Abstract Online dating has become central to modern relationship formation, yet research has predominantly focused on heterosexual users. Queer women’s experiences remain underexplored despite their unique navigation of heteronormative platforms and multiple intersecting identity categories. Understanding how queer women construct and negotiate identity within digital dating spaces has important implications for psychological scholarship on identity development, digital self-presentation, and sexual minority mental health. We explored how Australian queer women navigated dating apps in terms of self-construction and self-conceptualisation, contexts that inherently shape identity through profile construction while presenting unique experiences and challenges. Adopting an exploratory qualitative design guided by social constructionist epistemology, we drew on queer theory, Butler’s performativity theory, and Goffman’s impression management framework. Eleven participants who identified as queer women and had used dating apps within the past six months completed a demographic survey and semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were constructed: using queer symbols to signal community membership; performing for multiple gazes in profile construction; self-judgement around representing the ‘right’ image of queerness and navigating authenticity while attracting desired matches. These themes revealed the complex intersections of queerness, womanhood, and femininity within dating app contexts. Findings extend Butler’s performativity theory and Goffman’s impression management framework by demonstrating how digital platforms create unique conditions for both performing and disrupting heteronormative scripts, while revealing psychological costs of constant identity negotiation within surveilled digital spaces. Our research contributes to understanding how dating app architectures shape queer women’s identity development and mental health, highlighting the need for platforms that better support authentic self-expression and digital infrastructure specifically curated for queer women’s embodied, agentic dating practices.
Dating apps simultaneously offer queer women unprecedented access to community while embedding the very structures that marginalise them into every swipe, every profile category, and every algorithmic decision.
interviews describe perceived marginalisation but do not directly identify interface or algorithmic effects
Four themes were constructed: using queer symbols to signal community membership; performing for multiple gazes in profile construction; self-judgement around representing the ‘right’ image of queerness and navigating authenticity
thematic accounts are illustrated, but the compressed Abstract enumeration leaves the four-part structure less explicit
stratified performative labour requires simultaneously performing gender, sexuality, desirability, and authenticity according to contradictory scripts, a qualitatively different experience than heterosexual women's or queer men's digital identity work.
the non-comparative interview design cannot establish differences from heterosexual women or queer men
Derived from the full evaluation — not a separate score.
Strengths
The Methods explain coding, thematic mapping, supervisory dialogue, reflexive journaling, and the lead researcher’s insider/outsider position. These details make the analytic approach assessable.
↳ Method, Researcher positionality; Data analysis; Methodological integrity
The Findings ground queer signalling, competing gazes, self-judgement, and authenticity negotiation in multiple participant accounts. Fig. 1 clarifies how these dimensions intersect.
↳ Findings; Fig. 1
The discussion connects the accounts to visibility management and minority stress, while Implications identifies platform designers and mental-health practitioners as potential users.
↳ Discussion; Implications
Limitations
The Discussion introduces resource depletion, identity fragmentation, and performative overwhelm beyond what the displayed excerpts establish. Platform and algorithmic mechanisms were not directly investigated.
↳ Discussion, Queer codes and layered impression management; Performing for multiple gazes; Authenticity negotiation and platform-mediated minority stress
The paper limits its findings to transferability in similar contexts but concludes that the processes are unique to queer women and distinct from other groups. No comparison groups were studied.
↳ Discussion, synthesis paragraph; Limitations and future research directions; Conclusion
Queer coding, femme and bisexual invisibility, visibility management, and authenticity tensions are already documented in the cited literature. The new synthesis does not establish the stronger theoretical extension claimed.
↳ Introduction; The present study; Discussion
The Methods provide a documented reflexive approach, and the Findings offer credible accounts of queer signalling, self-judgement, and authenticity negotiation. The main constraint is the transition from those accounts to additional psychological constructs and claims about platform architectures that were not directly examined. Broad engagement with prior scholarship does not resolve the conflict between the stated transferability limit and conclusions asserting group-specific uniqueness. Practical relevance is visible, but the proposed design and clinical responses remain untested.
Nabu’s assessment, alongside the field’s view.
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Limited2.9
Confidence mediumThe Australian accounts add situated detail and integrate queer coding, gaze, and authenticity negotiation. Substantial overlap with cited scholarship and unestablished psychological mechanisms limit the claimed advance.
Recruitment, interviewing, reflexive analysis, positionality, and information power are documented. The score is constrained by the insufficient excerpt-level grounding of additional Discussion constructs, not by sample size or single-researcher coding alone.
The four-theme structure and conceptual map make the empirical account followable. Central Abstract and Conclusion wording converts reported experiences into stronger assertions about platform-produced psychological consequences.
The paper engages relevant queer digital-dating and identity literature and states sample boundaries. Claims of group-specific uniqueness nevertheless contradict the stated transferability limit and lack comparative evidence.
Caveats4 of 4 checks
The reported numbers and statistics are consistent with the stated results.
The reported cisgender-only scope is not reflected in the stated eligibility criteria or displayed demographic table. Ethics, consent, competing interests, and confidentiality-based data withholding are declared.
Conflict of interest: declared · Ethics approval: declared · Data availability: not stated
66 references in manuscript 60 of 60 checkable references found in an index 6 have no canonical index record — counted, but not index-checkable 3 references confirmed by manual review
References not verified automatically are resolved manually within 24 hours.
No retraction or expression of concern found in Crossref (includes Retraction Watch).
Sources: Crossref (incl. Retraction Watch) ✓
Where this paper’s evidence sits on the path from initial observation to real-world use.
The study proposes design and clinical directions but does not co-design, prototype, pilot, or test them. Readiness therefore remains exploratory.
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