly design and content. During the interviews, men responded more strongly than women in all thematic areas, with over half of men commenting on the theme of advertising, and the majority commenting on design and website content (four and five respectively). The transgender woman responded in all thematic areas during the interview: the issue of relevance as an issue for transgender Internet users more widely is an area worthy of further consideration and will discussed in Chapter 9. Examining both sets of data, the photo narrative task generated the most responses from women. While it was not clear from the types of participant responses why this distribution occurred, it could be theorised that the prompt questions and directed visual analysis of the websites contained within this task allowed participants to focus on areas of the websites that elucidated specific thoughts around the relevance of what they were viewing. Additionally, looking to the types of responses between men and women who responded to both tasks, there was a common theme in that a lack of relevance reduced the appeal of the site, however the reasons behind that lack of relevance differed between the gender groups. (I don’t like) pretty much the whole site. The content. The layout. None are relevant or appeal to me (Matthew, gay man, in relation to GoFugYourself). So say for example if I was going to read about LGBT stuff, I wouldn’t go to a female or lesbian oriented site. Even if the information could be gender neutral, if it were perceived as a female or lesbian oriented site, that wouldn’t entice me in. It would only entice me if it were of a gay nature. The reason being is that I would feel that it more relates to me, and more who I am. I feel... and this may or may not be true... but I feel like the information would be a lot more relevant to what I want to know (Warren, gay man). None of the pictures or stories grab me. It puts women down, and I’m not interested in those sites (Beth, no label, woman, in relation to GoFugYourself). Within the organising thematic area of advertising, participants noted that generally advertising was disliked for a range of reasons, including disruption of the browsing 140 experience, over-utilisation of computer resources and irritation associated with ‘being sold to’, however those relating to gender are presented in further detail below. The concept of advertisements as a mechanism for perpetuating or encouraging a particular kind of femininity was an interesting emerging discussion from women. For example, one participant, in her discussion of the Femail website, noted that the advertising was at odds with the messages presented in the site’s articles. The highlighted articles are about body issues and the advertisements are promoting beauty and health products, which somewhat counters the body positive articles. It makes me angry that a company capitalises off body issues they help to perpetuate in society (Patty, pansexual woman). Ellen, the transgender woman, noted the role of advertising in perpetuating issues around identity formation, including the concept of what it meant to be ‘real’ or ‘whole’, which is an issue prevalent within the LGBTIQ community more generally, and particularly for transgender individuals. To really get people to endlessly consume or endlessly buy, you need to have them convinced that they’re not enough, they’re always going to need something more to be enough. Or if you thought that was what you needed last year, this year it’s something else. Now you need this to be a complete woman or the woman you want to be (Ellen, transgender woman). In contrast to this, when a site did not have advertisements that the same participant felt were targeted to a particular group, she responded more positively to the site overall. There are no images here which make me feel excluded and there doesn’t appear to be any deliberate targeting going on... The lack of traditional gendering and advertising is refreshing. It makes me feel that the site is more interesting for just being kind [of] person’s take on what is [of] interest (Ellen, transgender woman). With regard to user experience more generally, advertising was key in creating negative emotional responses from participants, which, depending on the aims of an individual website or business, may be worthy of further investigation in terms of its role in user experience creation and engagement. In response to advertisements, participants were vocally negative: If I didn’t have to stay here and do the questions the prominent advertising would be enough that I would leave (Darcy, lesbian woman). 141 Ads waste my time and it’s usually about a product I have zero interest in, and it slows my machine down, because I have to load so much ad banners, so much flash, and it’s like come on, you’ve got to be kidding me! Yeah, it shits me (James, heterosexual male). Moving on from participant observations regarding advertising, to looking at design and content of the sites more holistically, participants noted specific gendered design elements on a range of websites, particularly those targeted specifically at women. It can additionally be seen see that there is an inextricable link between the theme of representation discussed earlier, particularly around pre-conceptions and portrayal of women. It’s aimed at women, so there is a lot of pink on the page (June, gay woman). I think on one of them the colour was in a pink or red and the font was in a fancy font and when I read it I was like... the first association was like ‘a chick has done this (Warren, gay man in relation to Brain Pickings). These observations went beyond colour, and extended to the types of content that website creators presented, additionally highlighting the link between all three thematic areas in the global theme of relevance, as well as drawing a parallel with the earlier organising theme of stereotypical views of women in representation. Well the tag line is ‘what everyone’s talking about’ which is kind of gossipy which is women-oriented I think. It’s got lots of female writers, I think that jumps out to me, the fact that a lot of the content is made by women. There’s a second here about... there’s something about a miracle baby, there’s the fashion of the Oscars, there’s y’know, some woman with a true story about how she can really do it all, it’s really female oriented, there’s a lifestyle section, beauty and style, health, relationships. Yeah, I feel like it’s all very female oriented. Stories about children and family break down and stuff (Rachael, bisexual woman). Women also felt that they could ‘read’ a website as being male targeted, even when that wasn’t explicit in the site’s content, suggesting a link between the thematic areas of representation and relevance. There was something about that said ‘male’ as opposed ‘gender neutral’. I can’t pinpoint what it was (Erin, bisexual woman, in relation to The Age). The news websites like The Age. There were more pictures of men. Where there were pictures of women, the headline next to the picture seemed to be something quite negative (Darcy, lesbian woman). 142 Interestingly, the majority of men identified websites being targeted at women as such, but rarely commented in the same vein about websites that women identified as being male targeted. Only one man mentioned the gendering that women identified in The Age, citing stereotypical male interests as the justification for this line of thinking, rather than the lack of or stereotypical representations of women. This one might be leaning towards male. Just because of the types of things I’m seeing in front of me. I’m seeing heavy weight... some sort of martial art type person, I’m seeing stuff about motor cyclists, I know that’s being stereotypical about motorcyclists, we’ve got that, we’ve got gangsters (Caleb, heterosexual man, in response to The Age). In contrast, as can be seen above, websites that include design or content that is stereotypically female are much more readily identified as websites targeted at women. Therefore, it can start to be shown that a website’s relevance has an impact on how an individual views the website, the emotional responses associated with it and the relationship with that website to the individual’s world view. Advertising, design and content, while separated for the purposes of thematic analysis, do not appear to be so discrete in the eyes of participants when consuming websites. All three contribute to whether the website will be viewed as relevant, and the specifics of how that content is considered, created and ultimately presented to participants - i.e., how they are represented within it, establishes a strong link between the first two global themes. 7.6.2 Sexuality The organising theme of relevance will now be considered through the lens of sexuality. Table 9 shows the number of participants, distributed by sexuality, whose responses to the photo narrative and interview tasks contributed to the emergence of themes relating to relevance. 143 Table 9: Distribution of organising themes relating to relevance by sexuality. Organising themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Participant totals Queer n = 23 Queer n = 17 Heterosexual n = 7 Heterosexual n = 6 Advertising Q H Q H 9 2 8 2 Design Q H Q H 9 3 12 5 Website content Q H Q H 13 3 12 5 If participant responses are examined through the lens of sexuality, it can be seen that in all organising themes, there was a strong response from queer participants. In the photo narrative tasks, nine queer participants commented about the relevance of advertising and design in the websites provided. Over half (13) discussed the relevance of website content. If I contrast this to the heterosexual participants who completed the photo narrative, a few commented on advertising (two) but almost half (three) commented on the relevance of both design and content. The organising theme of advertising followed similar patterns in the interview, with more queer participants commenting on the relevance of advertising compared to heterosexual participants (eight vs. two). These data suggest that further examining the relevance of advertising for queer Internet users may be warranted. For example, lesbian woman Amy provided the example of an advertisement for health insurance that she noticed particularly because it featured two women kissing. She noted that because she could relate to the content and therefore felt happy to see it. 144 Amy, above, provides an interesting example of how the relevance of content in advertising not only draws her attention, but creates a positive experience. She explains how the reflection of her own lived experience reflected in the design, content and images of the advertisement made it relevant for her. In the interview, though both groups spoke at length about design and website content, I saw more responses from heterosexual users than queer users against these themes (12 queer vs. five heterosexual for both themes). In any case, the frequency of responses is not suggestive of the tone in which participants spoke about the themes, but does provide valuable data around which themes emerged. This highlights the importance of sentiment analysis, which will be addressed in Chapter 8. It is important to examine the ways in which participants defined relevance: I think it is all about personal relevance in the end, I mean for me, when I’m browsing the Internet, I don’t really care what anyone else is looking at, or what anyone else wants, it’s about what I’m into (Greg, gay man). There is some suggestion that relevance is personally defined, with Greg highlighting this and indicating that website content needs to align to his own preferences to interest him, (regardless of others). I have already seen from earlier results that the stereotypical views of users indicated in various demographics does not cater for the majority of participants, queer or heterosexual, but there is some suggestion that this lack of alignment is ‘felt’ more by queer participants. This issue will be further explored in the discussion. Nothing really. I don’t dislike the site, I am just disinterested in its content (James, heterosexual man, referring to the Mamamia website). I very rarely find a person or image that I find 100% relatable’ (Wendy, bisexual woman). Bisexual woman Erin spoke at length about how, as a teenager, she wished for content that she found relevant to her, rather than needing to hide in her bedroom to watch Queer as Folk, one of the few LGBTIQ-centric TV programs broadcast at the time. She also felt that it was important to feel like there were other people in the world that acknowledged her experiences. James above was asked about his emotional response to the Mamamia website, he didn’t have particularly strong feelings, but noted the lack of relevance to him with 145 regard to the content, further supporting Greg’s response above. Queer woman Colleen suggests that demographics are still considered, as she highlights the lack of information online targeted deliberately at queer users. Interestingly, this division is noticed by heterosexual web users as well, as Miranda points out below, the noticeable lack of queer content in mainstream news. To say to gay readers, you have your newspaper, you have your Star Observer, you don’t have content for you in, say The Herald, or The Telegraph, to say no, you have your newspaper, go over there. It’s just taking people back to the 60s, where you’re all in your little groups (Miranda, heterosexual woman). These results suggest that some participants noted relevance with particular attention to their sexuality, but others focused more on the topic area they were presented with and its relation to their own lived experience to determine relevance. There was some indication that queer women were more likely to note relevance to their sexuality than either queer or heterosexual men, but this was not sufficiently examined in the data to make a true generalisation. Regardless, these data are suggestive that relevance of advertising, design and web content is important to all web users if they are to engage and ultimately feel a positive user experience from this engagement. If users are able to see themselves represented in the content, design and advertising and draw such alignments to their own lived experience, relevance is more likely. 7.7 Inclusion and exclusion 7.7.1 Gender Table 10 shows the number of participants, distributed by gender, whose responses to the photo narrative and interview tasks contributed to the emergence of themes relating to inclusion / exclusion. 146 Table 10: Distribution of organising themes relating to inclusion and exclusion by gender. Organising themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Participant totals Women: n = 21 Women: n = 17 Men: n = 7 Men: n = 5 Transgender woman: n = 1 Transgender woman: n = 1 Undefined: n = 1 Exclusion W M T U W M T 8 3 1 0 13 5 1 Assumptions W M T U W M T 2 0 1 0 11 1 1 Invisibility W M T U W M T 4 0 1 1 7 0 0 Inclusion W M T U W M T 10 2 1 0 10 4 0 If I examine the themes of inclusion and exclusion through the lens of gender, I can see that in the interview task, women spoke more frequently about assumptions and invisibility (and inclusion) than men. For the themes of assumptions and invisibility, men gave no responses that mapped to these themes at all in the photo narrative. Four women spoke about invisibility during the photo narrative task. However, only two spoke about assumptions during this task, suggesting that with regard to exclusion, assumptions did not frequently come to mind for women. Discussion regarding the 147 theme of inclusion initially received the highest number of comments from women, with nearly half (10) of the women making at least one comment in the photo narrative task that could be mapped to this theme. The theme of exclusion in the photo narrative task received strong responses from women (10 women vs. two men). The transgender woman commented against all thematic areas, and though there is only one transgender participant featured in the study, that she commented strongly across all thematic areas suggests that the theme of inclusion and exclusion and associated themes like assumptions and invisibility are particularly relevant for her. In the interview task, women responded more strongly than they did in the photo narrative task, likely because the interview lends itself to greater discussion (of themes). In the themes of assumptions and invisibility, women commented very more than men. Eleven women vs. one man spoke about assumptions, and nearly half (seven) of the women spoke of invisibility, whereas no men commented on this theme. For the broader theme of exclusion, interestingly while 13 women commented here, comment was made against this theme by all male participants. While this is clearly a relevant theme for both groups of participants, these results are of interest as they do not correspond directly to the earlier comments made by both groups of participants against the global themes of representation and relevance. As such, an exploration of the comments made by men against the theme of exclusion bears further review. For the theme of inclusion in the interview task, men and women responded strongly (10 women vs. four men), suggesting that this is a relevant theme for all participants. For the transgender woman, the themes of exclusion and assumption were of importance during the interview tasks, but she did not provide comments that mapped to invisibility and inclusion, despite mentioning invisibility in her photo narrative. Again, it is important to look to the sentiment with which the responses are being made. Note that here, sentiment refers to the general tone with which participants responded, not a specific sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis will be addressed in Chapter 8. If The Age website is used as an example, one woman pointed out the assumptions she felt it made about its users: Well, there’s nothing here. I mean, I wouldn’t say there’s any representation, I would say everyone on this page is friggin’ straight (Ashleigh, bisexual woman). 148 Ellen, the transgender participant, spoke more generally about relationship columns online and the assumptions made through use of gendered pronouns: All the columns are presented as assuming it’s a straight couple... I want to see columns with gender neutral pronouns as well. To me it would be more inclusive and I feel like I’d be more able to apply it to my life or my situation as well (Ellen, transgender woman). As the interviews generated the most responses in the thematic area of exclusion, it is suggestive that these themes may not have exclusively emerged from the websites provided and are additionally reflective of participants’ wider Internet experience. Participants spoke at length in the interviews about feelings of exclusion, lack of representation, and discussed the issue of gendering and sexuality, particularly that, in their experience, website content was more likely to target heterosexual male users. However, this went beyond the question of whether the content was relevant or not and further highlighted links between relevance, representation and feelings of exclusion. You get that feeling of ‘oh God, there really is nothing for me.’ But again I’m not sure if that’s... I don’t know if that’s common for straight white males, if they go ‘hmm that’s not me’ (Ellen, transgender woman). When you’re a white heterosexual male, you’ve never been in a position other than a position of power, so when jokes are made at other ethnicities’, other genders’, other sexualities’ expense, of course they’re funny to you, you’ve never been oppressed, ever (Patty, pansexual woman). Women are already much more used to, y’know, not having things made for them, but making do and using them anyway (Erin, bisexual woman). If something doesn’t interest me, I’m like ‘whatever, I’m not interested in everything, that’s cool.’ But part of it is the fact that because those sites, they design themselves to appeal to females, and in doing so they’re kind of saying ‘this is what it IS to be female.’ So if I go to those sites and I find it off putting because I’m like ‘I identify as female but what you’re saying should appeal to females doesn’t appeal to me.’ It’s that more subtle thing of starting to doubt yourself (Ellen, transgender woman). 7.7.2 Sexuality The organising theme of inclusion and exclusion will now be considered through the lens of sexuality. Table 11 shows the number of participants, distributed by sexuality, 149 whose responses to the photo narrative and interview tasks contributed to the emergence of themes relating to inclusion and exclusion. 150 Table 11: Distribution of organising themes relating to inclusion and exclusion by sexuality. Organising themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Participant totals Queer n = 23 Queer n = 17 Heterosexual n = 7 Heterosexual n = 6 Exclusion Q H Q H 10 2 14 4 Assumptions Q H Q H 3 0 12 1 Invisibility Q H Q H 6 0 7 0 Inclusion Q H Q H 13 0 11 2 Interestingly, when examining the themes of inclusion and exclusion by sexuality, there were no responses from heterosexual participants across the themes of assumptions, invisibility or inclusion in the photo narrative task. However, when previously looking at these themes through the lens of gender, the distribution between genders was much more evenly spread. This suggests that participants ‘feel’ these themes differently or read websites in such a way to result in different patterns of emergence, when speaking about sexuality. In particular, the theme of inclusion resulted in 13 of queer participants commenting in the photo narrative task, as opposed to no heterosexual participants. Exclusion was also of interest, with much more frequent responses from queer participants when compared to heterosexual participants (10 vs. two). 151 In the interview task, queer participants responded much more frequently than heterosexual participants in all themes with the exception of exclusion. While the majority of queer participants made comments that could be mapped to exclusion (14) two thirds of heterosexual participants also commented in this thematic area (four). Nearly three quarters of queer participants (12) made comments relating to assumptions, against one heterosexual participant. For the theme of invisibility, nearly half of queer participants (seven) made some reference to it, whereas no heterosexual participants mentioned this theme. The theme of inclusion was spoken about by both groups, with a much higher number of queer participants responding (11 vs. two). These data are suggestive that the themes of exclusion, assumptions, invisibility and inclusion are highly relevant to queer users. Looking at the previous data regarding inclusion, exclusion and gender in addition to this, there is some suggestion that the theme of exclusion could be particularly pertinent for queer women. Queer participants were more likely to discuss their sexuality in reference to exclusion or inclusion, as well as assumptions surrounding them. Heterosexual participants drew comparisons between relevance and exclusion, but did not tend to mention sexuality in their responses. The participant below noted that operating in an assumed heterosexual space made interacting with LGBTIQ targeted content exciting on the occasions it happened: It’s got to be harder for some people than others, but you spend your whole life learning how to operate in this heterosexual space. I personally, I don’t get bummed out by it, but I certainly get excited when that’s not the case. I tend to more focus on like a positive of it, when it happens, rather than the negative of it not happening (Erin, bisexual woman). Beth comments similarly about Mamamia, and assumptions that all its readers would only be interested in heterosexual relationships: It was really done in that I guess male-female couple, male-female attraction way. There was certainly nothing there that showed any broader diversity than that (Beth, no label, woman). Other participants went into detail as to what might make them feel excluded when browsing the wider web, invisibility being a key issue: I think most of the sense of exclusion would come mostly from the images selected. Like it’s pretty rare to feel that sense of exclusion from just a headline. Even if it’s something as 152 simple as ‘married couple vote for holiday destination’ or something like that. Like obviously that’s obviously a very biased survey, but that wouldn’t bug me as much as having an accompanying image of a man and a woman holding hands on a beach. Like it’s the sort of romanticism of it that I’d feel excluded from if it was a male and female (Lauretta, lesbian woman). Bisexual woman Rachael felt that the website producers did not consider queer women or women of colour. She felt the creators saw women as singular-dimensional, with interests only in gossip and fashion. That queer participants in particular separated gender and sexuality in their discussion of the websites in relation to this theme to a lesser extent than they did when speaking about relevance or representation suggests that there may be a link between feelings of exclusion and queer female sexuality. 7.8 Chapter summary This chapter presents findings that demonstrate the generation of themes relating to the ways in which participants ‘read’ a series of websites provided to them as part of the main study within this research. Participants received four or five websites each from a range of categories and engaged in two tasks: a photo narrative with a series of guiding questions, and an open interview. From the responses that were provided, themes were generated and organised into emergent categories to form a framework with which to analyse participant experiences, with a particular focus on the experiences of queer women. The framework consists of three global thematic categories - representation, relevance and inclusion. Participant responses were viewed through the lenses of both gender and sexuality to examine whether particular groups were more likely to provide comments on websites that aligned to particular themes. Clear patterns were identified, which were described in this chapter. Chapter 8 goes on to further examine participant responses to the provided websites by examining their emotional responses to what they viewed. Sentiment analysis is used to quantify these responses and links between themes, nature of emotional responses and websites are demonstrated. 153 Chapter 8 8. Results: Sentiment analysis 8.1 Introduction The previous chapter demonstrated the first part of the findings from the key research conducted as part of this study. Emergent themes which contributed to the generation of a framework through which the online experience of LGBTIQ users can be examined were presented. Global thematic areas included ‘representation and stereotyping’, ‘relevance’ and ‘inclusion and exclusion’. Themes were generated through the use of two participant tasks, a photo narrative and an open-ended interview. Participants were given four to five websites each from a range of website categories and asked to respond to a series of prompts to complete the photo narrative. These responses were then explored further during the interview. Themes were generated from these responses to ultimately develop the framework. In this chapter, the thematic areas identified by participants are first mapped to individual websites, to lay the groundwork for discourse around themes, participants’ emotional responses and perception. The chapter then builds on the results outlined in Chapter 7 to present a sentiment analysis from two angles. First, sentiment analysis was used to examine the participant responses that generated the themes themselves. The rationale behind this is simple. For example, a participant discussing exclusion could do so from the perspective that they do not feel excluded by a particular website. However, the term ‘exclusion’ has negative connotations in Western society, and as such, there is a risk that assumptions could be made regarding the participant’s intention. Here I explore a novel methodology for examining participant perception of themes, and the sentiment with which participants discussed topics that gave rise to them. Second, a sentiment analysis was conducted against participants’ emotional responses to particular websites to demonstrate links between themes, the nature of emotional responses and websites. While thematic analysis alone can provide mechanisms for analysing sentiment, an aim of this research was to provide an approach that can be used by industry practitioners, who are more likely to be familiar with sentiment analysis, as it is a tool commonly used in design and marketing. It is also important to first be able to identify themes without consideration of the sentiment, such that purely the thematic 154 patterns are extracted, before engaging in an in-depth textual analysis. As such, the two approaches were used. 8.2 Thematic sentiment The following section presents the sentiment of the global and organising themes that arose during the photo narrative and interview components of the study. While participant responses relating to all websites discussed in this study could be mapped to at least one of the global themes that emerged, it is the sentiment with which the basic and organising themes within this framework were discussed that is of further interest. All participants Figure 7: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for all participants. Figure 7 above provides a ‘snapshot’ of the overall sentiment of the participant cohort across all organising themes. The x axis shows each organising theme; the y value shows its sentiment analysis score. Global themes have also been indicated above. The x axis at zero shows a ‘neutral’ sentiment, therefore the figure can be used to compare participant sentiment across all organising themes. The n value refers to the number of 155 participant responses that were able to be scored against the lexicon, however this does not represent all participant responses which contributed to the theme. As such, these data should be viewed alongside the data in Chapter 6 which details the frequency with which the different participant groups gave responses that contributed to the generation of the themes. If I examine Figure 7 further, it can be seen that participants felt negatively about the majority of the themes they generated, and this warrants further discussion and exploration. The themes that had the highest number of scoreable responses, and thereby the most responses with emotive content, were representation (n = 101, sentiment score of -0.5) and portrayal of women and stereotypes (n=99, sentiment score of -2.01). While both scored a negative sentiment, portrayal of women and stereotypes was significantly more negative. The rationale behind this score will be further explored in the discussion chapter, however the distribution of participants is worthy of note here. With the majority of participants identifying as queer women, and quotes from Chapter 7 indicating that these participants felt that the way they were portrayed in a number of websites provided in the study were unacceptable, it could easily explain a strongly negative score. The most negative sentiment score was against the theme of masculinity (n=2, sentiment score -3). This theme did not have enough data to warrant generalisation, however it is clear from the score that the participants who did comment against this theme felt very negative sentiment towards it. Assumptions (n=13, sentiment -2.09) also warranted a highly negative score, and with a larger number of responses that contained emotive content, is worthy of further discussion. Inclusion (n=39, sentiment score of 1.18) was the most strongly positive theme, with smaller positive scores also emerging against preconceptions (n=21, sentiment score of 0.4) and design (n=37, sentiment score of 0.11). That design had a score so close to zero indicates that the participants are trending towards neutrality, suggesting that design may not contribute particularly strongly to whether an experience overall is positive or negative, but feelings of inclusion invoke strong positive responses. Having examined the sentiment of the entire cohort of participants against the themes, participants were then split into a number of profiles. These profiles are not intended to 156 suggest a combining of the data, and instead provide a baseline to compare one group against another. The profiles include: • heterosexual vs queer women • heterosexual vs queer men • all men vs all women • all queer vs all heterosexual participants • the transgender participant I found that due to the overall demographic spread of the participants, there were little differences between certain profiles; as such, those presented below are those that display the most variation. For example, all women and queer women showed little difference as the majority of participants in the study identified as queer women. Heterosexual women Figure 8: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for heterosexual women. Figure 8 shows the responses that could be scored against the lexicon made by heterosexual women. As heterosexual women were a small subset of the overall participant cohort, the smaller n numbers are expected here. It should also be noted that 157 N/A refers to either a theme that had no responses against it from this subset, or that the responses against it were not able to be scored against the lexicon, suggesting more objective rather than emotive responses. Similarly to the wider cohort, the majority of themes that could be scored received a negative sentiment, with a particular negative trend to be found throughout the global theme of representation. As with the wider cohort, portrayal of women and stereotypes (n=15, sentiment score of -2.21) was the most negative theme. Exclusion also had a strongly negative score (n=3, sentiment score of -2). Despite the lower number of responses that contributed to the scoring, it is worthy of further exploration to see if there is a link between exclusion and a negative sentiment towards portrayal of women and stereotypes for heterosexual woman. Portrayal of LGBTIQs received a high positive score (1.5), however as there was only one scoreable response and it differed significantly from the wider cohort, the score will be excluded from further analysis. Website content received the highest positive score (n=6, sentiment score of 2) and had a high number of scoreable responses contributing to it, considering the size of this subgroup. Given the otherwise negative responses against the wider theme of representation, it may be worth considering why heterosexual women scored content so highly, and whether their comments related to a hypothetical positive experience when relevant content is found, or if these comments related to particular websites in this study. Looking again at inclusion and exclusion, despite exclusion’s strong negative score, there were no responses that could be scored against assumptions, invisibility or inclusion, suggesting that these were not particularly relevant themes for heterosexual women. 158 Queer women Figure 9: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for queer women. The largest cohort and main focus of this study is queer women, and as such the larger n numbers here are expected. If I examine the shape of Figure 9, it is also noteworthy that it roughly follows the same trend as the entire participant group in Figure 7, and this is expected given the demographics of the participants. Excluding masculinity, those themes with the most negative score were assumptions (n=12, sentiment score of -2.1) and lived experience and portrayal of women and stereotypes (n=32 and n=64, respectively, both scoring -1.97). Exclusion also scored particularly negatively (n=13, sentiment score of -1.43). These particularly negative themes were not dissimilar to heterosexual women, though the overall sentiment score across the board was slightly higher. Some potential rationales for this difference could relate to the higher number of queer women who responded, resulting in slightly more accurate representations. It is also possible that responses provided by this group were more balanced, which will be considered in the discussion. 159 The themes of pre-conceptions (n=16, sentiment score of 0.2) and design (n=27, sentiment score of 0.21) received low positive scores, however the clear difference compared to heterosexual women is the theme of inclusion. While heterosexual women did not have any scoreable responses against this theme, inclusion received the highest sentiment score (1.16) and a strong number of scoreable responses (n=38). This is suggestive that inclusion is of high importance for this group, and this will be further explored in the discussion. Heterosexual men Figure 10: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for heterosexual men. From examining Figure 10 alone, it is difficult to ascertain whether the lack of scoreable responses is due to the fact that heterosexual men gave no responses against these themes, or that their responses lacked emotive content and therefore weren’t scoreable. As such, I looked at the combined data of heterosexual and queer men, as well as cumulatively looked at all men. It could be seen that scoreable responses were present against all themes that male participants contributed to (those that resulted in the 160 generation of the original themes). As such, it could be suggested that those with scoreable responses are those areas that are most pertinent to the different demographics (in this case queer vs. heterosexual). Heterosexual men had some of the strongest negative scores against any themes, in particular advertising (n=5, sentiment score of -3.19) and portrayal of women and stereotypes (n=8, sentiment score of -2.19). The themes of pre-conceptions, representation and design were also negatively scored and also quite similar in n number (1-2). Interestingly, heterosexual men were the only group to score no themes positively. Men did not contribute to the generation of the themes of masculinity and invisibility, so the lack of data here is expected, however it is worthy of further discussion as to why no scoreable responses were made against portrayal of LGBTIQs, assumptions or inclusion. Queer men Figure 11: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for queer men. 161 As there were so few queer men who volunteered for this study (n=3 in the photo narrative task and n=1 in the interview task), the data provided in Figure 11 is unlikely to be generalisable, however it is included as this group still provides a unique perspective of the themes generated. However, examining these data, those themes with the highest n numbers were lived experience (n=4, sentiment score -0.83), portrayal of LGBTIQs (n=5, -1.7) and advertising (n=2, sentiment score -2.83), all scoring negatively. It is interesting that among male users, advertising in general had a considerably more negative score than other themes. Of the themes that scored positively, both pre-conceptions and inclusion had n=1 response, and scores of 2. Given that there was only one response in each theme that was scoreable, these data are unlikely to be generalisable, but are consistent with queer women in that these themes also scored positively. The thematic areas that had no response against them were portrayal of women and stereotypes and exclusion. It will be further explored as to why queer men had no emotive-based comments against these themes. No data was expected against masculinity and invisibility as no men in the study contributed to the generation of those themes. 162 Transgender woman Figure 12: Sentiment of organising themes, including relevant participant data from both the photo narrative task and interviews, for the transgender woman. Though there was only one transgender participant in the study, her data has been included due to the important and different insights that she provides. Examining Figure 12, the transgender woman’s data is not vastly dissimilar to that in Figure 9, with a few key differences. First, the transgender participant scored pre-conceptions particularly negatively (n=5, sentiment score -1.03) whereas this score was slightly positive for queer women. Second, while queer women also scored portrayal of LGBTIQs and advertising negatively, they were more strongly negative for the transgender user, though it should be noted that only one scoreable response was made against portrayal of LGBTIQs. Representation was an area that the transgender woman commented extensively about, with n=17 scoreable responses contributing to a sentiment score of - 1.29. Interestingly, exclusion was slightly positive for the transgender user, with n=10. As this was an unexpected result, further discussion against this theme is warranted. 163 Inclusion scored most highly against all other data provided by this participant (n=4, sentiment score of 2). 8.2.1 Excluded profiles The profiles that were particularly similar were those of ‘all queer participants’ and ‘all women’, and as such these have not been reported above. This similarity is expected given the demographics of the study’s participants. There was also little significant difference between ‘all men’ and ‘all heterosexual participants’ so these data have also been excluded, particularly since the focus of this study is queer women. 8.2.2 Summary The sentiment data above provides a useful tool to provide insight regarding user experience and to guide the designers and researchers towards reasons for positive or negative experiences. In the data above, there were both positive and negative themes that were common across certain or all demographic profiles. This is represented in Figure 7, however, it is the sentiment and strength thereof within the individual profiles that is of interest and that is most likely to indicate the importance of these themes or areas to the specific groups. For example, that inclusion scored so highly and positively for queer men and women, and particularly for the transgender woman, was particularly relevant. The data also supported previously held design beliefs, for example that ‘content is king.’ The observations that were of particular interest are: • Lived experience: this theme was quite negative, particularly for queer women, but also notably so for transgender and heterosexual women. While it was negative for queer men, it was minimally so, and was not scoreable for heterosexual men. • Portrayal of women and stereotypes: this theme was strongly negative for women across all profiles, but not scoreable for queer men. Interestingly and unexpectedly, this theme scored strongly negatively for heterosexual men. • Advertising: this theme scored negatively across the majority of groups, but was notably negative for both heterosexual and queer men. Interestingly, advertising received a neutral score of zero from the transgender woman. 164 • Portrayal of LGBTIQs: this theme received a negative score from all queer and transgender participants. It was not commented on by heterosexual men, and was excluded as an outlier from heterosexual women. • Website content: this theme received very negative sentiment scores for queer women, the transgender woman and heterosexual men, was positive for queer men, and strongly positive for heterosexual women. • Exclusion: this theme received a negative sentiment from all participant profiles except for queer men, who had no scoreable comments against it. • Assumptions: this theme received strongly negative scores from queer women, the transgender woman and heterosexual men. Though it received a somewhat negative score from queer men, it is likely to be an outlier, as there was only one emotive response out of all queer male participants against this theme. • Invisibility: this theme only received responses (negative) from queer women and the transgender woman. It had no scoreable responses from queer men or either group of heterosexual participants. • Inclusion: similarly to invisibility, this theme did not receive comments from either group of heterosexual participants and the score from queer men is potentially an outlier. The responses from queer women and the transgender woman received strong positive sentiment scores. Ultimately, the responses that participants provided that led to the generation of these themes, and the sentiment data above, should be used to provide clues for designers and researchers as to how to provide the best experience for these different demographic groups, and the areas of most importance to each group. The areas of most importance and recommendations for design will be further elaborated upon in the discussion. 8.3 Website sentiment The following section presents themes that were associated with individual websites based on participant responses. Here, explicitly emotional responses related to specific websites (e.g. ‘I hate this!’) were separated from the wider responses. The length of responses provided by participants in the photo narrative part of the study was not dissimilar to the length and type of language used in microblogging such as Twitter. It should be noted that not all participants provided explicitly emotional responses, so these data should be considered as a subset of the wider participant data and on its own 165 is only suggestive of participant sentiment towards individual websites. It should also be considered in conjunction with the themes that were generated from viewing each website, and the associated thematic sentiment. Considering these three datasets, the most ‘well liked’ and ‘most disliked’ websites can be elucidated and explored in conjunction with the thematic sentiment. It can be seen that certain websites shared some themes more than others. A complete mapping of website by theme can be seen in Appendix 15. Figure 13 below shows a summary of the average participant sentiment to individual websites. Here, ‘n’ refers to the number of participants’ emotional responses per website. Total participant sentiment towards websites 3 n=4 n=4 2 n=6 n=5 1 n=8 n=3 n=6 n=12 n=5 n=10 n=4 0 Ellen After Autostraddle Brain Pickings Femail GoFugYourself Science IFL Mamamia Observer Star Taste Age The Tom's Hardware TS14 -1 Sentiment score Sentiment -2 -3 Websites Figure 13: Comparison of average sentiment scores across the websites discussed by all participants in the study. Interestingly, there was little commonality of themes in websites that scored over all positive participant sentiment. Instead, the absence of certain themes was more notable. Of themes that were present, in particular the themes of inclusion leading to positive emotional responses and lack of assumptions around heterosexuality were common to some but not all of the sites. The importance of relevance and a match between content and lived experience arose, but was also noted for websites that scored negatively, highlighting that the sentiment with which the theme was discussed is key. Across the websites that scored negatively, while again there were no themes that were strictly common to all sites, there were stronger trends apparent from participant 166 conversations that suggested that the themes listed below are more likely to elicit a negative experience: • exclusion • invisibility of LGBTIQs • assumptions around heterosexuality and gender • targeting stereotypical content at women • limited and stereotypical representation of women • the use of design to exclude • gendered use of advertising. These themes are consistent with the negative thematic sentiment seen in Figures 9-14. That some websites scored a high positive score or a low negative score suggests reasonable consensus amongst participants regarding their experience of the site. The reasons for such strong scores warrants further discussion to elucidate real world translations that could inform improvements to user-centred and experience design frameworks. However, those sites scoring closer to neutral in either a positive or negative direction also warrant further examination, as they highlight the individualistic nature of perception among participants and suggest that even within sites that are targeted at specific demographics (e.g. Star Observer, targeted at the LGBTIQ community, or Mamamia, targeted at heterosexual women and mothers), further consideration must be given to representation, relevance and inclusion. 167 Website sentiment analysis - demographic breakdown 4 3 2 1 0 Ellen After Autostraddle Brain Pickings Femail GoFugYourself Science IFL Mamamia Observer Star Taste Age The Tom's Hardware TS14 -1 Sentiment score Sentiment -2 -3 -4 Website Transgender Queer women Queer men Heterosexual women Heterosexual men Figure 14: Comparison of average sentiment scores across websites, by demographic profile. Figure 14 above provides a breakdown of the different demographic profiles that provided emotional responses. Here, similarities and differences between different participant groups can be elucidated. It was of interest that only queer participants provided emotional responses specific to After Ellen and Autostraddle (two sites targeting queer women), yet queer participants also provided comment to the broader spread of websites, many of which could be argued to be targeted at heterosexual users. It was also notable that the different participant groups held consensus in their sentiment for all websites, with the exception of Mamamia. Here, queer women and heterosexual men felt positively towards the website, whereas queer men and heterosexual women felt negatively. Despite the graph indicating that heterosexual women felt more negatively towards Mamamia than Femail, which on average was the most disliked website, it should be noted that only one heterosexual woman commented specifically about Mamamia, as opposed to four who commented about Femail. Similarly, only one queer woman commented about Mamamia, as opposed to six who commented about Femail. 168 8.4 Conclusions This chapter has demonstrated how sentiment analysis can be used to identify the tone with which participant themes emerged. The use of sentiment analysis combined with thematic analysis is a novel approach to exploring qualitative data, as traditional thematic analysis alone does not contain a mechanism for exploring the sentiment with which a participant referred to a theme. Furthermore, sentiment data allowed a specific exploration of the sentiment of queer women towards their own representations, a dimension often missing from traditional content analysis. In the next chapter, a new framework for designing user experiences for queer women is presented, contextualised by the literature. Seeking the participation of queer women in defining the appropriateness of what they are engaging is a crucial step to better representation and improved online experiences. It has been demonstrated that studies of media representation are clearly lacking in their representation of women across a number of intersectional factors, and the queer women in this study confirmed that not only did they not see themselves represented, they expected not to. Further, they expected to be excluded, and that this exclusion came not only from the heterosexual community, but within the LGBTIQ community as well, highlighting the importance of recognising symbolic annihilation in design. The next chapter will go on to provide a number of recommendations and practical applications of the framework, as well as suggestions for future work and research. 169 Chapter 9 9. Discussion 9.1 Introduction The previous two chapters outlined the two key areas of findings from this research. First, the themes that emerged as a result of participants undertaking a photo narrative task and interview were examined. The organisation of these themes into a framework to improve the online experience of queer women was then presented. Second, both the thematic areas identified by participants were analysed using sentiment analysis. The rationale behind this was twofold; while thematic analysis is a useful tool in identifying key areas of discussion and interest, it does not provide insight into the position from which the participants generated the theme. Additionally, sentiment analysis made it possible to separate participant position against the themes more broadly, and the specific websites that they were assigned, and this is important to be able to ascertain whether particular sentiments were related to specific design features, or the broader messaging, assumptions and stereotypes present within the websites. While in a number of cases there were specific design or content elements within a website that participants identified as contributing to the sentiment of their response, the broader finding was that the specific element further enhanced an already formed sentiment or position. In that way, online experience is cumulative and pre-conceptions are important in how a participant might assess a new website. Existing participant sentiments were formed from the broader assumptions that the design and content of websites did or did not make about them in relation to participant self-identity, and in many cases this was implicit in websites’ broader construction and targeting. In this chapter, I will focus on three key areas: 1. a discussion of the findings in the context of previous research, to contextualise and position the new knowledge generated by this research; 2. the use of the framework to address these findings, in so far as providing practical applications of the framework to improve the lived experience of queer women online and provide inclusive experiences; and 3. provide proposals for future work that could be carried out in future to extend this research. 170 9.2 Key findings in the context of the literature It has been shown in the literature review chapters of this thesis that representation of women in the media is a well-studied area, with extensive research confirming that representation of women in the literature has changed very little since initial studies conducted in the 1970s (Gill 2007; Len-Rios et al. 2005), and furthermore that representation of queer women is significantly lacking. Though there are only a handful of examples in the literature, to some extent there is a parallel here in that queer women are both under-represented in the media, and under-studied in this context. As such, this research does not attempt to add to the already extensive literature on representation of women. Instead, its aim is to extend it by considering the representation of queer women through the lens of UX design. The application and overlay of UX approaches to studies of representation, inclusion and lived experience are important, as the most common methodological approach to studies of representation is textual analysis, which focuses on the significant contents of a text. It is an appropriate methodology to identify specific instances of representation and account for numerical discrepancies between groups, such as men and women, or queer and non-queer. However, a key limitation in this context is that it negates and does not employ the lived experiences of the women consuming the media and engaging with the representations. As such, this study contributes new knowledge to the fields of media representation and user experience design by engaging women, particularly queer women, in analysing a number of websites. The foci of the research were those key factors that arose from the thematic analysis and ultimately formed the framework - representation, relevance and inclusion. The intersection of these three factors of the framework still resulted in levels of engagement, while providing a number of lenses through which to view it. Rather than conducting further textual analysis, seeking the participation and sentiment of queer women regarding what they are consuming is a crucial step in being able to develop new approaches for improving their experiences online, which as was shown in the literature review, is a key gap in both representation and the frameworks used in the field of user experience design. Early in the study, participants were asked to categorise the websites provided to them, by target audience. A particularly relevant finding was that with the exception of the two websites specifically targeted at women (After Ellen and Autostraddle), participants 171 felt that all other websites for women were aimed at those who were heterosexual and in childbearing years, and often specifically mothers. Conversely, those designed for men were generic and participants did not note any age ranges and were less likely to be noted as for a specific interest. That those websites targeted at women were deemed appropriate for specific age ranges and lifestyles aligned with the literature, which discusses this issue from a number of angles: • studies of representation in the media have shown clear discrepancies of age representation, with invisibility in older women being a key issue (Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley 2003). • there is significant discrepancy in the acceptable age of female actors for specific roles, with women actors being deemed too old for a number of roles at very young ages, but men playing ‘youthful’ roles well into their 60s and 70s (Cohen 2010; Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley 2003; Wylie 2013). • studies of representation in media have shown that some of the most common representations of women are as a housewife or mother (Benshoff and Griffin 2004; Collins 2011; O'Neil 2016; Power 2009). Queer women felt that they were not represented in the majority of media both presented to them in the study and that which they consumed themselves. That they discussed a lack of representation was not unexpected, but it was relevant to note that participants discussed it through the lens of gender, rather than sexuality. Studies of sexuality representation in the media confirm this finding; most focus on gender as a heteronormative binary, with women examined most commonly through the lens of domestic servitude to men (Gill 2007). While there are some studies of queer women and specifically lesbian representation, these focus on the invisibility of queer women and discuss the limitations and stereotypical nature of their roles (Fisher et al. 2007; Nölke 2018; Roderick 2017). These studies are discussed in detail in earlier chapters. One particular area in which it was difficult to delineate participant responses was with regard to participant pre-conceptions. As with many methodological approaches involving self-reporting, participants brought their own pre-conceptions and previous experiences to their responses. This is discussed in greater detail in the methodology chapter. The point to note here is that it is difficult to ascertain whether responses are based on interpretation of the content being presented, or a participant’s previous 172 experience. Likely it is both. However, sometimes participants were particularly critical of a lack of representation or stereotypical representation, both in the websites shown and drawing on their own experiences. This further confirms the literature, which is strongly suggestive of insufficient, inaccurate and stereotypical representations of women. That queer women approached their discussions of lack of representation through multiple lenses further strengthened the fact that they felt the lack of representation keenly. The importance of representation in positive identity formation, role modelling and giving voice to minority groups is clear and has been addressed at length in the literature. However, when discussing queer women, its lenses are often broader and systemic, for example, in terms of representation in access to healthcare (Daley 1998; Daley and MacDonnell 2011), impacts of discrimination (Pizer et al. 2011-2012) and education (Gray 2013; Kosciw 2012). In a number of cases, this literature is not exclusive to LGBTIQ individuals and also examines a number of other minority groups including the mentally ill, Muslims, African Americans, disability groups, Indigenous communities and individuals of non-English speaking backgrounds. The body of literature around representation in the media aligns most closely with the findings of this research, namely that women are still under represented and the type and quantity of representation has changed very little (Anderson and Daniels 2016; Collins 2011; Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media 2018b; Gill 2007; Hammer 2010; Hentges, Bartsch and Meier 2007; O'Neil 2016; Smith and Cook 2008). Though the research on queer women’s representation is limited, and exists mostly in the grey literature, analyses of LGBTIQ representation in films and television suggests that only 24-33% of queer representation is that of lesbians (Stokes et al. 2017; Townsend, Deerwater, Stokes, et al. 2018; Townsend, Deerwater, Trasandes, et al. 2018). Participants’ responses to seeing content targeted at queer women supports the literature’s assertion that this group is significantly underrepresented. Women’s representation in the media and advertising associates women with trivial issues, such as beauty and fashion, and is constructed via the male gaze (Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley 2003; Gill 2007). This in and of itself contributes further to the invisibility of lesbians, who often fall outside the heteronormative sphere. Participants noted that many of the websites examined assumed that users were cis- 173 gendered and heterosexual. The literature was lacking in the area of assumptions on this level, however there are a number of industry guidelines around engaging with and designing for LGBTIQ individuals, which deal with such assumptions. Guidelines and recommendations will be discussed later in this chapter in the context of the Framework. The concept of stereotypes has been touched on in this chapter. It has already been established that the participants were critical of the ways in which they are represented, particularly when those representations are stereotypical. Women’s reception to representation is not well addressed within the UX literature, and media studies literature which focuses on content analysis to examine frequency or type of representation is somewhat divorced from studies which examine women’s reactions to their own representation. It is acknowledged in the industry as there is no shortage of guidelines around how to design for women. However, the area of most relevance to this research was queer women’s responses to the stereotypes. Participants could rarely relate to the stereotypes of women presented to them, to some extent due to the heterosexual assumptions held within these stereotypes. However, participants also noted that stereotypes were prevalent, particularly within mainstream media, but also present within LGBTIQ media. The literature has identified that, in particular, gay male representation is highly stereotyped and a number of highly limited tropes or archetypal characters are used (Fisher et al. 2007). The common stereotype for men is the flamboyant or camp gay man. Lesbians, when featured, are also highly stereotyped, and often portrayed as predating on heterosexual women, or in other negative ways. Their portrayals are also often limited to particularly acceptable types of lesbian femininity, including ‘lipstick lesbians’ and ‘femme lesbians’ (Fisher et al. 2007; Nölke 2018; Roderick 2017). These portrayals were outlined in greater depth in the literature review chapters. Transgender individuals are often portrayed as self-hating and self-destructive (Finch 2017). While academic literature is limited in its discussion of these representations, or only examines them in specific contexts, there is extensive literature in the activist and blogging spaces that is highly critical of these stereotypes, which align with the participant responses. A number of opinion pieces provide recommendations for how to avoid engaging with particular tropes, which are also outlined in the literature review. 174 When participants were interviewed further as to why they rejected the common or stereotypical representations of women, they cited a misalignment of their own lived experiences from these stereotypes. Participants were vocal and critical regarding the different types of lived experiences that were represented, particularly in terms of whose experiences were valued. The criticism was directed at both mainstream media but also specific LGBTIQ-targeted media, such as the Star Observer. Queer women pointed out the discrepancy of representation between the different LGBTIQ subgroups on the website, particularly fewer women and very little identifiable transgender representation. This response has been paralleled in literature that examined specific LGBTIQ representation in mainstream media, where a heavy weighting towards gay male representation but very little lesbian and no transgender representation was found (Chung 2007; Fisher et al. 2007; Nölke 2018). The ratio of men to women in LGBTIQ content to some extent parallels the ratio of men to women in mainstream content. However, lesbians are significantly underrepresented compared to all groups other than transgender. While there is some literature available that has considered the specific lived experience of LGBTIQ individuals, it has focused on mental health, dementia and suicide. Only very recently is literature that examines the experiences of queer women via social media in response to a very specific event being seen – the unnecessary deaths of queer female characters on popular television programs such as Denise on The Walking Dead, as well as Lexa on The 100 – in a year in which a large majority of other queer female characters were also killed (Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura 2018; Millward, Dodd and Fubara-Manuel 2017; Waggoner 2018). These deaths are dubbed unnecessary because they did not further the plot. In The Walking Dead, for example, a number of other characters could have been killed, with the same outcome. Therefore, this research is important as it extends the concept of lived experience into studies of media and queer representation and looks at lived experience across the breadth of being a queer woman, in a multi-faceted manner. It takes into account not only specific events in a queer woman’s life, but the day-to-day engagement with broader society through media and technology. There is extensive literature that discusses the invisibility of LGBTIQ individuals (Daley 1998; McNair 2000; Saari 2001; Saunders 1999), but it mostly focuses on education and healthcare settings. The data presented by participants in this research suggests that there is a gap in the literature in terms of how representation, particularly 175 stereotypical representations, contributes to broader silencing of LGBTIQ individuals. As could be seen in the literature review, there was data to suggest that even within LGBTIQ-specific spaces, only particular LGBTIQ identities were appropriate, and others were silenced or not read as authentically queer. Women in the study, particularly queer women and the transgender woman, spoke at length about invisibility, whereas men did not contribute any data to this thematic area. In the context of the Star Observer website, participants felt that despite its branding suggesting it was for the whole LGBTIQ community, queer and transgender women felt that the site was unequally preferential towards gay men. The grey literature similarly contains numerous reports, anecdotes and discussion pieces around lesbian invisibility, particularly femme lesbian invisibility, both outside the queer community (i.e. femme lesbians are read as heterosexual) and inside it (i.e. femme lesbians are assumed to be less authentically queer). The transgender woman in the study also raised this issue in relation to advertising and the impact that certain advertisements had on her identity and how she was perceived as a ‘real’ woman. Queer women were particularly critical of the narrow beauty ideal represented by sites targeted at women such as Femail, but additionally noted that beauty-related content was presented to women as news, which they pointed out was a sharp contrast to newsworthy topics targeted at men. Advertising was a key area in which participants noted this difference, citing body shaming in addition to the stereotypical representations of women. Queer women were highly critical of the stereotypical representations found in advertising, and even more so when they were found on websites that promoted themselves as being a website for women. They also noted that the content of the advertising (for example, suggesting purchase of a beauty product) was often at odds with the website’s messaging, particularly when the website discussed body positivity. The literature highlights the clear discrepancy between the types of products targeted at women, such as cleaning products, hygiene and beauty products, whereas men are often targeted for products with more significant financial implications, such as cars (Gill 2007). This targeting occurs in spite of literature which suggests that women have significantly more buying power than men. One example from the United States cites that women control more than 50% of personal wealth (Gorman 2015), buy over 50% of traditional male products, and 40% of US women earn more than their husbands (GirlPower Marketing n.d.). The literature also highlights 176 that despite a shift in both purchasing power and types of products purchased, the ways in which women are represented in the media, and advertising has changed little. Furthermore the messages that advertising sends around 'acceptable' lived experiences for women has remained similar over the last 20 years (Ganahl, Prinsen and Baker Netzley 2003). That the queer women in this study have consistently highlighted and criticised the lack of representations of women and LGBTIQ individuals in the broader media, online and in advertising is indicative of a broader issue in terms of what is being designed and created for women. There are a number of studies that document the negative psychosocial impacts of limited representations of women, particularly their bodies, in video games (Pennell and Behm-Morawitz 2015) and cynicism of queer women towards advertising (McNamara and Descubes 2016), but the full impacts remain unknown (Collins 2011) and academic studies that address solutions or strategies are lacking. That there is extensive grey literature that discusses how to create content for women further supports participant responses in that current representations are unsuitable, but from these responses it is also clear that the recommendations in the grey literature are yet to fully permeate into the design or media industries. Literature is also emerging which suggests that a key area of investigation is that of the content creators. In the advertising field, research shows that women are more likely to leave the industry due to cultural issues within the industry which value men’s ideas over women’s: this creates a direct flow on to how women are portrayed in the media (Broyles 2008). This research is not exclusive to advertising and suggests parallels in all media industries (Broyles 2008; Lynch et al. 2016; Rodgers and Thorson 2000). Participants raised the importance of shared lived experience between the content creator and consumer, both to ensure that the content avoided the earlier highlighted issues of stereotyping and incorrectly portrayed lived experiences, but also to prevent further silencing of LGBTIQ individuals as previously discussed. Similar to guidelines which suggest how to design for women, guidelines are beginning to emerge in the grey literature for how to engage with LGBTIQ individuals. Most focus on health services, but some discuss designing for LGBTIQ individuals more broadly, and including them in user experience design. While there is some literature around queer UX and heterodoxy in design (Light 2011; McNamara and Descubes 2016; Ricardo 2018; Wachter-Boettcher 2017), again there has been little reflection of 177 the broader guidelines found in the grey literature, and their significance, in academic literature. The key relationship between the above body of literature and the data in this thesis is around assumptions. Many of these guidelines highlight the importance of avoiding assumptions that may be damaging, and participants were highly critical of websites that made assumptions based on gender or sexuality. Some common examples were that all users are heterosexual, or all women were interested in beauty and fashion, but ultimately these could be considered simplistic. When asked how to avoid making assumptions, participants warned against token gestures and engaging in pre- conceptions. The issue of assumptions was found to be more nuanced than examining it only through the lens of sexuality. Participants spoke about relevance on an individual level, further highlighting the importance of avoiding assumptions about users based on their sexuality. Both heterosexual and queer participants felt that the segmenting of content into ‘queer’ or ‘heterosexual’ was problematic and could contribute to further stigmatisation of queer individuals. The concept of lenses through which participants have framed their responses has been touched on in this chapter. An interesting finding was that queer women spoke more about gender than they spoke about queer female sexuality, with the exception of discussions of exclusion. Queer women suffer a lack of representation through two lenses - being female, and being queer. However, the fact that they spoke about exclusion through the lens of sexuality suggests that they felt the sense of exclusion more keenly due to being queer, than being female. Queer participants generally were also more likely to discuss their sexuality in reference to exclusion and the surrounding assumptions that lead to it. Heterosexual participants drew comparisons between the relevance of content and exclusion but did not mention their sexuality in forming any sentiment. That there was almost double the number of participant responses regarding the global theme of exclusion from queer participants vs. heterosexual participants suggests that themes of exclusion, assumptions, invisibility and inclusion are highly relevant to queer users. The above finding was expected: however, just as the literature is limited in involving queer women and seeking opinions on the impact of different types of representation, there is a lack of research around the impacts of exclusion online for queer women. The literature on queer female exclusion focuses on exclusion from stereotypically male areas, such as HIV status, as well as invisibility of queer 178 women of colour. These are both important and relevant areas, but care must be taken not to view this literature in a binary manner - i.e. queer women who are HIV positive suffer feelings of exclusion, however it cannot be assumed that queer women who are HIV negative do not. Exclusion of queer women takes many forms and is systemic and ingrained on a social and cultural level. The second part of this research focused on applying sentiment analysis to the generated themes. Given the themes discussed, it was not surprising that all themes except pre- conceptions, design and inclusion received negative sentiments. The most positive theme was inclusion. The most negative theme with sufficient generalisable data was portrayal of women and stereotypes (n=99). Other highly negative thematic areas were lived experience, assumptions and exclusion. The sentiment analysis was later mapped to the websites themselves, and while there were no themes that were strictly common to all sites, there were stronger trends apparent from participant conversations that suggested that the presence of the below themes were more likely to elicit a negative experience on the website: • exclusion • invisibility of LGBTIQs • assumptions around heterosexuality and gender • targeting stereotypical content at women • limited and stereotypical representation of women • gendered advertising. These data support the literature discussed both above and in the literature review chapters, which in its simplest form have identified issues in all of these areas. However, the data also further enhances this body of work and serves to address a key knowledge gap, that is, the literature has identified that the previously discussed issues exist, but there are few academic studies that examine the sentiment of queer women in response to the findings. 9.2.1 Summary of literature in context There are extensive parallels between participant responses and the literature, particularly in the fields of media representation of women and LGBTIQs, stereotyping and the importance of lived experience. The critical nature of participants’ responses 179 against these thematic areas, as evidenced by the sentiment analysis of themes, highlights in practical terms that there is significant work yet to be done by the media industry to ensure appropriate and accurate representation of the lived experience of queer women. A number of key gaps in the literature were also identified, which highlight the importance of this research. These include the lack of engagement with queer women as consumers when studying their representation online, and in turn, the translation to online experience, and the link between stereotypical representation online and the silencing of queer women. The framework that will be discussed in the next section of this chapter will provide a practical approach not only to addressing some of these gaps in the literature but also recommendations for implementation in industry settings to address participant responses. 9.3 The Framework This section of the discussion chapter will discuss and rationalise the framework which arose from an analysis of the responses of queer women involved in this study. The themes and the sentiment from which they were generated contributed to a proposed framework for inclusive design for queer women. The relevance and utility of this framework will be discussed and justified through the lens of the initial participant responses to identify a number of high-level issues that queer women provided, and later in the chapter, recommendations and practical uses for the framework will be made. Ultimately, it is important to identify and analyse the presence of discourses that lead to the stereotyping, categorisation, subordination and subjugation of queer women. The proposed framework achieves this, and provides a lens through which to analyse participant responses and sentiment to these discourses, and thereby the impact on online experience. The framework does not set out to analyse the discourses themselves, as this has been an area extensively covered by the literature (Barter-Godfrey and Taket 2009; Brons 2015; Canales 2000; de Beauvoir 2012; Jensen 2011). The aim of the framework is to ultimately highlight the necessity of developing online experiences that queer women find representative, relevant and inclusive. 180 Experience Representation Inclusion Relevance Figure 15: Visual representation of the user experience framework. Figure 15 provides a visual representation of the user experience framework proposed by this research. The underpinning themes are described in detail in Chapters 7 and 8, where it was demonstrated that there are four key elements that contribute to the type of experience a queer woman may have. While each of these areas can be considered separately, and some may be felt more strongly than others when considering particular online spaces or environments, this research has found that it is ultimately the intersection of the framework elements that contributes to what queer women were defining as experiences. The findings also incidentally suggest that more positive online experiences lead to better engagement, which may have commercial implications. The framework developed here provides a tool with which to ultimately disrupt the categorisation placed upon queer women by examining their experience across the four key areas: 1. Representation: speaks to the ways in which an individual or group of users is represented within the content and design of the website. It may include 181 stereotypical representations, use of archetypes or there may be no representation present. 2. Relevance: addresses whether the design, content and other associated aspects of a website (e.g. advertising) are relevant to users’ interests and align with not only how they are represented on the website but their own perceived identities and lived experiences. 3. Inclusion: begins to tie the framework together by providing a way to examine whether users feel included by the content and design of the website from a number of angles – the explicit messages regarding target audience, the subtler messages regarding target audience, and the visual design. Content that is not relevant based only on topics of interest may not garner feelings of inclusion or exclusion, but content that is not representative, makes particular assumptions, or renders particular groups invisible can lead to feelings of exclusion. 4. Sentiment: put simply refers to the inclination of a user’s feelings towards a particular topic, piece of content, design element or other areas of a website and can be positive, negative or neutral. Sentiment in the context of the framework allows a researcher to analyse whether participant input is provided with a positive or negative framing. In this way, the impact of participant sentiment on experience can begin to be assessed. The participation of queer women in the study provided a number of lenses through which to apply and rationalise the framework. In conjunction with the negative sentiment scores of the responses, justification of the framework can be seen. 9.3.1 Queer women expect to be under-represented Participants were presented with websites from a number of different categories, including traditional mainstream news, entertainment, women’s interest and specific LGBTIQ websites. When presented with websites that were targeted specifically at queer women, a number of queer women in the study reacted with surprise at seeing queer content. Oooh, a website for lesbians and loads of pictures on the front page. This is unusual (Colleen, queer woman, in response to After Ellen). 182 I’m gay so I can very much relate. There is so little about gay women in the usual TV shows, movies, etc, you really have to search for it (June, gay woman, in response to After Ellen). Sort of happy and proud – I actually had no idea these sorts of pro-LGTBI pop-culture sites existed (Lilith, bisexual woman, in response to After Ellen). Not going to lie, pretty excited I’ve been introduced to this website (Georgina, lesbian woman, in response to Autostraddle). In Figure 14, After Ellen and Autostraddle, the two websites targeted at queer women, received the highest sentiment from queer women in the study, with IFL Science following closely behind. It was unsurprising that IFL Science would receive positive sentiment, as participants noted its gender neutrality and women felt positively towards its female creator. While Mamamia appears to receive a high positive sentiment in Figure 14, it should be highlighted that only one queer woman provided sentiment data against this website, so these data should not be used in a generalisable manner. The above responses from queer women support the sentiment data and also serve to support the framework, as there is suggestion from participants that they are either used to or expect a lack of representation. Colleen’s response highlights two key areas - that a website targeted specifically at lesbians is unusual, and that seeing representative imagery of queer women is also uncommon. Colleen’s inference that there is a lack of queer female representation is supported by other participants’ responses to other websites, such as the lack of women featured in news articles on The Age and the way in which women are represented on Femail. June’s response concurs with Colleen’s - that queer representation is lacking across mainstream media, but furthermore that she sees a correlation between her sexuality and the relevance of the content to her, because it is queer female targeted. This suggests that simply targeting content at ‘women’ or ‘LGBTIQ’ is insufficient and potentially does not encompass the unique needs of this user group or the lived experiences specifically of queer women. This supports the need for a framework to design better experiences for queer women online and further justifies the need for both representation and relevance to be key parts of such a framework. 183 Finally, Lilith’s response denotes her happiness at seeing a website for queer women that is both positive in its framing but also relates to pop culture, and Georgina is excited to find new relevant queer content. Pop culture and the ability to engage with it on a socio-cultural level denotes, to some extent, the ability to relate with the dominant social group, so for queer women, a lack of representation or engagement with pop culture could be particularly exclusionary. Furthermore, it is known (Fisher et al. 2007; Nölke 2018; Roderick 2017) that accurate representations of queer women in pop culture are extremely lacking, and that queer women even expect to have queer female characters killed in popular television series (Waggoner 2018). Therefore, Lilith’s happiness and Georgina’s excitement at finding such a representation is unsurprising, and further supports representation and relevance as key areas of the framework, while also inferring the link between a lack of representation and exclusion. Wendy, another queer woman in the study, also indicated excitement and interest when presented with Autostraddle for the first time, but also disappointment when she realised the website was not Australian. Interest, excitement that it’s a queer site. Slight disappointment when I figured that it is American (Wendy, bisexual woman, in response to Autostraddle). While some participants appeared to feel positively towards a website simply because it was queer, it is likely an oversimplified use of the framework to suggest that simply targeting a website at queer women will result in a positive experience. In this case participant happiness is a result of finding any representation at all, however the interrelationship between the elements of the framework must be acknowledged in the creation of a positive experience. Representation in this context is therefore more complicated than, for example, simply providing images of queer women, and relevance and alignment to participant lived experience must also be considered. 9.3.2 Queer women expect to be excluded Following on from the expected lack of representation experienced by queer women above, participant responses also indicate that queer women expect to be excluded. There is a clear link between a lack of representation or relevance and feelings of exclusion in the data, and while it could be argued that a lack of representation is simply exclusion, the data suggests that exclusion in this context is more nuanced than that. A number of participant responses suggested that exclusion on the websites presented was 184 directly related to assumptions that are made about website users based on societal views around which groups are ‘default’ or ‘dominant’. As such, there is little inference from participants that this exclusion is deliberate, but instead a by-product of societal views. That said, this does not diminish the importance of inclusion as the third component to the framework, as regardless of the intention behind the resultant exclusion, the outcome is the same for the queer women in this study. In response to being shown websites specifically targeted at queer women, after expressing positive sentiment to the websites themselves, participants went on to discuss the assumptions made about users of mainstream websites more broadly. They highlighted that the assumption that all users are heterosexual was a key contributing factor to exclusion, and also noted that in some cases a perceived hierarchy of user types appeared to be applied to websites that was not inclusive to queer women. Most mainstream media will assume straight, gay if not straight, oh yeah, there’s other things after that. It comes in like a hierarchy, as opposed to Autostraddle being like ‘this is going to be relevant to you if you like ladies.’ So yeah. It’s a very... they’re not assuming that their reader is anything other than interested in ladies (Sabrina, bisexual woman). I think just mainly the majority of information is written for straight hetero people (Colleen, queer woman). It’s nice to have a space online where heterosexuality is not assumed and the main focus of sexual and social articles (Sabrina, bisexual woman, in response to Autostraddle). There was some suggestion that this exclusion is due to negative social views towards homosexuality, but this was not the prevailing view from participants. However, it is worthy of consideration in the application of the framework, because while other participants did not explicitly state that these assumptions relate to negative social views, the literature is suggestive that the othering of queer individuals more broadly contributes to their exclusion (Canales 2000; Gibson and Macleod 2012). I felt as though it’s the type of site that would be more readily available if LGBTQIA wasn’t as frowned upon, it’s like the gay version of NineMSN (Melanie, pansexual woman, in response to After Ellen). Regardless, that queer women expect to be excluded from content that they consume, in some cases through a lack of representation or relevance, and in others through directly 185 negative views towards homosexuality, justifies the need for greater inclusion in creating experiences for queer women. 9.3.3 Queer women react negatively to being told what they should consider relevant In Figure 14, the websites that scored the most negatively with queer women were those that, both directly and through provision of content of particular subject matter, sent clear messages to queer women regarding which content was thought to be appropriate for women. Both websites and advertising that took this stance scored negative sentiment from all women, regardless of sexuality, however queer women are of particular interest here. Websites that suggest that only certain representations of a female body are appropriate for women are problematic for all women, but particularly so for the queer community, as these messages do not acknowledge the queer female spectrum, nor the links between physical representation and queer identity for queer women. When viewing these websites, participant responses indicate feelings of exclusion, a lack of representation and relevance, as well as negative sentiment simultaneously, further highlighting the need for the framework, as well as the importance of considering all aspects of it holistically when considering experience. The images on the site are predominantly skinny white cis women. It is hard to relate to when it is so determined to exclude me (Ellen, transgender woman, in response to Femail). I think as a gay woman I’m totally invisible. I’m not included at all in any way in this website (Rachael, bisexual woman, in response to Femail). These websites, in addition to enforcing specific views of femininity, assume compulsory heterosexuality, which further denies and silences the lived experience of queer women, which will be discussed in greater depth in the next section. I’m interested in fashion and makeup but not in being told that this is all women should be interested in. I’m also not interested in being told what my body should be. Or that these topics can’t be mixed with anything of more substance (Ellen, transgender woman). The content is the absolute worst as it implies women are only interested in fashion, babies, men, gossip and weight loss (June, gay woman). 186 I would say that the people who produce this website didn’t think twice about queer readers or women of colour (Rachael, bisexual woman). That queer women reject the content on websites targeted specifically at women further supports the notion that a user experience design framework for queer women must go beyond the stereotypical assumptions currently seen on a number of websites. While these sort of assumptions and gendered notions are discussed at length in the literature review chapters of this thesis, the participant responses above provide some suggestions as to the types of stereotyping that queer women find most problematic. Participants also highlighted gendering in advertising as an area that lacked considerable queer representation and was generally seen as less relevant. I got a pop-up advert (strike one) for a cleaning product. Way to stereotype, guys (strike 2) (Sabrina, bisexual woman). This in and of itself was significant, because, as seen in the response from Sabrina above, it was the implication that cleaning products are appropriate only for women, not the featuring of the product itself in an advertisement, that resulted in negative sentiment. 9.3.4 The omission of queer lived experience silences queer women In the subtle messages surrounding appropriate portrayals of femininity, I also see an example of a lack of representation on a different scale - the complete omission of the lived experience of queer women. The lack of acknowledgement of queer lived experience can occur through a number of ways, such as: • a specific lack of representation in mainstream media • through the messages contained in mainstream media which speak to which voices are valued • through subtle messages which speak to which content is appropriate for and therefore relevant to women The last point in particular suggests that on some level, if a woman does not find female-targeted content relevant or see herself represented, then the problem is with the woman, not the content. To this end, participants highlighted the importance of considering whose voice was portrayed in content (production). This further emphasises not only the importance of representation as a component of the framework, but that it 187 needs to be considered beyond who is represented on the website or within media, but also the context in which content is produced. There was some concern from participants that content relating to queer lived experience should not be produced by a non-queer person, as that person may not be able to accurately represent the experience, and in speaking for queer women may be contributing to their silencing. I do really believe that representation matters. Like, y’know, you’ve got to feel like there are other people like you out there, there are people that acknowledge your existence, that there are things that are made for you with your experiences in mind (Erin, bisexual woman). I think that’s something that’s really apparent on somewhere like Autostraddle. All the content producers there are queer in one way or another... The difference the production being made by queer people makes is crazy, it’s huge, it’s so different. I really don’t think straight people can produce content for queer audiences, I just don’t think they can. I don’t think a straight person can tell me something I don’t already know about a gay experience. But a gay person can (Rachael, bisexual woman). I don’t think I saw anyone on Mamamia who was writing from a perspective that is similar to mine... I think most of the articles I saw were sort of based around the experience of having a child, the experience of raising a child, and the experience of maybe not being able to have a child, or losing a child. And I don’t really recall anything that wasn’t centred around that theme (Darcy, lesbian woman). In the literature review section of this thesis, the gender disparity in media content production was discussed, including literature that suggests that in a number of cases, designs for women are created by men based on their own pre-conceptions of women’s interests. The problematic nature of these assumptions has already been discussed, however what is of interest here is the level of insight with which participants approach their consumption of media. The queer women in this study participated with a high level of awareness regarding the concepts of representation in relation to lived experience and the importance of acknowledging queer voices. While a great deal of the research around production has focused on media content creation, the participant responses in this study have also highlighted the need for user experience design and product research to incorporate queer voices. This research raises a number of questions around the user experience design process, including the degree of problematisation caused by heterosexual individuals making design decisions on behalf of queer women. It further highlights the need for a framework to address these questions and incorporate 188 the needs of queer women in a number of designs. Potential applications of the framework to address this issue will be discussed later in this chapter. 9.3.5 Exclusion can come from within the queer community In their discussion of their experiences online, queer women alluded to a hierarchy of representation in media which to some extent spoke to whose voices, and thereby lived experiences, were considered relevant. Queer women were direct about such hierarchies on sites such as The Age, where heterosexual men were seen as the most relevant, and Femail, where heterosexual women were the most relevant, but still viewed as lesser to heterosexual men, given the position of the Femail news section within the broader Daily Mail website. However, what was unexpected was participants noting the persistence of these hierarchies within queer targeted media. The sentiment data here provided an interesting insight. Queer women’s sentiment towards Autostraddle and After Ellen, two sites that these participants read as specifically for queer women, were some of the highest positive scores seen within the study. However, their sentiment towards Star Observer, a site that branded itself as for the whole queer community, was neutral. When this sentiment was further interrogated, it was found that some participants read the website as male dominant, and further explained that within the LGBTIQ community, it was not an uncommon experience that gay male experience was prioritised. I think that they’re obviously male dominated. Or at least, masculinised imagery. I think that is part of…maybe it’s something I’m hyper sensitive to due to my particular issue around how particular female life experience gets branched under the same queer umbrella, but in reality it’s always about men. Gay men. And I think also because a lot of the social issues that are covered tend to concentrate on the male experience more (Lauretta, lesbian woman). [Created for] queer identifying people generally, maybe with a specific focus on sexually active men. Lots of info on safe sex and STD testing, with many stereotypically gay male interest topics. There’s nothing to put women off the site, I just feel its original incarnation was to gay men and it retains a little of that. I’ve seen some nasty male-centric comments on the comments section of this site before (Sabrina, bisexual woman). I think they talk a lot more about men’s issues than women’s... I think the articles that are written are more targeted towards men... There might be a little section for lesbians in the 189 corner type thing but I think it’s more... yeah from what I’ve read I think it’s more male oriented (Emma, gay woman). I noticed a lack of images of women though, either cis or trans… This was a bit disconcerting to me. I could relate to it more if I could see a range of people represented... I don’t like that the statement is ‘the gay agenda.’ As someone who identifies as trans, I feel that this relegates me to a lesser status for this website. As if I’m an afterthought. I expect that in a more mainstream website or news source, but not from a site such as this. This is repeated throughout the website (Ellen, transgender woman). The responses from queer women above shows that a number of them did not read the Star Observer website as targeted at the entirety of the queer community, as it brands itself to do. Lauretta inferred that this sort of branding is not uncommon across queer sites more broadly, with queer women’s experience relegated to that of lesser importance. Ellen’s suggestion that transgender women and women more broadly are an afterthought on this website further supports this suggestion. Conversely, participant sentiment towards Autostraddle and After Ellen, was considerably more positive, and participant responses suggest that this is in part due to a satisfaction of all parts of the framework - representation, relevance and inclusion, but also in part due to the fact that these websites don’t try to establish hierarchy or prescribe only certain queer female identities. As bisexual woman Sabrina highlighted in section 9.3.2, she feels that mainstream media companies will assume a hierarchy of heterosexually to homosexuality, with limited consideration of gay and lesbian identities but little recognition of bisexuality or transgender. However, she notes that Autostraddle does not make any assumptions beyond that their readers are interested in women. Considering the above discussion, there is suggestion from queer women that the erasure of the specific queer female experience occurs through its subsumption in the broader queer experience. Therefore, there are further opportunities for application of the framework to websites beyond the mainstream, including those targeted at the broader queer community. 190 9.4 The importance of a user experience design framework for queer women Above are a number of key findings that queer women have communicated through participation in this study that suggest that their experience engaging with several websites and wider media does not address their lived experience and ultimately does not meet their design needs. Through a lack of representation, relevance, inclusion, or a combination thereof, a reduced sentiment towards various examples has been shown. These data highlight the importance of a user experience framework for queer women which takes into account not only their use case requirements, but the importance of accurate representations of lived experience and the recognition of a diversity of queer female voices. It has been demonstrated that when representation, relevance and inclusion are sufficient, sentiment, and therefore experience, is positive. However, data from participants also suggested that queer women had such limited expectations in terms of finding representative, relevant or inclusive content, that to some extent content became irrelevant when participants encountered something that was specifically targeted at queer women. The sentiment scores and subsequent discussion of Autostraddle, a website both targeted at and read as for queer women, and Star Observer, a website targeted at the queer community but read as for gay men, are suggestive of this. That to some extent queer women expect to be excluded even within their own community further emphasises the importance of the framework. Queer women’s expectations of exclusion has broader implications for website sentiment and subsequent engagement. If queer women are on some level always expecting to be excluded, or not represented, then they may approach all websites with some degree of negative sentiment based on pre-conceptions of previous experiences. When this pre-conception is confirmed, sentiment may be further reduced. This hypothesis was out of scope for this research, but may be worthy of further investigation in subsequent research to test different implementations of the framework and the use of sentiment analysis in a thematic context. Participants also cited a number of non-website-based media interactions that resulted in feelings of exclusion. Examples included a wedding exhibition advertised by Commonwealth Bank featuring only heterosexual couples placed on a website targeted 191 at heterosexual women (Blind Gossip), and an advertisement for travel insurance in which a heterosexual couple were holding hands. In reference to the travel insurance advertisement, the participant who flagged this example noted that it could have easily been a pair of friends travelling together and the advertisement would have been appropriate for all sexualities, but by adding the implication of heterosexual romance, the ad became exclusionary and non-representative for queer women. Conversely, participants expressed happiness when they encountered, though seldom, positive examples of representation. In some cases, they noted that these images were very brief as part of a larger campaign, but that they felt very noticeable. One participant noted a hyper awareness to imagery containing other queer women, which was not a surprising finding given the data both from this study and in the previously discussed literature which suggests that queer female representation is significantly lacking. The lack of representation was also apparent in the study, as there were very few instances where participants discussed positive examples of representation, but those they did provide included a Christmas advertisement, an insurance advertisement, and general commentary on the diversity of the After Ellen website. I can’t remember what it was, but a Christmas ad or something and it had two women who were clearly a couple, but it was just a flash (Amy, lesbian woman). I saw an ad yesterday that was for health insurance and it had two girls kissing, and I was like... it kind of got my interest that they had targeted that because that’s more appealing to me than a girl and a guy kissing. So it was kind of... if the content and the pictures and how it all looks is something I can relate to, I like that (Amy, lesbian woman). I like that the women are of diverse ethnic backgrounds, however they are all aged 20-35 (which is relatable for me as I am 34) (Ashleigh, bisexual woman). Two examples of positive representation were provided by the same participant. The third example, provided by participant Ashleigh, notes that while positive, the website still targeted a narrow age group, which may not be representative to a broader group of queer women. That there were so few examples provided by participants is further indication that participants are not well represented, and don't appear to encounter inclusive engagement on a regular basis. The lack of examples further supports the necessity for the framework. 192 9.5 Recommendations and practical applications of the framework A potential challenge in applying this framework in the industry is that existing UX frameworks and design approaches have pre-defined methods that automatically categorise users. There is no list that a designer can check against when designing a product or building a website; these stereotypes and representations are inherent in the normative categories that speak to how a person is ‘read’ as female or male, queer or not queer, in a patriarchal and heteronormative society (Alexander 2002; Bryson 2004; Butler 2004; Guzzetti 2008; Heinz et al. 2002; Munt, Bassett and O'Riordan 2002). Therefore, in this section I present practical applications of the framework that could be made to websites to increase their sentiment, and therefore engagement, supported by data from this study’s participants. While these recommendations are derived from participant responses to the websites utilised in this study, they are not targeted at any particular website and have broad applicability. 9.5.1 Target audience, images and language Everyone wants to belong. And you can’t... you can’t market a product to... for a lifestyle or an image... to all market segmentations at once? You’ll always need to divide it somehow, because people will need to be able to relate to the content (Wendy, bisexual woman). Wendy, above, has highlighted one of the first issues that needs to be addressed to improve engagement for queer women. The concept of a target audience is something that underpins all designs, especially those with commercial appeal. However, the data provided from participants was strongly suggestive that, in many cases, they did not relate to the content directly marketed to them as women, in particular Femail and Mamamia. Participant responses infer that the concept of target audience is in fact, limiting, and the fact that it is derived from stereotypical views, not just of women, but a range of demographic groups, make it more likely to result in exclusion of a range of lived experiences. Similarly, the sub-categorisation of queer women under a broader demographic category, such as LGBTIQ, was found to increase invisibility and exclusion, as opposed to providing greater representation. Therefore, one such recommendation for applying the framework is to reconsider the concept of target audience. If it is not possible to design and market a product with no target audience, then redefinition of what constitutes that audience should be considered, and the use of stereotypes reduced or removed entirely. A simple example 193 can be found in a women’s interest website. These websites focus content on heterosexual relationships, motherhood, diet and beauty, as these are the key areas that stereotypical views of women suggest should align with women’s interests. While some participants had no interest in these areas at all, others felt that the topics themselves were of relevance, but presenting them as all women should be interested in was problematic. For example, as transgender woman Ellen highlighted in section 9.3.3, while she is interested in fashion and makeup-related topics, she took issue with the implication that these topics were mutually exclusive to other more ‘substantial’ topics. Utilising the framework, there are a number of approaches that could be taken to address this issue. For example, including queer fashion, a diverse range of body types and removing the assumption that all women do or should wear makeup would provide representation and relevance to a number of queer women. Articles about relationships could use generic language and non-gendered terms when referring to a potential partner, thereby including and increasing the relevance for queer women. Where gender specific discussion is critical to the article, then including a separate article that acknowledges same sex relationships could be utilised. Inclusion of imagery of both heterosexual and same sex couples in relationship articles would particularly help representation, especially as queer women in the study noted that they saw very few images of other queer women, outside of websites specifically targeted at them. 9.5.2 Website content and subject matter To address Ellen’s response above, broadening the range of topics on websites targeted at women to include news, politics, finance, science and technology, and so forth, would also increase the relevance of the content and opportunities for representation. Though these topics can be found on other mainstream websites, such as a number of news providers, participants highlighted that even then, the majority of articles featured men. The only woman on the page looks like she’s trying to make herself beautiful and is obviously topless and submissive, the men are featured in portraits of dominance or power (Ashleigh, bisexual woman). Both mainstream news websites, or sections of a website targeted specifically for women, could feature more women in a neutral manner. Such sites contain messages that suggest that participation in STEM or sports are inappropriate for women. 194 Furthermore, imagery is used that suggests women are subservient to men. Eliminating these issues would immediately address all three areas of the framework. Women are always underrepresented, that’s just a trend and I notice it a lot, especially in the sports section, that’s been something I’ve bitched about to newspapers, that they don’t represent women in sport really shits me (Ashleigh, bisexual woman). Furthermore, on a purely technical level, these are not difficult recommendations to implement, and would simply require specific consideration when selecting images and ensuring a broader distribution of topics without application of gendering. However, the societal aspects that underpin these decisions are significantly more complex and would require a dedicated effort to see a shift on a social level. While there are a number of organisations working towards this (e.g. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media), a larger shift is required across mainstream media. I guess my combination of Australian plus lesbian isn’t something that I see reflected in the content that I consume at all. It would be great if there was an Australian lesbian something like Autostraddle that was relevant to my life and what’s going on in the politics of this country, that would be awesome an ideal but I don’t think there is anything like that (Rachael, bisexual woman). 9.5.3 Gendered advertising Participants were particularly critical of the use of gendering in advertisements seen across all websites. In particular, those that featured women beside a domestic product, or with a beauty product received particular criticism. However, participants also noted ads that featured heterosexual couples made them feel excluded from products (such as travel insurance) that should be readily available to all. This research does not necessarily provide the solution to this issue. While it is clear that queer women feel excluded from advertisements, it was difficult to ascertain from the study whether the strong negative sentiment was due to a dislike of being ‘sold to’, or the lack of representation. Likely, it is a combination of both. However, the issue is not so simple as to merely recommend that website providers don’t show gendered advertisements. Most advertisements across the media use gender stereotyping. Therefore, similarly to the use of imagery and language to target different demographics, a wider shift needs to occur such that it becomes unacceptable to target advertisements based on outdated gender stereotypes. However, there is a commercial 195 incentive to do so, because in some cases participants felt more negatively towards websites that stereotyped them via their advertisements than from the content itself. Particularly in the case of websites that use pop-up advertisements, these ads are often seen before the website content itself, and could set the tone and establish a preconception that a queer woman then applies to the whole website. 9.5.4 Including queer women in the design process I think if you spoke to the people you were trying to reach and asked what language would appeal to you? We can’t use everything, but what would broadly indicate to you that we’re including you within this site, and y’know it would take a longer process but maybe that sort of discussion would get you some more useful language that you could use and perhaps then you’d have a feedback system and if there is, y’know, someone that feels, or a group of people that are feeling that they’re not being included, it would be investigating further to see if [is] there a word, a sentence, a descriptor that could be used to bring those people in (Beth, woman, no label). The framework that has been discussed throughout this thesis can be used on multiple levels. It can be applied to a specific website, or even design element within that website, to assess whether representation, relevance and inclusion have been properly addressed to provide positive sentiment and engagement. The flexibility of the framework is such that it can be used at different phases of the UX or product design processes. For example, at the start of a process to ensure the product direction aligns with the lived experience of as many users possible. It can also be used midway through development to ensure that the design is ‘on track’ or as part of user acceptance testing prior to release. If a product or website is already in existence, it can be used as part of evaluating its success, or to drive redevelopment if required. The framework can also be applied systemically to interrogate the broader messages that are found throughout the media industry, on websites and in advertising, and provide a critique of areas that need to be improved to better serve queer women. Part of the novelty of this research is that, unlike traditional content analysis methodologies, the framework hinges on seeking the responses of the cohort in question, in this case queer women. As such, this aspect of utilising the framework at whatever level must not be lost. In some cases this is also what sets this framework apart from many other UX frameworks discussed in the literature review. Whereas those frameworks focus on users in terms of tasks to be conducted on a website, and in some ways limits UX to utility, the framework this 196 research describes returns the user to the centre of the design beyond simply representing a task or a stereotype. Including queer women in the design process is a key step to a practical application of the framework. Throughout the research, queer women participants identified issues where non-queer designers or men spoke on their behalf, and made design decisions based on assumptions and stereotypes. This approach silences queer women and contributes further to their erasure and the incorrect representation of their lived experience. Assumptions such as this were also made by dedicated queer media, where queer women are sub-categorised under a broader LGBTIQ umbrella, which participants indicated was actually targeted at queer men. On a practical level, if queer users can’t be sought for every design project, then an editorial or consultant group could be formed, even remotely. Beth’s suggestion above to implement a feedback option that shows queer women that their feedback is important and will be acted upon is also a good step in indicating to these users that their lived experiences matter. As the design industry moves to increasingly agile and iterative design processes, continually validating design changes and acting on the feedback of queer women could easily be folded into already existing processes. On a day-to-day level, practical checklists and guides, similar to those already identified in the literature, could be developed and integrated into product style guides to further ensure that queer women are represented not only continually, but in a relevant, meaningful and inclusive way. 9.5.5 Considering the question of experience In implementing the user experience framework for queer women, it is important to consider the definition of experience itself. As was shown in the literature review, the definition is contentious, so for the purposes of this discussion, experience will be discussed through the lens of the framework itself. Online experiences for queer women are both constructed and interpreted through the three key areas of the framework. It must be asked: what is sufficient to warrant a positive experience online? This is a challenging question, as taking into account the breadth of lived experience and subjectivities of queer women may change depending on the users consulted. However, this also highlights the limitation with current UX frameworks that reduce users to archetypes. It was demonstrated in the research findings that those websites, such as Autostraddle, which scored a positive sentiment on all areas resulted in an overall 197 positive experience for queer women, both from the sentiment score and their own responses in their participation in this research. However, these findings need to be taken in the context of a broader lack of representation of queer women across other websites. Participants noted their pleasure in seeing themselves represented because they had not seen such representations anywhere else. As such, the answer appears to be that if queer women see themselves represented, feel the content is relevant and feel included, then their experience will be positive, but what is considered relevant or representative will change between users. This highlights the importance of avoiding a reductionist approach, not only with the broader LGBTIQ population, but within the population of queer women themselves. Therefore, while sentiment overarches all three categories of the framework, as the socio-cultural landscape shifts, and if in future we see greater consideration of queer women in UX design paradigms then what is sufficient to warrant a positive online experience may change. However, it is proposed that the flexibility of the framework is such that acknowledging participant responses in line with sentiment will still provide insight into experience in a range of contexts, and this is an area suggested for further examination as future work arising from this research. 9.5.6 Summary of recommendations To summarise the areas that queer women have identified as problematic with regard to their representation, relevance and inclusion, a number of high-level recommendations are provided. However, each one must be considered within the societal context - while many of these recommendations seem simple, there may be resistance on a commercial or organisational level. That said, this research has highlighted that, based on the sentiment generated, queer women generally do not have a positive experience online. The implications that this has on queer women from the perspective of health, wellbeing and identity formation, has already been discussed, but the commercial implications can also be considered. Queer women form a significant enough market segment that improving their engagement online could have positive commercial implications. The majority of heterosexual women in the study also cited significant issues with representation and gender stereotyping in the websites they consumed, suggesting that the commercial implications could extend to over half of the population. Ethically, commercial interests should not be the driver for positive social change. However, if the 198 end result is such that companies realise there are opportunities for increased profits by providing better representation of women, then ultimately improvements in online experience for queer women may occur. A summary of recommendations is listed below: • Don’t assume that only certain topics are relevant to women or queer women. • When writing about relationships, use imagery that features both same sex and heterosexual relationships. • Feature imagery that includes queer women of a range of ages and body types, particularly those who do not subscribe to traditional femininity. • Use gender neutral language when writing about relationships. • Strive for gender parity in imagery across mainstream topics, such as news and sports. • Acknowledge women’s agency of their own bodies; don’t combine topics such as body positivity with advertisements to sell beauty or diet products. • Include queer women in all aspects of the design process; as a non-queer woman or man, do not assume that particular content or design elements are acceptable or properly representative of lived experience. An editorial or advisory group could be useful in this case. • Avoid silencing queer women by writing about their lived experiences (unless you are also a queer woman). • Avoid sub-categorising queer women under the LGBTIQ umbrella: their needs as users as well as their lived experiences are vastly different from that of queer men (for example). 9.6 Addressing the research questions This research has engaged queer women regarding their own experiences as they consume a range of online media. It has used thematic analysis and applied sentiment analysis, a method used in wider industry, in a novel way in an academic context. In doing so, it has answered the four research questions that were stated in section 1.3. 1. Are queer women aware of how they are represented in media and online environments? 199 Queer women are certainly aware of how they are represented in media and online environments. Participants spoke at length about inadequate and stereotypical representation when it was present, and a lack of representation overall. Some participants were so used to a lack of representation that they expressed happiness when introduced to websites that were specifically aimed at queer women as part of their involvement in this research. Participants were able to provide a number of examples in both mainstream and queer-specific media and websites in which they felt under- or inappropriately represented. Queer women noted stereotypical representations that made assumptions based on traditional gender roles. Many also commented that even within LGBTIQ specific media, the focus of content was primarily aimed at gay men. The use of both the photo narrative and interview methods were pivotal in elucidating these findings. 2. How do queer women respond to inappropriate, inadequate or stereotypical representations in online environments? As was seen in the sentiment analysis data, queer women responded negatively to inappropriate, inadequate and stereotypical representations in online data. Those thematic areas that emerged with lower sentiment scores from queer women could be linked back to the specific websites that were examined as part of the photo narrative and interview tasks. In particular, themes relating to inadequate representation, stereotypes and incorrect portrayal of lived experience invoked negative responses. Furthermore, the study found that not only do queer women feel under-represented and excluded, they expect to feel that way. Therefore, they are approaching the websites and media they consume with an expectation that it will not be aimed at them or meet their needs. Ultimately this research found that the omission of queer lived experience silences women. 3. How can designers better align representations of queer women with their lived experience in an online design context? The framework developed as a key outcome of this research provides a tool for designers to better align representations of queer women with their lived experience in an online design context. By ensuring that user research looks beyond simply tasks, or ease of use, designers can consider participant lived experience and use the four dimensions of the framework to ensure that users feel represented, included and are 200 presented with relevant content, tested by use of sentiment analysis. This is particularly important for underserved demographic groups such as queer women. Participants highlighted the importance of including queer women in the design process, citing that non-queer designers made assumptions or design decisions on their behalf. Participants explicitly mentioned men in this regard. By making assumptions regarding the lived experiences of queer women, designers, though perhaps inadvertently, are contributing to the further silencing and erasure of queer women. Furthermore, by ensuring that queer women are not assumed to be served by content that is targeted at a broader LGBTIQ umbrella, designers can provide a space and voice to this underrepresented population. Where participatory or co-design with queer women cannot occur, then the framework developed as a result of this research can provide a roadmap for designers to better align their representations of queer women with queer lived experience in an online design context, though as has already been discussed, the issue of significant underrepresentation must also be addressed. Where queer women cannot be included in the design phrase then appropriate use of the framework should ensure that they are included in the testing phase. Section 9.5 provides recommendations and practical applications of the framework. 4. What changes need to occur to typically used UX design frameworks to better accommodate and represent queer women? Section 9.5.6 provides a summary of specific recommendations that UX designers can make to better accommodate and represent queer women. However, when discussing typically used UX design frameworks, a focus is needed on users beyond tasks to be completed, and consideration of the users as individuals, insofar as this is practical in a commercial design context. Section 9.5.1 discusses how UX frameworks conceptualise target audience, and this research has shown that target audience needs to go beyond a broad umbrella of users to include minority groups who may also need to use a mainstream website (such as a news website) as part of their day-to-day browsing. Personas are often used as part of or alongside UX frameworks. These personas use archetypal representations of different types of users, which may result in stereotypes which would not be applicable to queer women, or that further their invisibility. The negative sentiment scores against websites which utilised stereotypical views of their users was discussed in Chapter 8. Furthermore, in section 9.5.5, positive sentiment from 201 queer users viewing the Autostraddle website was discussed. One of the key reasons that queer women responded in such a positive manner to this particular site was because it did not portray a reductionist or stereotypical approach in terms of what it means to be a woman, let alone a queer woman. Finally, as UX frameworks often utilise users as part of participatory design or testing methodologies, involving queer women at this stage would go a long way to ensuring that the resultant designs better accommodate and are inclusive of queer women. 9.7 Conclusion This chapter has provided a summary of the study’s findings in the context of the literature, highlighting the lack of presentation faced by queer women both in media and online. The lack of involvement of queer women in the discussion of their own lived experience in both product design and studies of queer representation only serve to underscore the importance of overlaying participatory design UX approaches to studies of representation. Furthermore, the chapter goes on to highlight the importance of a dedicated user experience design framework for queer women. A number of recommendations for how to utilise the framework have been provided, with recommendations sourced directly from the queer women who participated in the study. Finally, this chapter has outlined how this research addresses its original and underpinning research questions. The next and final chapter of this thesis will go on to provide recommendations for future work and conclude the research. 202 Chapter 10 10. Conclusions and future work 10.1 Future work The scope of this research focused on listening to the voices of queer women as they engaged with a number of websites, and then designing a framework to support their inclusion in online experiences. Some sites were familiar to participants; others, participants had never viewed before. There are a number of avenues for future work to further test the framework and examine its applicability to other relevant groups. These were of interest to the researcher but unable to be included in scope due to the time constraints associated with PhD research. As such, avenues for future work are proposed below. 10.1.1 Conduct a study with transgender participants Though the participant group in this research contained only one transgender participant, initial data from this participant not only supported the framework strongly, but suggested that she felt the issues raised more keenly than other participants. Considering Figure 12 as against Figure 9; both graphs show the sentiments of the organising themes, the former for the transgender participant, the latter for queer women more broadly. While both groups followed similar patterns of positive or negative sentiment for particular themes, for a number of themes, the transgender participant responded with stronger sentiment than the group of queer women. For example, both groups held a negative sentiment towards portrayal of LGBTIQs, representation and invisibility, but in all cases, the transgender woman’s sentiment score was considerably more negative, in some cases doubly so. Conversely, the theme of inclusion was positive for both groups, but again the transgender woman’s score was approximately double that of queer women. Though these are initial findings, it would be worthy of further research to recruit a larger group of transgender women, not only to validate the n=1 findings from the single transgender participant in this study, but to further examine whether transgender women could benefit, potentially even more so than queer women, from the use of the framework to improve their online experience. The study could also be extended to 203 transgender men. It would be of interest to include the elements of websites that transgender participants identified as either inclusive or exclusive to further refine the framework and its corresponding recommendations for use. Similarly to recruiting queer women, there may be challenges in recruiting and accessing transgender communities, as this group has a long history of pathologisation by researchers. 10.1.2 Test the framework on other minority groups The framework may be applicable to a number of additional minority groups beyond queer women, including minority racial or religious groups, refugees, or people with disabilities. In repeating the study with these groups, it would be important to include websites frequented by the participants as well as social media (discussed further below). The areas raised by other minority groups with regard to representation, relevance and inclusion could, similarly to that of queer women, contribute to recommendations for how to improve the online experience for these groups, and acknowledge the potential differences in their lived experiences that should be reflected online. It would also be of interest to identify whether there are additional areas relevant to these groups that aren’t already captured by the framework, to potentially expand its use, or create variations thereof, depending on the group. 10.1.3 Consider social media In this study, participants were asked to provide their top five most viewed websites. However, they struggled to separate their social media browsing from distinct websites, as social media was the main ‘jumping off point’ for a number of the websites that participants engaged with. As such, a future extension of this research could be to repeat the photo narrative and interview tasks, using their social media feeds for a defined period of time (for example, two weeks). The themes that arise could be tested against the existing framework, and corresponding sentiment examined. Examining the framework against social media would test two things; first, that the framework is valid for use with online experiences beyond stand-alone websites. Second, it would consider the curated nature of social media. One’s social media friends and followers are often gathered based on similar interests and social circles, the social media ‘bubble.’ It would be relevant to examine whether the sentiment of websites viewed would change; as participants may not be exposed to the breadth of websites provided in the initial research. 204 10.1.4 Participatory design of websites with low sentiment scores In addition to the framework itself, this research identified a number of recommendations that could be made to website designs to make them more inclusive and increase engagement for queer women. To assess the impact of these recommendations, additional research could be undertaken insofar as involving queer women in participatory design sessions to redesign websites that had poor sentiment scores. These redesigned websites could then be provided to a new cohort of queer women or other minority groups to undertake the photo narrative and interview tasks, to determine whether applying recommendations based on the framework had definitively improved sentiment. 10.1.5 Consideration of practical implementation costs in commercial contexts An important consideration for broader use of the framework is its application in commercial contexts. While some steps have already been taken to align the framework with industry practices (such as the use of sentiment analysis, a commonly used industry approach), commercial constraints should be considered. In many industries, best practice is not fully utilised in internal processes, including design and development processes, to streamline and reduce costs. To ensure that the implementation of the framework has widespread applicability within the UX and design industry, interviews with UX and web designers could be undertaken. Should the data suggest that implementing the framework is impractical, then further research would be warranted to interrogate the broader UX and design process, as such a finding could imply that the process is not as inclusive as it could be. 10.2 Conclusion This thesis has explored the ways in which queer women experience their online environment. In doing so it has considered queer lived experience in the technological context, which is underpinned by heteronormative and male-centric cultural values which fail to recognise the lived experiences of the majority of women, but in particular contribute to invisibility and silencing of queer women. That queer women expect these types of lack of representation was a saddening though unexpected finding of this research. Furthermore, that queer women described ‘making do’ with what was available suggests a long history of invisibility. These results clearly highlight the need for a larger scale social change on many fronts; broadly it could be argued that this 205 change needs to apply across issues of gender, sexuality and inequality, but in the context of this research, change must additionally focus on changing the value placed on queer women in all levels of society. User experience design frameworks utilise personas and scenarios based on task-driven usages of products and services to attempt to design useful and pleasing products. Though there is unlikely any malice in these design processes, the creation of default users serves to narrow the vision of who products are being created for, which contributes to exclusion of the so called ‘edge case’, in this case queer women. In an environment in which women across the board are already significantly underrepresented, it is not surprising that queer women feel excluded by media and design. A lack of reflexivity in the industry and engrained development processes underpinned by assumptions, coupled with an industry culture that privileges heterosexual white males make cultural change difficult. As such, the development of a user experience design framework specifically for queer women is an attempt to acknowledge, listen to and act on what queer women are saying, valuing their input and their lived experiences. The provision of recommendations for implementation and suggestions for future work provides a way forward to extend this framework into other fields of design and to also help bring the voice of other minority user groups, such as transgender individuals to the forefront of user experience design. 206 Appendix Appendix 1 - Social media posts to call for participants Facebook and Twitter were used to advertise the study. Social media users who read the posts were encouraged to sign up through various channels, or to share the study with others. Note that the initial post was made prior to establishing a Call for Participants page. Facebook The initial post: Hi! I am a PhD student studying online experience, with the aim of seeing if the current approaches used to design websites and online spaces serve a range of different types of people. I’m looking for people who might like to be involved in the study. In particular LGBTIQ people, but if you don’t identify that way, that’s cool, you could still be involved if you are interested. Participation involves doing a short survey, looking at some websites and answering some questions about them, and an interview. If you are interested or have any Qs, please flick me a PM. Thanks! Follow up post: Hey! A few months ago I posted a link to my PhD study, which is looking at inclusion and exclusion for LGBTIQ people online. I’m still desperately looking for participants, so if anyone was interested back then but didn’t have time, and now does, here’s some more info on it: https://www.callforparticipants.com/study/8K32E/inclusion-and-exclusion-in-online-design 207 I would love to hear your stories and experiences about engaging with the wider web. The study involves: • undertaking a short survey • answering some short Qs about some websites • sending me a few screenshots of some of the sites you might visit in a week • an interview It can be done via email over a week or two, or if anyone wants to do an ‘express’ study, my laptop and I can meet you in a cafe and run through the whole thing in one hit (and the coffee is totally on me). Please PM for more info or if you want to sign up (or you can go through the link below). Thank you! Twitter Calls to participate were also posted on the researcher’s Twitter account, using the following text: Help a researcher out! Seeking LGBT participants for a PhD study on inclusion/exclusion online: 208 https://www.callforparticipants.com/study/8K32E/inclusion-and-exclusion-in- online-design Please RT! Note that due to character restrictions on Twitter, the LGBTIQ acronym was abbreviated to LGBT, in order to be able to include the study URL. 209 Appendix 2 - Call for Participants website Inclusion and exclusion in online design https://www.callforparticipants.com/study/8K32E/inclusion-and-exclusion-in-online- design 08 February 2016 This project aims to explore the ways in which websites are designed, the people they are designed for, and how these designs impact or affect your experiences of using websites. It has a particular interest in your experience if you are not someone who the website was designed for. Participation involves: • taking a short survey • looking at websites and answering some short Qs • keeping a short photo journal of your website browsing • a short phone interview Keywords University of Technology Sydney, User centred design, User Experience, media, LGBT, LGBTQ, gay, lesbian, Transgender, homosexuality, homophobia Ethics approval This study has been approved by the University of Technology, Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee. If you have any complaints or reservations about any aspect of your participation in this research which you cannot resolve with the researcher, you may contact the Ethics Committee through the Research Ethics Officer, research.ethics[at]uts[dot]edu[dot]au. Any complaint you make will be treated in confidence and investigated fully and you will be informed of the outcome. About the researcher I am a PhD researcher at the University of Technology, Sydney. I identify as LGBT and am very interested in online design and experiences, especially experiences of marginalisation. 210 Contact researcher https://www.callforparticipants.com/study/popup/8K32E/contact 211 Appendix 3 - Participant Information Sheet Information Sheet Online Experiences for the ‘Other’ PhD Research Project Dear ……….. I am Sarah Champion, a researcher from the Interaction Design and Human Practice Laboratory, UTS. I would like to formally invite you to participate in a study of Online Experiences for the ‘Other’ PhD Research Project. This project aims to explore the ways in which websites are designed, the people they are designed for, and how these designs affect or impact your experiences of using the websites. It has a particular interest in your experience if you are not someone who the website is designed for. The participation in this project will involve: • completing a short survey • completing a short interview • viewing a series of provided websites over a period of X weeks and answering some short questions about them. • keeping a photo journal of websites that you visit and writing your thoughts about them over a period of X weeks. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email at or phone . Please remember that you are under no obligation to participate in this research. You can also decline from participating at any stage without penalty. Research data gathered from this project may be published in a form that does not identify you in any way. Yours sincerely, Sarah Champion 212 Appendix 4 - Consent Form Consent Form UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY I ______agree to participate in the “online experiences for the ‘other’” project being conducted by Sarah Champion. I understand that the purpose of this study is to understand the ways in which the designs of websites impact our experiences of the web. I understand that my participation in this research will involve completing a survey, an interview, undertaking online reflections for a period of X weeks, and engaging in ongoing conversations with the researcher to discuss the data I have gathered. I am aware that I can contact Sarah Champion if I have any concerns about the research. If I have any concerns and questions I can also contact A/Prof Linda Leung, Supervisor of this PhD research, on phone 02 9514 1663, e-mail [email protected]. I also understand that I am free to withdraw my participation from this research project at any time I wish and without giving a reason. I will not be penalised in any way for declining to take part in any stage of the research. I would like a copy of the transcript I would like a copy of any publications I agree that Sarah Champion has answered all my questions fully and clearly. I agree that the research data gathered from this project may be published in a form that does not identify me in any way. ______/____/____ Participant ______/____/____ Researcher NOTE: This study has been approved by the University of Technology, Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee. If you have any complaints or reservations about any aspect of your participation in this research which you cannot resolve with the researcher, you may contact the Ethics Committee through the Research Ethics Officer [email protected]. Any complaint you make will be treated in confidence and investigated fully and you will be informed of the outcome. 213 Appendix 5 - Survey questions The survey below was created using Google Docs and the link mailed to participants. Introduction This survey talks about the sorts of websites and social media you like to view on a regular basis. For the purpose of this survey, regular means more than 3 times per week. From the list of websites and social media you provide, we will put together a list of the most common types of websites viewed by people in this study, as well as the ways that you categorise them. This survey should take approximately 5 minutes to complete. All survey responses will be anonymous and will be stored under a participant code that cannot identify you. About me I am a PhD researcher at the University of Technology, Sydney, under the supervision of A/Prof Linda Leung. I am conducting research into the way websites are designed, and if and how this affects the way you experience them. Ethics Ethics approval for this study was granted under the Interaction Design and Human Practice lab at UTS. If you have any questions or concerns about this survey, please contact me on Note By hitting the ‘submit’ button this survey, you agree that you give consent for your data to be used in the study. If you do not consent, simply do not complete this survey. Data from this survey may be published at a later date. Survey questions Please answer the following questions about yourself. 1. How do you define your gender? 214 [free text box] [ ] Rather not say 2. How do you define your sexuality? [free text box] [ ] Rather not say 3. What is your location? 4. How regularly do you use the Internet? [ ] I am always online [ ] I log on a few times a day [ ] I log on daily [ ] I log on a few times a week [ ] I log on once a week or less frequently 5. Describe what you primarily use the Internet for [free text box] 6. From what sources do you receive news and information? [free text box] 7. List main social media environments you engage with. [free text box] 8. How regularly do you access social media? [free text box] 9. Why do you engage with social media? [free text box] 10. List the top 5 websites that you visit the most frequently to watch or read content. [free text box] 215 11. How frequently do you visit these sites? [free text box] 12. Of the 5 websites that you have listed, how would you categorise them? For example, if you listed the Sydney Morning Herald, you may choose to categorise it as a news site. Please use categories that mean something to you. [free text box] 13. Why do you visit the websites you have listed? [free text box] 216 Appendix 6 - Photo Narrative and reflective tasks The tasks below were provided to participants via email. The researcher was available via phone, email or online chat to explain the tasks to participants if required. The participants were reminded twice weekly via email or text to complete the tasks (if required). Introduction The aim of this part of the study is to explore how you feel about websites you access. This can include the website as a whole, the language used, the types of images used, the advertisements, or anything else that comes to mind. This study consists of two main tasks: 1. Exploring a series of provided websites and; 2. Creating a narrative of your online journey. About me I am a PhD researcher at the University of Technology, Sydney, under the supervision of A/Prof Linda Leung. I am conducting research into the way websites are designed, and if and how this affects the way you experience them. Ethics Ethics approval for this study was granted under the Interaction Design and Human Practice lab at UTS. If you have any questions or concerns about this survey, please contact me on Instructions Provided websites You have been provided with a list of 5 websites. Throughout the period of this study (X weeks), it is requested that you visit these websites once a week, and make notes based on the questions below. Note: these questions are just to serve as a guide, you may write anything you like about the sites you visit, the content, stories, images and people on them, and your thoughts and feelings about them. 217 You have each been provided a space to upload your responses, however if you’d prefer to send them directly in email, that is fine too. For each website that you visit: 1. Paste a screenshot into the online space, or email. You may wish to provide multiple screenshots if there are many specific aspects of a site that you want to write about. 2. Reflect about what you are seeing. This can be as long or short as it needs to be. You can also create a voice recording if you would prefer not to write. The questions below are a guide of some areas you might wish to think about, but please write anything that comes to mind: • Please write down your first impressions and feelings about this website. • What emotions does this website invoke for you? • Why do you think this website has been created? What makes you think this? • Who do you think it has been created for? Why? • Do you feel that you can relate to this website? Why/why not? This could include aspects of the design, the content, images on the website, etc. • If this is not a site that you regularly visit, would you return? Why/why not? • Is there any particular part of this website that stands out to you? If so, what and why? • Is there anything about this website that you don’t like? This could include aspects of the design, the content, images on the website, etc. If so, what and why? • Any other comments that you make? 218 Appendix 7 - Websites excluded due to lack of data Website Description AFL From the website: “Provides news, previews, fixtures, results, statistics, awards and sponsor http://www.afl.com.au/ information.” Archer From the website: “Archer Magazine is the world’s most inclusive publication about sex http://archermagazine.com.au/ and gender, including transgender issues, polyamory, lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex.” Better Homes and Gardens The Better Homes and Gardens website is the online counterpart to the print magazine and TV http://www.bhg.com.au/ show. It covers areas of craft, DIY, cooking, garden care and renovating. Blind Gossip From the website: “BlindGossip.com is The #1 Blind Item Site In The World! A blind item is a http://blindgossip.com/ piece of celebrity gossip in which a scenario or event is described but a celebrity cannot be named due to fear of lawsuit or incomplete information. Users of the site speculate as to the identity of the celebrity.” BuzzFeed From the website: “BuzzFeed is building the defining news and entertainment company for https://www.buzzfeed.com/ the social mobile age. From the serious to the fun, from long-form to the short listicles readers have grown to love, we create content that people want to share on the web.” Concrete Playground From the website: “With incredible places, events and activities at your fingertips, think of http://concreteplayground.com/ Concrete Playground as a personal concierge for your social life.” Cracked From the website: “A funny website filled with funny videos, pics, articles, and a whole bunch http://www.cracked.com/ 219 of other funny stuff. Cracked.com, celebrating 50 years of humour.” Crickey From the website: “The home of Crikey’s original content along with links to stories from https://www.crikey.com.au/ all corners of the web. Crikey editors are across thousands of online sources, from the most earnest to the most eclectic. If it’s interesting and newsworthy, chances are it’ll be on crikey.com.au.” Daily Life From the website: “Daily Life is the best online source of news and lifestyle content for busy http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle Australian women. It offers its readers the perfect daily mix of news, opinion, food, celebrity, style, beauty, health and relationships. It is dedicated to providing the best advice from the most dynamic contributors and, most importantly, a place for women to engage with each other and discuss the hot topics of the day.” Dangerous Minds From the website: “Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange–new ideas, http://dangerousminds.net/ new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. And sometimes it doesn’t. Very often the idea is just “Here’s what so and so said, take a look and see what you think." I’ll repeat that: We’re not necessarily endorsing everything you’ll find here, we’re merely saying “Here it is.”” Gizmodo From the website: “Gizmodo loves technology + entertainment. We’re obsessed with the http://www.gizmodo.com.au/ gadgets, car tech, science and geek culture that change the way we live, work, love and play. Gizmodo covers Australian & NZ technology news with a team of award-winning local 220 journalists — and localises the best posts from the US and the UK editions.” Goodreads From the website: “Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book https://www.goodreads.com/ recommendations. Our mission is to help people find and share books they love.” Huffington Post From the website: “The destination for news, blogs and original content offering coverage of http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/ US politics, entertainment, style, world news, technology and comedy.” ILGA From the website: “ILGA – the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex http://ilga.org/ Association, is the world federation of national and local organisations dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people. ILGA is an umbrella organisation of more than 1100 member organisations presented in six different regions including: Pan Africa Ilga, Ilga-Asia, Ilga-Europe, Ilga-LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean), Ilga North- America and Ilga-Oceania (Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia and Pacific Islands).” Jezabel From the website: “Online magazine focused on celebrities, sex, feminism, and issues relating to http://jezebel.com/ women’s empowerment.” MindBodyGreen From the website: “mindbodygreen is a lifestyle media brand dedicated to inspiring you to live http://www.mindbodygreen.com/ your best life. To that end, we want to give you everything that’s great for you: mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and environmentally — because we believe these pillars of wellness are vital and interconnected. Hence mindbodygreen (one word, not three).” 221 NineMSN From the website: “Get the latest news, sport, TV, travel, fashion, fitness, recipes and celebrity http://www.nine.com.au/ news, all for free at nine.com.au.” Scary Mommy From the website: “What started as an innocent on-line baby book in early 2008 to chronicle Jill http://www.scarymommy.com/ Smokler‘s stay-at-home days with her children, quickly transformed into a vibrant community of parents, brought together by a common theme: Parenting doesn’t have to be perfect.” Sydney Morning Herald The Sydney Morning Herald is the online imprint of the Sydney Herald, the oldest http://www.smh.com.au/ published newspaper in Australia. It releases new online content daily and is published by Fairfax Media. Vice The Vice website collates articles from a range of writers including columnists, fiction, https://www.vice.com/en_au cartoons, photography and journalism. It addresses both serious news topics as well as pop culture and opinion pieces. 222 Appendix 8 - Basic level thematic distribution by gender: representation and stereotypes Key: C: cis-female F: female M: male T: transgender U: undefined Themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Masculinity No responses C F M T U Masculinity is fragile 0 1 0 0 0 Men are threatened by ‘female’ No responses C F M T U activities 0 1 0 0 0 Lived experience of users Support is not the same as No responses C F M T U representation 0 2 1 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Invisibility of LGBTIQ lived experience 0 4 0 0 1 1 7 1 1 0 Male users are used to being explicitly C F M T U C F M T U catered for 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 223 Prioritisation of experiences comes C F M T U C F M T U from within the community 0 1 1 1 0 3 5 0 1 0 Pre-conceptions No responses C F M T U Pre-conceptions (general) 3 4 1 0 0 Unspecified or male-targeted designs No responses C F M T U are viewed as genderless 0 1 1 0 0 Female creator implicitly makes a site C F M T U No responses more relatable to women 0 2 0 0 0 Computer hardware is viewed as a male No responses Female: 1 activity Pre-conceived meanings of words and C F M T U C F M T U images alter first impressions of sites 0 2 2 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Neutral designs are viewed as female 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Site creators segregate content based on C F M T U No responses pre-conceptions of gender 0 0 1 1 0 Portrayal of women and stereotypes No responses C F M T U Portrayal of women (general) 0 1 0 0 0 224 No responses C F M T U Stereotypes (general) 0 1 0 0 0 Idealistic or unrealistic views of C F M T U C F M T U women’s bodies 0 5 0 1 0 1 8 0 0 0 No responses C F M T U Female issues are seen as failures 0 1 0 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Women as a source of profit 0 4 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 Women are judged and judge each other C F M T U C F M T U on appearance 0 2 0 1 1 0 6 0 0 0 Women are expected to be interested in C F M T U C F M T U beauty / fashion 0 6 1 1 0 0 5 1 0 0 Women are not expected to be No responses C F M T U interested in world events. 0 5 2 0 0 Gendered advertising and design for C F M T U C F M T U women 0 4 1 1 0 1 5 1 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Women are expected to be mothers 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 225 Portrayal of LGBTIQs Representation of queer women occurs C F M T U C F M T U through use of images and stories 1 5 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 Even in dedicated media, stereotypes No responses C F M T U prevail 1 1 1 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U The gay male experience is prioritised 1 2 2 1 0 3 1 0 0 0 Within female LGBTIQ individuals, No responses C F M T U lesbianism is seen as most important 2 1 0 0 0 Representation Only certain types of women’s bodies C F M T U C F M T U are shown 1 5 0 1 0 1 5 1 1 0 C F M T U C F M T U Male voices are prioritised 0 0 2 1 0 1 5 0 0 0 User generated content is a strategy to No responses C F M T U counter lack of representation 0 3 0 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Lack of women on mainstream websites 0 2 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 Representation through images and C F M T U C F M T U content is important (e.g. invisibility of 3 11 0 1 1 3 11 1 1 0 trans, intersex and lesbian users) 226 Relatability and representation go hand C F M T U C F M T U in hand 2 1 0 1 1 2 7 3 1 0 227 Appendix 9 - Basic level thematic distribution by gender: relevance Themes Gender Photo narrative task Interviews (n=30) (n=23) Advertising Advertising is more noticeable than C F M T U C F M T U design and content 0 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 Body shaming can occur through C F M T U C F M T U advertisements 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 Over use of advertising can impact first C F M T U C F M T U impressions 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Context is important in placement of C F M T U C F M T U ads 1 2 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 Non-gendered advertising can change C F M T U C F M T U the perception of a site in a positive 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 way C F M T U C F M T U Advertising is disliked 0 6 1 0 0 1 3 3 0 0 228 Design Recognisable patterns influence first C F M T U C F M T U impressions and emotional responses 0 2 1 1 0 0 4 2 0 0 Gendered design can target specific C F M T U C F M T U groups 0 1 0 1 0 1 7 1 1 0 Images without people are read as No responses C F M T U neutral 0 2 1 0 0 Secondary cues other than recognisable C F M T U C F M T U design patterns help participants 0 0 2 0 0 2 4 1 0 0 categorise sites C F M T U No responses Long form, focused designs are unique 0 1 0 1 0 Recognisable patterns aren’t always C F M T U No responses markers of good design 0 1 1 0 0 Representation is visible in design C F M T U C F M T U choices 3 6 0 1 1 0 3 1 1 0 Website content C F M T U C F M T U Relevance dictates emotional response 1 11 3 0 0 2 6 2 0 0 Design is seen as secondary when C F M T U No responses content is relevant 1 0 0 0 0 229 Content needs to match user lived C F M T U C F M T U experience to be relatable 0 6 2 0 1 1 7 3 1 0 Use of manufactured controversy to C F M T U C F M T U capture attention 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Preference for content can outweigh No responses C F M T U quality of design 0 1 1 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Relevant content drives user behaviour 0 1 0 0 0 2 3 3 1 0 Perceived manipulation results in No responses C F M T U negative emotional responses 0 2 0 0 0 230 Appendix 10 - Basic level thematic distribution by gender: inclusion and exclusion Themes Gender Photo narrative task Interviews (n=30) (n=23) Exclusion No responses C F M T U Exclusion (generally) 3 6 1 1 0 Only certain content is appropriate for C F M T U C F M T U women 0 7 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 Neutral is read as inclusive by normally C F M T U C F M T U excluded groups 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 No responses C F M T U Humour as a form of exclusion 0 1 0 0 0 No responses C F M T U Motherhood is exclusive 1 0 0 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Female targeted designs are ‘other’ 0 3 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 Design can be used to exclude groups of C F M T U C F M T U users 1 5 0 1 0 0 6 3 1 0 231 Exclusion: Assumptions C F M T U C F M T U Cis-gender is assumed 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 C F M T U C F M T U Heterosexuality is assumed 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 Exclusion: Invisibility C F M T U C F M T U Exclusion leads to invisibility 0 0 0 1 1 1 5 0 0 0 Invisibility of all non-hetero, non-white, C F M T U C F M T U non-male groups 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 C F M T U No responses Lesbians are invisible in mainstream media 0 3 0 0 1 C F M T U No responses Invisibility of LGBTIQ/non-white women 0 2 0 1 1 Inclusion No responses C F M T U Inclusion (generally) 1 1 1 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Gender is not assumed 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 232 Inclusion leads to positive emotional C F M T U C F M T U responses 2 6 0 0 0 1 5 1 0 0 C F M T U C F M T U Heterosexuality is not assumed 1 3 1 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 Use of appropriate language can make C F M T U C F M T U exclusive topics inclusive 0 1 1 0 0 2 4 0 0 0 233 Appendix 11 - Basic level thematic distribution by sexuality: representation and stereotypes Key: B: bisexual G: gay GA: gynephilic with some androphilia H: heterosexual L: lesbian N: no label P: pansexual Q: queer Themes Gender Photo narrative (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Masculinity Masculinity is No responses B G GA H L N P Q fragile 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Men are No responses B G GA H L N P Q threatened by 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ‘female’ activities Lived experience of users Support is not No responses B G GA H L N P Q the same as 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 representation 234 Invisibility of B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q LGBTIQ lived 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 5 1 1 1 2 0 0 1 experience Male users are B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q used to being 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 explicitly catered for Prioritisation of B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q experiences 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 2 0 0 1 comes from within the community Pre-conceptions Pre-conceptions No responses B G GA H L N P Q (general) 4 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 Unspecified or No responses B G GA H L N P Q male-targeted 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 designs are viewed as genderless Female creator B G GA H L N P Q No responses implicitly 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 makes a site more relatable to women No responses B G GA H L N P Q Computer hardware is 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 235 viewed as a male activity Pre-conceived B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q meanings of 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 words and images alter first impressions of sites Neutral designs B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q are viewed as 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 female Site creators B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q segregate 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 content based on pre- conceptions of gender Portrayal of women and stereotypes Portrayal of No responses B G GA H L N P Q women 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (general) Stereotypes No responses B G GA H L N P Q (general) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Idealistic or B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q unrealistic 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 4 0 0 4 1 1 1 0 views of 236 women’s bodies Female issues No responses B G GA H L N P Q are seen as 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 failures Women as a B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q source of 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 profit Women are B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q judged and 0 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 3 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 judge each other on appearance Women are B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q expected to be 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 interested in beauty / fashion Women are not No responses B G GA H L N P Q expected to be 3 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 interested in world events Gendered B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q advertising and 1 1 1 2 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 4 1 0 1 0 design for women Women are B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q expected to be 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 mothers 237 Portrayal of LGBTIQs Representation B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q of queer women 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 occurs through use of images and stories Even in No responses B G GA H L N P Q dedicated 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 media, stereotypes prevail The gay male B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q experience is 2 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 prioritised Within female No responses B G GA H L N P Q LGBTIQ 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 individuals, lesbianism is seen as most important Representation Only certain B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q types of 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 women’s bodies are shown 238 Male voices are B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q prioritised 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 User generated No responses B G GA H L N P Q content is a 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 strategy to counter lack of representation Lack of women B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q on mainstream 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 websites Representation B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q through images 5 2 1 2 4 1 1 1 5 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 and content is important (e.g. invisibility of trans, intersex and lesbian users) Relatability and B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q representation 2 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 4 2 1 3 3 0 0 1 go hand in hand 239 Appendix 12 - Basic level thematic distribution by sexuality: relevance Themes Sexuality Photo narrative task Interviews (n=30) (n=23) Advertising Advertising is B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q more noticeable 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 than design and content Body shaming B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q can occur 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 through advertisements Over use of B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q advertising can 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 impact first impressions Context is B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q important in 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 placement of ads Non-gendered B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q advertising can 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 change the perception of a site in a positive way 240 Advertising is B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q disliked 1 2 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 3 0 0 0 Design Recognisable B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q patterns influence 0 1 1 2 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 first impressions and emotional responses Gendered design B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q can target specific 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 0 groups Images without No responses B G GA H L N P Q people are read as 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 neutral Secondary cues B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q other than 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 recognisable design patterns help participants categorise sites Long form, B G GA H L N P Q No responses focused designs 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 are unique 241 Recognisable B G GA H L N P Q No responses patterns aren’t 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 always markers of good design Representation is B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q visible in design 4 1 1 1 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 choices Website content Relevance dictates B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q emotional 5 3 0 3 1 1 1 1 3 1 0 1 2 1 1 1 response Design is seen as B G GA H L N P Q No responses secondary when 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 content is relevant Content needs to B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q match user lived 1 3 0 2 0 1 1 1 3 1 1 3 2 0 1 1 experience to be relatable Use of B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q manufactured 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 controversy to capture attention 242 Preference for No responses B G GA H L N P Q content can 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 outweigh quality of design Relevant content B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q drives user 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 5 0 1 0 1 behaviour Perceived No responses B G GA H L N P Q manipulation 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 results in negative emotional responses 243 Appendix 13 - Basic level thematic distribution by sexuality: inclusion and exclusion Themes Sexuality Photo narrative task (n=30) Interviews (n=23) Exclusion Exclusion No responses B G GA H L N P Q (generally) 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 Only certain B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q content is 3 2 1 2 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 appropriate for women Neutral is read as B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q inclusive by 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 normally excluded groups Humour as a No responses B G GA H L N P Q form of exclusion 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Motherhood is No responses B G GA H L N P Q exclusive 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Female targeted B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q designs are 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 ‘other’ 244 Design can be B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q used to exclude 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 3 1 1 1 0 groups of users Exclusion: Assumptions Cis-gender is B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q assumed 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 Heterosexuality B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q is assumed 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 Exclusion: Invisibility Exclusion leads B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q to invisibility 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 Invisibility of all B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q non-hetero, non- 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 white, non-male groups Lesbians are B G GA H L N P Q No responses invisible in 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 mainstream media Invisibility of B G GA H L N P Q No responses LGBTIQ/non- 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 white women 245 Inclusion Inclusion No responses B G GA H L N P Q (generally) 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 Gender is not B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q assumed 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 Inclusion leads to B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q positive emotional 4 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 responses Heterosexuality is B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q not assumed 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Use of appropriate B G GA H L N P Q B G GA H L N P Q language can 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 make exclusive topics inclusive 246 Appendix 14 – Sentiment analysis lexicon, modified to include synonyms abandon -2 ache -2 aggression -2 abandoned -2 achievable 1 aggressions -2 abandons -2 aching -2 aggressive -2 abducted -2 acquit 2 aghast -2 abduction -2 acquits 2 agog 2 abductions -2 acquitted 2 agonise -3 abhor -3 acquitting 2 agonised -3 abhorred -3 acrimonious -3 agonises -3 abhorrent -3 active 1 agonising -3 abhors -3 adequate 1 agonize -3 abilities 2 admire 3 agonized -3 ability 2 admired 3 agonizes -3 aboard 1 admires 3 agonizing -3 absentee -1 admiring 3 agree 1 absentees -1 admit -1 agreeable 2 absolve 2 admits -1 agreed 1 absolved 2 admitted -1 agreement 1 absolves 2 admonish -2 agrees 1 absolving 2 admonished -2 alarm -2 absorbed 1 adopt 1 alarmed -2 abuse -3 adopts 1 alarmist -2 abused -3 adorable 3 alarmists -2 abuses -3 adore 3 alas -1 abusive -3 adored 3 alert -1 abusive 1 adores 3 alienate -2 accepted 1 advanced 1 alienation -2 accepting 1 advantage 2 alive 1 accepts 1 advantages 2 allergic -2 accident -2 adventure 2 allow 1 accidental -2 adventures 2 alone -2 accidentally -2 adventurous 2 amaze 2 accidents -2 affected -1 amazed 2 accomplish 2 affection 3 amazes 2 accomplished 2 affectionate 3 amazing 4 accomplishes 2 afflicted -1 ambitious 2 accusation -2 affronted -1 ambivalent -1 accusations -2 afraid -2 amuse 3 accuse -2 aggravate -2 amused 3 accused -2 aggravated -2 amusement 3 accuses -2 aggravates -2 amusements 3 accusing -2 aggravating -2 anger -3 247 angers -3 appreciating 2 avoid -1 angry -3 appreciation 2 avoided -1 anguish -3 apprehensive -2 avoids -1 anguished -3 approval 2 await -1 animosity -2 approved 2 awaited -1 annoy -2 approves 2 awaits -1 annoyance -2 ardent 1 award 3 annoyed -2 arrest -2 awarded 3 annoying -2 arrested -3 awards 3 annoys -2 arrests -2 awesome 4 antagonistic -2 arrogant -2 awful -3 anti -1 ashame -2 awkward -2 anticipation 1 ashamed -2 axe -1 anxiety -2 ass -4 axed -1 anxious -2 assassination -3 backed 1 apathetic -3 assassinations -3 backing 2 apathy -3 asset 2 backs 1 apeshit -3 assets 2 bad -3 apocalyptic -2 assfucking -4 badass -3 apologise -1 asshole -4 badly -3 apologised -1 astonished 2 bailout -2 apologises -1 astound 3 bamboozle -2 apologising -1 astounded 3 bamboozled -2 apologize -1 astounding 3 bamboozles -2 apologized -1 astoundingly 3 ban -2 apologizes -1 astounds 3 banish -1 apologizing -1 attack -1 bankrupt -3 apology -1 attacked -1 bankster -3 appalled -2 attacking -1 banned -2 appalling -2 attacks -1 bargain 2 appease 2 attract 1 barrier -2 appeased 2 attracted 1 bastard -5 appeases 2 attracting 2 bastards -5 appeasing 2 attraction 2 battle -1 applaud 2 attractions 2 battles -1 applauded 2 attracts 1 beaten -2 applauding 2 audacious 3 beatific 3 applauds 2 authority 1 beating -1 applause 2 avert -1 beauties 3 appreciate 2 averted -1 beautiful 3 appreciated 2 averts -1 beautifully 3 appreciates 2 avid 2 beautify 3 248 belittle -2 blocks -1 burdened -2 belittled -2 bloody -3 burdening -2 beloved 3 blurry -2 burdens -2 benefit 2 boastful -2 calm 2 benefits 2 bold 2 calmed 2 benefitted 2 boldly 2 calming 2 benefitting 2 bomb -1 calms 2 bereave -2 boost 1 can’t stand -3 bereaved -2 boosted 1 cancel -1 bereaves -2 boosting 1 cancelled -1 bereaving -2 boosts 1 cancelling -1 best 3 bore -2 cancels -1 betray -3 bored -2 cancer -1 betrayal -3 boring -3 cannot -3 betrayed -3 bother -2 capable 1 betraying -3 bothered -2 captivated 3 betrays -3 bothers -2 care 2 better 2 bothersome -2 carefree 1 bias -1 boycott -2 careful 2 biased -2 boycotted -2 carefully 2 big 1 boycotting -2 careless -2 bitch -5 boycotts -2 cares 2 bitches -5 brainwashing -3 cashing in -2 bitter -2 brave 2 casualty -2 bitterly -2 breakthrough 3 catastrophe -3 bizarre -2 breathtaking 5 catastrophic -4 blah -2 bribe -3 cautious -1 blame -2 bright 1 celebrate 3 blamed -2 brightest 2 celebrated 3 blames -2 brightness 1 celebrates 3 blaming -2 brilliant 4 celebrating 3 bless 2 brisk 2 censor -2 blesses 2 broke -1 censored -2 blessing 3 broken -1 censors -2 blind -1 brooding -2 certain 1 bliss 3 bullied -2 chagrin -2 blissful 3 bullshit -4 chagrined -2 blithe 2 bully -2 challenge -1 block -1 bullying -2 chance 2 blockbuster 3 bummer -2 chances 2 blocked -1 buoyant 2 chaos -2 blocking -1 burden -2 chaotic -2 249 charged -3 clever 2 conciliate 2 charges -2 clouded -1 conciliated 2 charm 3 clueless -2 conciliates 2 charming 3 cock -5 conciliating 2 charmless -3 cocksucker -5 condemn -2 chastise -3 cocksuckers -5 condemnation -2 chastised -3 cocky -2 condemned -2 chastises -3 coerced -2 condemns -2 chastising -3 collapse -2 confidence 2 cheat -3 collapsed -2 confident 2 cheated -3 collapses -2 conflict -2 cheater -3 collapsing -2 conflicting -2 cheaters -3 collide -1 conflictive -2 cheats -3 collides -1 conflicts -2 cheer 2 colliding -1 confuse -2 cheered 2 collision -2 confused -2 cheerful 2 collisions -2 confusing -2 cheering 2 colluding -3 congrats 2 cheerless -2 combat -1 congratulate 2 cheers 2 combats -1 congratulation 2 cheery 3 comedy 1 congratulations 2 cherish 2 comfort 2 consent 2 cherished 2 comfortable 2 consents 2 cherishes 2 comforting 2 consolable 2 cherishing 2 comforts 2 conspiracy -3 chic 2 commend 2 constrained -2 childish -2 commended 2 contagion -2 chilling -1 commit 1 contagions -2 choke -2 commitment 2 contagious -1 choked -2 commits 1 contempt -2 chokes -2 committed 1 contemptuous -2 choking -2 committing 1 contemptuously -2 clarifies 2 compassionate 2 contend -1 clarity 2 compelled 1 contender -1 clash -2 competent 2 contending -1 classy 3 competitive 2 contentious -2 clean 2 complacent -2 contestable -2 cleaner 2 complain -2 controversial -2 clear 1 complained -2 controversially -2 cleared 1 complains -2 convince 1 clearly 1 comprehensive 2 convinced 1 clears 1 concerned -2 convinces 1 250 convivial 2 crying -2 defender 2 cool 1 cunt -5 defenders 2 cool stuff 3 curious 1 defenseless -2 cornered -2 curse -1 defer -1 corpse -1 cut -1 deferring -1 costly -2 cute 2 defiant -1 courage 2 cuts -1 deficit -2 courageous 2 cutting -1 degrade -2 courteous 2 cynic -2 degraded -2 courtesy 2 cynical -2 degrades -2 cover-up -3 cynicism -2 dehumanize -2 coward -2 damage -3 dehumanized -2 cowardly -2 damages -3 dehumanizes -2 coziness 2 damn -4 dehumanizing -2 cramp -1 damned -4 deject -2 crap -3 damnit -4 dejected -2 crash -2 danger -2 dejecting -2 crazier -2 daredevil 2 dejects -2 craziest -2 daring 2 delay -1 crazy -2 darkest -2 delayed -1 creative 2 darkness -1 delight 3 crestfallen -2 dauntless 2 delighted 3 cried -2 dead -3 delighting 3 cries -2 deadlock -2 delights 3 crime -3 deafening -1 demand -1 criminal -3 dear 2 demanded -1 criminals -3 dearly 3 demanding -1 crisis -3 death -2 demands -1 critic -2 debonair 2 demonstration -1 criticism -2 debt -2 demoralized -2 criticize -2 deceit -3 denied -2 criticized -2 deceitful -3 denier -2 criticizes -2 deceive -3 deniers -2 criticizing -2 deceived -3 denies -2 critics -2 deceives -3 denounce -2 cruel -3 deceiving -3 denounces -2 cruelty -3 deception -3 deny -2 crush -1 decisive 1 denying -2 crushed -2 dedicated 2 depressed -2 crushes -1 defeated -2 depressing -2 crushing -1 defect -3 derail -2 cry -1 defects -3 derailed -2 251 derails -2 dirt -2 disheartened -2 deride -2 dirtier -2 dishonest -2 derided -2 dirtiest -2 disillusioned -2 derides -2 dirty -2 disinclined -2 deriding -2 disabling -1 disjointed -2 derision -2 disadvantage -2 dislike -2 desirable 2 disadvantaged -2 dismal -2 desire 1 disappear -1 dismayed -2 desired 2 disappeared -1 disorder -2 desirous 2 disappears -1 disorganized -2 despair -3 disappoint -2 disoriented -2 despairing -3 disappointed -2 disparage -2 despairs -3 disappointing -2 disparaged -2 desperate -3 disappointment -2 disparages -2 desperately -3 disappointments -2 disparaging -2 despondent -3 disappoints -2 displeased -2 destroy -3 disaster -2 dispute -2 destroyed -3 disasters -2 disputed -2 destroying -3 disastrous -3 disputes -2 destroys -3 disbelieve -2 disputing -2 destruction -3 discard -1 disqualified -2 destructive -3 discarded -1 disquiet -2 detached -1 discarding -1 disregard -2 detain -2 discards -1 disregarded -2 detained -2 disconsolate -2 disregarding -2 detention -2 disconsolation -2 disregards -2 determined 2 discontented -2 disrespect -2 devastate -2 discord -2 disrespected -2 devastated -2 discounted -1 disruption -2 devastating -2 discouraged -2 disruptions -2 devoted 3 discredited -2 disruptive -2 diamond 1 disdain -2 dissatisfied -2 dick -4 disempower -1 distort -2 dickhead -4 disgrace -2 distorted -2 die -3 disgraced -2 distorting -2 died -3 disguise -1 distorts -2 difficult -1 disguised -1 distract -2 diffident -2 disguises -1 distracted -2 dilemma -1 disguising -1 distraction -2 dipshit -3 disgust -3 distracts -2 dire -3 disgusted -3 distress -2 direful -3 disgusting -3 distressed -2 252 distresses -2 drop -1 encourage 2 distressing -2 drown -2 encouraged 2 distrust -3 drowned -2 encouragement 2 distrustful -3 drowns -2 encourages 2 disturb -2 drunk -2 endorse 2 disturbed -2 dubious -2 endorsed 2 disturbing -2 dud -2 endorsement 2 disturbs -2 dull -2 endorses 2 dithering -2 dumb -3 enemies -2 dizzy -1 dumbass -3 enemy -2 dodging -2 dump -1 energetic 2 dodgy -2 dumped -2 engage 1 does not -3 dumps -1 engages 1 does not work -3 dupe -2 engrossed 1 dolorous -2 duped -2 enjoy 2 don’t enjoy -2 dysfunction -2 enjoying 2 don’t like -2 eager 2 enjoys 2 dont like -2 earnest 2 enlighten 2 doom -2 ease 2 enlightened 2 doomed -2 easy 1 enlightening 2 doubt -1 ecstatic 4 enlightens 2 doubted -1 eerie -2 ennui -2 doubtful -1 eery -2 enrage -2 doubting -1 effective 2 enraged -2 doubts -1 effectively 2 enrages -2 douche -3 elated 3 enraging -2 douchebag -3 elation 3 enrapture 3 downcast -2 elegant 2 enslave -2 downhearted -2 elegantly 2 enslaved -2 downside -2 embarrass -2 enslaves -2 drag -1 embarrassed -2 ensure 1 dragged -1 embarrasses -2 ensuring 1 drags -1 embarrassing -2 enterprising 1 drained -2 embarrassment -2 entertaining 2 dread -2 embittered -2 enthral 3 dreaded -2 embrace 1 enthusiastic 3 dreadful -3 emergency -2 entitled 1 dreading -2 empower 1 entrusted 2 dream 1 empathetic 2 envies -1 dreams 1 emptiness -1 envious -2 dreary -2 empty -1 envy -1 droopy -2 enchanted 2 envying -1 253 erroneous -2 expels -2 fascinate 3 error -2 exploit -2 fascinated 3 errors -2 exploited -2 fascinates 3 escape -1 exploiting -2 fascinating 3 escapes -1 exploits -2 fascist -2 escaping -1 exploration 1 fascists -2 esteemed 2 explorations 1 fat -1 ethical 2 expose -1 fatalities -3 euphoria 3 exposed -1 fatality -3 euphoric 4 exposes -1 fatigue -2 eviction -1 exposing -1 fatigued -2 evil -3 extend 1 fatigues -2 exaggerate -2 extends 1 fatiguing -2 exaggerated -2 exuberant 4 favor 2 exaggerates -2 exultant 3 favored 2 exaggerating -2 exultantly 3 favorite 2 exasperated 2 fabulous 4 favorited 2 excellence 3 fad -2 favorites 2 excellent 3 fag -3 favors 2 excite 3 faggot -3 fear -2 excited 3 faggots -3 fearful -2 excitement 3 fail -2 fearing -2 exciting 3 failed -2 fearless 2 exclude -1 failing -2 fearsome -2 excluded -2 fails -2 fed up -3 exclusion -1 failure -2 feeble -2 exclusive 2 failures -2 feeling 1 excuse -1 fainthearted -2 felonies -3 exempt -1 fair 2 felony -3 exhausted -2 faith 1 fervent 2 exhilarated 3 faithful 3 fervid 2 exhilarates 3 fake -3 festive 2 exhilarating 3 fakes -3 fiasco -3 exonerate 2 faking -3 fidgety -2 exonerated 2 fallen -2 fight -1 exonerates 2 falling -1 fine 2 exonerating 2 falsified -3 fire -2 expand 1 falsify -3 fired -2 expands 1 fame 1 firing -2 expel -2 fan 3 fit 1 expelled -2 fantastic 4 fitness 1 expelling -2 farce -1 flagship 2 254 flees -1 frustration -2 glee 3 flop -2 ftw 3 gleeful 3 flops -2 fuck -4 gloom -1 flu -2 fucked -4 gloomy -2 flustered -2 fucker -4 glorious 2 focused 2 fuckers -4 glory 2 fond 2 fuckface -4 glum -2 fondness 2 fuckhead -4 god 1 fool -2 fucking -4 gossipy -2 foolish -2 fucktard -4 goddamn -3 fools -2 fud -3 godsend 4 forced -1 fuked -4 good 3 foreclosure -2 fuking -4 goodness 3 foreclosures -2 fulfill 2 grace 1 forget -1 fulfilled 2 gracious 3 forgetful -2 fulfills 2 grand 3 forgive 1 fuming -2 grant 1 forgiving 1 fun 4 granted 1 forgotten -1 funeral -1 granting 1 fortunate 2 funerals -1 grants 1 frantic -1 funky 2 grateful 3 fraud -4 funnier 4 gratification 2 frauds -4 funny 4 grave -2 fraudster -4 furious -3 gray -1 fraudsters -4 futile 2 great 3 fraudulence -4 gag -2 greater 3 fraudulent -4 gagged -2 greatest 3 free 1 gain 2 greed -3 freedom 2 gained 2 greedy -2 frenzy -3 gaining 2 green wash -3 fresh 1 gains 2 green washing -3 friendly 2 gallant 3 greenwash -3 fright -2 gallantly 3 greenwasher -3 frightened -2 gallantry 3 greenwashers -3 frightening -3 generous 2 greenwashing -3 frikin -2 genial 3 greet 1 frisky 2 ghost -1 greeted 1 frowning -1 giddy -2 greeting 1 frustrate -2 gift 2 greetings 2 frustrated -2 glad 3 greets 1 frustrates -2 glamorous 3 grey -1 frustrating -2 glamourous 3 grief -2 255 grieved -2 haunts -1 hopefully 2 gross -2 have not -3 hopeless -2 growing 1 havoc -2 hopelessness -2 growth 2 healthy 2 hopes 2 guarantee 1 heartbreaking -3 hoping 2 guilt -3 heartbroken -3 horrendous -3 guilty -3 heartfelt 3 horrible -3 gullibility -2 heaven 2 horrific -3 gullible -2 heavenly 4 horrified -3 gun -1 heavyhearted -2 horseshit -4 ha 2 hell -4 hostile -2 hacked -1 help 2 huckster -2 haha 3 helpful 2 hug 2 hahaha 3 helping 2 huge 1 hahahah 3 helpless -2 hugs 2 hail 2 helps 2 humerous 3 hailed 2 hero 2 humiliated -3 hapless -2 heroes 2 humiliation -3 haplessness -2 heroic 3 humor 2 happiness 3 hesitant -2 humorous 2 happy 3 hesitate -2 humour 2 hard -1 hid -1 humourous 2 hardier 2 hide -1 hunger -2 hardship -2 hides -1 hurrah 5 hardy 2 hiding -1 hurt -2 harm -2 highlight 2 hurting -2 harmed -2 hilarious 2 hurts -2 harmful -2 hindrance -2 hypocritical -2 harming -2 hoax -2 hysteria -3 harms -2 homesick -2 hysterical -3 harried -2 honest 2 hysterics -3 harsh -2 honor 2 idiot -3 harsher -2 honored 2 idiotic -3 harshest -2 honoring 2 ignorance -2 hate -3 honour 2 ignorant -2 hated -3 honoured 2 ignore -1 haters -3 honouring 2 ignored -2 hates -3 hooligan -2 ignores -1 hating -3 hooliganism -2 ill -2 haunt -1 hooligans -2 illegal -3 haunted -2 hope 2 illiteracy -2 haunting 1 hopeful 2 illness -2 256 illnesses -2 indifferent -2 inspiring 3 imbecile -3 indignant -2 insult -2 immobilized -1 indignation -2 insulted -2 immortal 2 indoctrinate -2 insulting -2 immune 1 indoctrinated -2 insults -2 impatient -2 indoctrinates -2 intact 2 imperfect -2 indoctrinating -2 integrity 2 importance 2 ineffective -2 intelligent 2 important 2 ineffectively -2 intense 1 impose -1 infatuated 2 interest 1 imposed -1 infatuation 2 interested 2 imposes -1 infected -2 interesting 2 imposing -1 inferior -2 interests 1 impotent -2 inflamed -2 interrogated -2 impress 3 influential 2 interrupt -2 impressed 3 infringement -2 interrupted -2 impresses 3 infuriate -2 interrupting -2 impressive 3 infuriated -2 interruption -2 imprisoned -2 infuriates -2 interrupts -2 improve 2 infuriating -2 intimidate -2 improved 2 inhibit -1 intimidated -2 improvement 2 injured -2 intimidates -2 improves 2 injury -2 intimidating -2 improving 2 injustice -2 intimidation -2 inability -2 innovate 1 intricate 2 inaction -2 innovates 1 intrigues 1 inaccurate -2 innovation 1 invincible 2 inadequate -2 innovative 2 invite 1 incapable -2 inquisition -2 inviting 1 incapacitated -2 inquisitive 2 invulnerable 2 incensed -2 insane -2 irate -3 included 2 insanity -2 ironic -1 incompetence -2 insecure -2 irony -1 incompetent -2 insensitive -2 irrational -1 inconsiderate -2 insensitivity -2 irresistible 2 inconvenience -2 insignificant -2 irresolute -2 inconvenient -2 insipid -2 irresponsible 2 increase 1 inspiration 2 irreversible -1 increased 1 inspirational 2 irritate -3 indecisive -2 inspire 2 irritated -3 indestructible 2 inspired 2 irritating -3 indifference -2 inspires 2 isolated -1 257 itchy -2 lame -2 lobby -2 jackass -4 landmark 2 lobbying -2 jackasses -4 laugh 1 lol 3 jailed -2 laughed 1 lonely -2 jaunty 2 laughing 1 lonesome -2 jealous -2 laughs 1 longing -1 jeopardy -2 laughting 1 loom -1 jerk -3 launched 1 loomed -1 jesus 1 lawl 3 looming -1 jewel 1 lawsuit -2 looms -1 jewels 1 lawsuits -2 loose -3 jocular 2 lazy -1 looses -3 join 1 leak -1 loser -3 joke 2 leaked -1 losing -3 jokes 2 leave -1 loss -3 jolly 2 legal 1 lost -3 jovial 2 legally 1 lovable 3 joy 3 lenient 1 love 3 joyful 3 lethargic -2 loved 3 joyfully 3 lethargy -2 lovelies 3 joyless -2 liar -3 lovely 3 joyous 3 liars -3 loving 2 jubilant 3 libelous -2 lowest -1 jumpy -1 lied -2 loyal 3 justice 2 lifesaver 4 loyalty 3 justifiably 2 lighthearted 1 luck 3 justified 2 like 2 luckily 3 keen 1 liked 2 lucky 3 kill -3 likes 2 lugubrious -2 killed -3 limitation -1 lunatic -3 killing -3 limited -1 lunatics -3 kills -3 limits -1 lurk -1 kind 2 litigation -1 lurking -1 kinder 2 litigious -2 lurks -1 kiss 2 lively 2 mad -3 kudos 3 livid -2 maddening -3 lack -2 lmao 4 made-up -1 lackadaisical -2 lmfao 4 madly -3 lag -1 loathe -3 madness -3 lagged -2 loathed -3 mandatory -1 lagging -2 loathes -3 manipulated -1 lags -2 loathing -3 manipulating -1 258 manipulation -1 misreporting -2 murder -2 marvel 3 misrepresentation -2 murderer -2 marvelous 3 miss -2 murdering -3 marvels 3 missed -2 murderous -3 masterpiece 4 missing -2 murders -2 masterpieces 4 mistake -2 myth -1 matter 1 mistaken -2 n00b -2 matters 1 mistakes -2 naive -2 mature 2 mistaking -2 nasty -3 meaningful 2 misunderstand -2 natural 1 meaningless -2 misunderstanding -2 naïve -2 medal 3 misunderstands -2 needy -2 mediocrity -3 misunderstood -2 negative -2 meditative 1 moan -2 negativity -2 melancholy -2 moaned -2 neglect -2 menace -2 moaning -2 neglected -2 menaced -2 moans -2 neglecting -2 mercy 2 mock -2 neglects -2 merry 3 mocked -2 nerves -1 mess -2 mocking -2 nervous -2 messed -2 mocks -2 nervously -2 messing up -2 mongering -2 nice 3 methodical 2 monopolize -2 nifty 2 mindless -2 monopolized -2 niggas -5 miracle 4 monopolizes -2 nigger -5 mirth 3 monopolizing -2 no -1 mirthful 3 moody -1 no fun -3 mirthfully 3 mope -1 noble 2 misbehave -2 moping -1 noisy -1 misbehaved -2 moron -3 nonsense -2 misbehaves -2 motherfucker -5 noob -2 misbehaving -2 motherfucking -5 nosey -2 mischief -1 motivate 1 not a fan -3 mischiefs -1 motivated 2 not allowed -2 miserable -3 motivating 2 not excluded 2 misery -2 motivation 1 not funny -3 misgiving -2 mourn -2 not good -2 misinformation -2 mourned -2 not inclusive -2 misinformed -2 mournful -2 not a lot -2 misinterpreted -2 mourning -2 not enough -2 misleading -3 mourns -2 not interested -2 misread -1 mumpish -2 not working -3 259 notorious -2 overreacts -2 perpetrators -2 novel 2 oversell -2 perplexed -2 numb -1 overselling -2 persecute -2 nuts -3 oversells -2 persecuted -2 obliterate -2 oversimplification -2 persecutes -2 obliterated -2 oversimplified -2 persecuting -2 obnoxious -3 oversimplifies -2 perturbed -2 obscene -2 oversimplify -2 pesky -2 obsessed 2 overstatement -2 pessimism -2 obsolete -2 overstatements -2 pessimistic -2 obstacle -2 overwhelming -2 petrified -2 obstacles -2 overweight -1 phobic -2 obstinate -2 oxymoron -1 picturesque 2 odd -2 pain -2 pileup -1 offend -2 pained -2 pique -2 offended -2 panic -3 piqued -2 offender -2 panicked -3 piss -4 offending -2 panics -3 pissed -4 offends -2 paradise 3 pissing -3 offline -1 paradox -1 piteous -2 oks 2 pardon 2 pitied -1 ominous 3 pardoned 2 pity -2 once-in-a-lifetime 3 pardoning 2 playful 2 opportunities 2 pardons 2 pleasant 3 opportunity 2 parley -1 please 1 oppressed -2 passionate 2 pleased 3 oppressive -2 passive -1 pleasure 3 optimism 2 passively -1 poised -2 optimistic 2 pathetic -2 poison -2 optionless -2 pay -1 poisoned -2 outcry -2 peace 2 poisons -2 outmaneuvered -2 peaceful 2 pollute -2 outrage -3 peacefully 2 polluted -2 outraged -3 penalty -2 polluter -2 outreach 2 pensive -1 polluters -2 outstanding 5 perfect 3 pollutes -2 overjoyed 4 perfected 2 poor -2 overload -1 perfectly 3 poorer -2 overlooked -1 perfects 2 poorest -2 overreact -2 peril -2 popular 3 overreacted -2 perjury -3 positive 2 overreaction -2 perpetrator -2 positively 2 260 possessive -2 promote 1 rant -3 postpone -1 promoted 1 ranter -3 postponed -1 promotes 1 ranters -3 postpones -1 promoting 1 rants -3 postponing -1 propaganda -2 rape -4 poverty -1 prosecute -1 rapist -4 powerful 2 prosecuted -2 rapture 2 powerless -2 prosecutes -1 raptured 2 praise 3 prosecution -1 raptures 2 praised 3 prospect 1 rapturous 4 praises 3 prospects 1 rash -2 praising 3 prosperous 3 ratified 2 pray 1 protect 1 reach 1 praying 1 protected 1 reached 1 prays 1 protects 1 reaches 1 prblm -2 protest -2 reaching 1 prblms -2 protesters -2 reassure 1 prepared 1 protesting -2 reassured 1 pressure -1 protests -2 reassures 1 pressured -2 proud 2 reassuring 2 pretend -1 proudly 2 rebellion -2 pretending -1 provoke -1 recession -2 pretends -1 provoked -1 reckless -2 pretty 1 provokes -1 recommend 2 prevent -1 provoking -1 recommended 2 prevented -1 pseudoscience -3 recommends 2 preventing -1 punish -2 redeemed 2 prevents -1 punished -2 refuse -2 prick -5 punishes -2 refused -2 prison -2 punitive -2 refusing -2 prisoner -2 pushy -1 regret -2 prisoners -2 puzzled -2 regretful -2 privileged 2 quaking -2 regrets -2 proactive 2 questionable -2 regretted -2 problem -2 questioned -1 regretting -2 problems -2 questioning -1 reject -1 profiteer -2 racism -3 rejected -1 progress 2 racist -3 rejecting -1 prominent 2 racists -3 rejects -1 promise 1 rage -2 rejoice 4 promised 1 rageful -2 rejoiced 4 promises 1 rainy -1 rejoices 4 261 rejoicing 4 retarded -2 sad -2 relaxed 2 retreat -1 sadden -2 relentless -1 revenge -2 saddened -2 reliant 2 revengeful -2 sadly -2 relieve 1 revered 2 safe 1 relieved 2 revive 2 safely 1 relieves 1 revives 2 safety 1 relieving 2 reward 2 salient 1 relishing 2 rewarded 2 sappy -1 remarkable 2 rewarding 2 sarcastic -2 remorse -2 rewards 2 satisfied 2 repulse -1 rich 2 save 2 repulsed -2 ridicule -3 saved 2 rescue 2 ridiculous -3 scam -2 rescued 2 rig -1 scams -2 rescues 2 rigged -1 scandal -3 resentful -2 right direction 3 scandalous -3 resign -1 rigorous 3 scandals -3 resigned -1 rigorously 3 scapegoat -2 resigning -1 riled up -3 scapegoats -2 resigns -1 riot -2 scare -2 resolute 2 riots -2 scared -2 resolve 2 risk -2 scary -2 resolved 2 risks -2 sceptical -2 resolves 2 rob -2 scold -2 resolving 2 robber -2 scoop 3 respected 2 robed -2 scorn -2 responsible 2 robing -2 scornful -2 responsive 2 robs -2 scream -2 restful 2 robust 2 screamed -2 restless -2 rofl 4 screaming -2 restore 1 roflcopter 4 screams -2 restored 1 roflmao 4 screwed -2 restores 1 romance 2 screwed up -3 restoring 1 rotfl 4 scumbag -4 restrict -2 rotflmfao 4 secure 2 restricted -2 rotflol 4 secured 2 restricting -2 ruin -2 secures 2 restriction -2 ruined -2 sedition -2 restricts -2 ruining -2 seditious -2 retained -1 ruins -2 seduced -1 retard -2 sabotage -2 self-confident 2 262 self-deluded -2 sinful -3 solves 1 selfish -3 singleminded -2 solving 1 selfishness -3 skeptic -2 somber -2 sentence -2 skeptical -2 some kind 0 sentenced -2 skepticism -2 son-of-a-bitch -5 sentences -2 skeptics -2 soothe 3 sentencing -2 slam -2 soothed 3 serene 2 slash -2 soothing 3 severe -2 slashed -2 sophisticated 2 sexy 3 slashes -2 sore -1 shaky -2 slashing -2 sorrow -2 shame -2 slavery -3 sorrowful -2 shamed -2 sleazy -2 sorry -1 shameful -2 sleeplessness -2 soulless -2 share 1 slick 2 spam -2 shared 1 slicker 2 spammer -3 shares 1 slickest 2 spammers -3 shattered -2 sluggish -2 spamming -2 shit -4 slut -5 spark 1 shithead -4 smart 1 sparkle 3 shitty -3 smarter 2 sparkles 3 shock -2 smartest 2 sparkling 3 shocked -2 smear -2 speculative -2 shocking -2 smile 2 spirit 1 shocks -2 smiled 2 spirited 2 shoot -1 smiles 2 spiritless -2 short-sighted -2 smiling 2 spiteful -2 short-sightedness -2 smog -2 splendid 3 shortage -2 sneaky -1 sprightly 2 shortages -2 snub -2 squelched -1 shrew -4 snubbed -2 stab -2 shy -1 snubbing -2 stabbed -2 sick -2 snubs -2 stable 2 sigh -2 sobering 1 stabs -2 significance 1 solemn -1 stall -2 significant 1 solid 2 stalled -2 silencing -1 so little -2 stalling -2 silly -1 solidarity 2 stamina 2 sincere 2 solution 1 stampede -2 sincerely 2 solutions 1 startled -2 sincerest 2 solve 1 starve -2 sincerity 2 solved 1 starved -2 263 starves -2 struggling -2 suspend -1 starving -2 stubborn -2 suspended -1 steadfast 2 stuck -2 suspicious -2 steal -2 stunned -2 swear -2 steals -2 stunning 4 swearing -2 stereotype -2 stupid -2 swears -2 stereotyped -2 stupidly -2 sweet 2 stifled -1 suave 2 swift 2 stimulate 1 substantial 1 swiftly 2 stimulated 1 substantially 1 swindle -3 stimulates 1 subversive -2 swindles -3 stimulating 2 success 2 swindling -3 stingy -2 successful 3 sympathetic 2 stolen -2 suck -3 sympathy 2 stop -1 sucks -3 tard -2 stopped -1 suffer -2 tears -2 stopping -1 suffering -2 tender 2 stops -1 suffers -2 tense -2 stout 2 suicidal -2 tension -1 straight 1 suicide -2 terrible -3 strange -1 suing -2 terribly -3 strangely -1 sulking -2 terrific 4 strangled -2 sulky -2 terrified -3 strength 2 sullen -2 terror -3 strengthen 2 sunshine 2 terrorize -3 strengthened 2 super 3 terrorized -3 strengthening 2 superb 5 terrorizes -3 strengthens 2 superior 2 thank 2 stressed -2 support 2 thankful 2 stressor -2 supported 2 thanks 2 stressors -2 supporter 1 thorny -2 stricken -2 supporters 1 thoughtful 2 strike -1 supporting 1 thoughtless -2 strikers -2 supportive 2 threat -2 strikes -1 supports 2 threaten -2 strong 2 survived 2 threatened -2 stronger 2 surviving 2 threatening -2 strongest 2 survivor 2 threatens -2 struck -1 suspect -1 threats -2 struggle -2 suspected -1 thrilled 5 struggled -2 suspecting -1 thwart -2 struggles -2 suspects -1 thwarted -2 264 thwarting -2 troubles -2 unhealthy -2 thwarts -2 TRUE 2 unified 1 timid -2 trust 1 unimpressed -2 timorous -2 trusted 2 unintelligent -2 tired -2 tumor -2 united 1 tits -2 turned off -2 unjust -2 tolerant 2 twat -5 unlovable -2 toothless -2 ugly -3 unloved -2 top 2 unacceptable -2 unmatched 1 tops 2 unappreciated -2 unmotivated -2 torn -2 unapproved -2 upbeat 2 torture -4 unaware -2 unprofessional -2 tortured -4 unbelievable -1 unresearched -2 tortures -4 unbelieving -1 unsatisfied -2 torturing -4 unbiased 2 unsecured -2 totalitarian -2 uncertain -1 unsettled -1 totalitarianism -2 unclear -1 unsophisticated -2 tout -2 uncomfortable -2 unstable -2 touted -2 unconcerned -2 unstoppable 2 touting -2 unconfirmed -1 unsupported -2 touts -2 unconvinced -1 unsure -1 tragedy -2 uncredited -1 untarnished 2 tragic -2 undecided -1 unwanted -2 tranquil 2 underestimate -1 unwelcome -2 trap -1 underestimated -1 unworthy -2 trapped -2 underestimates -1 upset -2 trashy -2 underestimating -1 upsets -2 trauma -3 undermine -2 upsetting -2 traumatic -3 undermined -2 uptight -2 travesty -2 undermines -2 urgent -1 treason -3 undermining -2 useful 2 treasonous -3 undeserving -2 usefulness 2 treasure 2 undesirable -2 useless -2 treasures 2 uneasy -2 uselessness -2 trembling -2 unemployment -2 vague -2 tremulous -2 unequal -1 validate 1 tricked -2 unequaled 2 validated 1 trickery -2 unethical -2 validates 1 triumph 4 unfair -2 validating 1 triumphant 4 unfocused -2 verdict -1 trouble -2 unfulfilled -2 verdicts -1 troubled -2 unhappy -2 vested 1 265 vexation -2 warfare -2 won 3 vexing -2 warm 1 wonderful 4 vibrant 3 warmth 2 woo 3 vicious -2 warn -2 woohoo 3 victim -3 warned -2 wooo 4 victimize -3 warning -3 woow 4 victimized -3 warnings -3 worn -1 victimizes -3 warns -2 worried -3 victimizing -3 waste -1 worry -3 victims -3 wasted -2 worrying -3 vigilant 3 wasting -2 worse -3 vile -3 wavering -1 worsen -3 vindicate 2 weak -2 worsened -3 vindicated 2 weakness -2 worsening -3 vindicates 2 wealth 3 worsens -3 vindicating 2 wealthy 2 worshiped 3 violate -2 weary -2 worst -3 violated -2 weep -2 worth 2 violates -2 weeping -2 worthless -2 violating -2 weird -2 worthy 2 violence -3 welcome 2 wow 4 violent -3 welcomed 2 wowow 4 virtuous 2 welcomes 2 wowww 4 virulent -2 whimsical 1 wrathful -3 vision 1 whitewash -3 wreck -2 visionary 3 whore -4 wrong -2 visioning 1 wicked -2 wronged -2 visions 1 widowed -1 wtf -4 vitality 3 willingness 2 yeah 1 vitamin 1 win 4 yearning 1 vitriolic -3 winner 4 yeees 2 vivacious 3 winning 4 yes 1 vociferous -1 wins 4 youthful 2 vulnerability -2 winwin 3 yucky -2 vulnerable -2 wish 1 yummy 3 walkout -2 wishes 1 zealot -2 walkouts -2 wishing 1 zealots -2 wanker -3 withdrawal -3 zealous 2 want 1 woebegone -2 war -2 woeful -3 266 Appendix 15 – Identification of basic themes in websites included in the study After Brain Go Fug IFL Star Tom’s The Themes Autostraddle Femail Mamamia Taste TS14 Ellen Pickings Yourself Science Observer Hardware Age Masculinity Masculinity is X fragile Men are threatened by X ‘female’ activities Lived experience Support is not the same as X representation Invisibility of LGBTIQ lived X X experience Male users are used to being X X X explicitly catered for 267 Prioritisation of experiences comes from X within the community Pre-conceptions Unspecified or male-targeted designs are X X X viewed as genderless Female creator implicitly makes a site more X relatable to women Computer hardware is X viewed as a male activity 268 Pre-conceived meanings of words and X X X X images alter first impressions of sites Neutral designs are viewed as X female Site creators segregate content based on pre- X X conceptions of gender Perception of good design X changes based on market segment Portrayal of women and stereotypical views of women Idealistic or unrealistic views X X X of women’s bodies Female issues are X seen as failures 269 Women as a X X source of profit Women are judged and judge X X each other on appearance Women are expected to be X X interested in beauty / fashion Women are not expected to be X interested in world events Gendered advertising and X X X design for women Women are expected to be X X X mothers 270 Advertising Advertising is more noticeable X than design and content Body shaming can occur through X advertisements Over use of advertising can X X X impact first impressions Context is important in X X X placement of ads Non-gendered advertising can change the X X perception of a site in a positive way Advertising is X X X X X X disliked 271 Representation Only certain types of women’s X X bodies are shown Male voices are X prioritised User generated content is a strategy to counter lack of representation Lack of women on mainstream X X websites Representation through images and content is important (e.g. X X X X X invisibility of trans, intersex and lesbian users) Relatability and representation go X X X hand in hand 272 Audience LGBTIQ community, X focus on men Cis-gendered women, 20-40 X X X years Plus sized X women Computer users, X focus on men Older women X Women, lesbians and the wider X X LGBTIQ community Anyone interested in the X X subject matter Neutral, participants could X not define Exclusion Only certain X X X content is 273 appropriate for women Humour as a form of exclusion Neutral is read as inclusive by X normally excluded groups Motherhood is X exclusive Female targeted designs are X X X ‘other’ Design can be used to exclude X X X groups of users Inclusion Cis-gender is X X X assumed Heterosexuality X X X is assumed Assumptions Cis-gender is X X X assumed 274 Heterosexuality X X X is assumed Invisibility Exclusion leads X X to invisibility Invisibility of all non-hetero, non- X X white, non-male groups Lesbians are invisible in X mainstream media Invisibility of LGBTIQ/non- X X white women Inclusion Gender is not X assumed Inclusion leads to positive X X emotional responses Heterosexuality X X X X is not assumed 275 Use of appropriate language can X make exclusive topics inclusive Portrayal of LGBTIQs Representation of queer women occurs through X X X use of images and stories Even in dedicated media, X stereotypes prevail The gay male experience is X prioritised Within female LGBTIQ individuals, X lesbianism is seen as most important 276 Design Recognisable patterns influence first impressions X X X X X and emotional responses Gendered design can target X X specific groups Good design is X invisible Images without people are read as X neutral Secondary cues other than recognisable X X design patterns help participants categorise sites Long form, focused designs X are unique Recognisable X X X patterns aren’t 277 always markers of good design Representation is visible in design X X X X choices Website content Relevance dictates X X X X X emotional response Design is seen as secondary when X content is relevant Content 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