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“So Close, yet So Far”: Exploring Sexual-minority Women’s Relationship-building via Online Dating in China

Published: 29 April 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Sexual-minority women (SMWs) in China are often subject to strong stigmatization and tend to have limited opportunities to connect with other SMWs in offline contexts. Although dating apps help them connect and seek social support, little is known about SMWs’ practices of self-disclosure and connection-building through those apps. To address this gap, we interviewed 43 SMW dating-app users in China. We found that these SMWs developed distinctive self-disclosure strategies, such as posting non-facial photos and implicitly disclosing their whereabouts by blending location information into photos that only those in the know could understand, to avoid interference from aggressive acquaintances and other risks of unintentional disclosure of their SMW identities. Moreover, they used dating apps not only to recognize other SMWs offline and build relationships with them, but to exchange emotional support in the process of SMW identity development. Our findings have design implications for supporting SMWs and improving their online dating experiences.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2022
    10459 pages
    ISBN:9781450391573
    DOI:10.1145/3491102
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    Published: 29 April 2022

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    1. Online Dating
    2. Relationship Building
    3. Sexual-minority Women

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    April 29 - May 5, 2022
    LA, New Orleans, USA

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