Digital spaces, material traces: How matter comes to matter in online performances of gender, sexuality and embodiment

Abstract

This article argues that in order to cultivate a more thorough understanding of how gender, sexuality and embodiment come to ‘matter’ in digital environments, it is necessary to reconsider the notion of the virtual as it relates to everyday reality, in addition to rethinking the digital in relation to our common conception of materiality. To develop such an understanding, the discussion is organized around three sections. The first section addresses the notion of ‘virtuality’ by arguing that empirical inquiries into new media cultures should expand their conception of the ‘virtual’ beyond its common associations with digitally mediated environments, in order to properly recognize the materiality of everyday digital practices. The second section focuses on how ‘virtual’ performances of gender, sexuality and embodiment become materialized in digital space. Finally, the third section addresses gender performance and embodied memory in relation to the archival properties of internet platforms that feature user-generated content. It is concluded that that the virtual plays a constitutive role in the materialization of gender, sexuality and embodiment in both digital and physical spaces. Rather than approaching digitally virtual images in terms of disembodied information and signification, we should continue to ask how they in- form and are in- formed by the volatile and intractable matter of gender, sexuality and embodiment.