Abstract
his article examines the evolving relationship between media, gender, sexuality, and digital technologies, offering a comprehensive overview of the main theoretical and empirical developments in the field of feminist media and digital studies. The paper retraces the historical trajectory of research on gender and media, from early analyses of stereotypes, ideology, and pornography to contemporary debates surrounding platform society, mobile applications, and algorithmic governance.
The paper explores how digital media have transformed the representation, negotiation, and performance of gender identities and sexualities. It revisits early cyberfeminist perspectives that interpreted the internet as a space of liberation and identity fluidity, while also discussing more recent scholarship that highlights how online interactions remain deeply shaped by offline inequalities, social norms, and power relations. Particular attention is devoted to mobile media and social platforms, which increasingly mediate intimacy, self-presentation, dating practices, health communication, and sexual expression.
The article further adopts the framework of the “social shaping of technology” to argue that digital platforms simultaneously reproduce hegemonic gender norms and create opportunities for resistance, experimentation, and the construction of alternative identities. Mobile applications and platform economies are discussed as key sites where gendered affordances, algorithmic systems, and platform governance influence users’ everyday experiences and social practices.
