Gender in binary structures: The role of digital communication for the negotiation, participation and representation of diversity

Abstract

“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” was the caption of a 1993 cartoon showing two dogs at a computer. The drawing has since become emblematic of the early promise of the Internet: a space where social differences might become invisible. Behind eve ry username, one could be anyone — or no one in particular. Online, people were able to slip into avatars, reinvent themselves in chatrooms, or experiment with alternative identities in digital games and virtual worlds (e.g . Turkle, 1997). For marginalized groups, this carried the hope of escaping social categories that had disadvantaged them or even led to discrimination against them in offline contexts. Yet, the digital sphere has never been a neutral ground. From its early years, usage and access of digital technologies have differed strongly by many social categories such as age, gender, race, education, and class.