Building upon platform-swinging, this study introduces the concept of identity-driven “group-swinging” within a single platform, focusing on how users with multiple minority identities strategically curate corresponding identities through this process. Collecting all created and engaged posts (n = 31,084) from 102 lesbian gamers in both lesbian gamer and female gamer groups, this research utilizes structural topic modeling to delineate their productive and consumptive curation across different groups. The results indicate that lesbian gamers often prioritize discussions on women and queer issues within the female gamer community while presenting a more gamer-centric identity in the lesbian gamer community. Group-swinging emerges as an optimal strategy for exploring a balance between belongingness and distinctiveness, enabling lesbian gamers to navigate their multiple minority identities effectively. This study enriches the understanding of identity curation and optimal distinctiveness theory, offering plausible strategies for the online resilience of marginalized groups within the polymedia context.
BatesAHobmanTBellBT (2020) “Let me do what I please with it . . . don’t decide my identity for me”: LGBTQ+ youth experiences of social media in narrative identity development. Journal of Adolescent Research35(1): 51–83.
2.
BealFM (2008) Double jeopardy: To be black and female. Meridians8(2): 166–176.
3.
BleiDM (2012) Probabilistic topic models. Communications of the ACM55(4): 77–84.
4.
BrewerMB (1999) Multiple identities and identity transition: Implications for Hong Kong. International Journal of Intercultural Relations23(2): 187–197.
5.
BrewerMBHoH-KLeeJ-Y, et al (1987) Social identity and social distance among Hong Kong schoolchildren. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin13(2): 156–165.
6.
BussJLeHHaimsonOL (2022) Transgender identity management across social media platforms. Media, Culture & Society44(1): 22–38.
7.
ChurchEMThambusamyR (2022) Game-swinging on Twitch: An affordances perspective. Electronic Markets32(3): 1677–1689.
8.
CoteAC (2018) Writing “gamers”: The gendered construction of gamer identity in Nintendo Power (1994–1999). Games and Culture13(5): 479–503.
9.
DavisJL (2017) Curation: A theoretical treatment. Information, Communication & Society20(5): 770–783.
10.
DavisK (2012) Tensions of identity in a networked era: Young people’s perspectives on the risks and rewards of online self-expression. New Media & Society14(4): 634–651.
11.
DeniseEJ (2012) Multiple forms of perceived discrimination and health among adolescents and young adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior53(2): 199–214.
12.
DeniseEJ (2014) Multiple disadvantaged statuses and health: The role of multiple forms of discrimination. Journal of Health and Social Behavior55(1): 3–19.
13.
DerousERyanAMNguyenH-HD (2012) Multiple categorization in resume screening: Examining effects on hiring discrimination against Arab applicants in field and lab settings. Journal of Organizational Behavior33(4): 544–570.
14.
DongCDingYDuanC (2020) Social media as polymedia environment: Platform allocation and acculturation of Chinese overseas students. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication42(7): 74–95.
15.
GarnettBRMasynKEAustinSB, et al (2014) The intersectionality of discrimination attributes and bullying among youth: An applied latent class analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence43(8): 1225–1239.
16.
GleasonP (1991) Minorities (almost) all: The minority concept in American social thought. American Quarterly43(3): 392–424.
17.
HanEL (2023) GitHub as a collaborative curation platform for memory projects of COVID-19 in China. Information, Communication & Society26(2): 340–355.
18.
HanckelBVivienneSByronP, et al (2019) “That’s not necessarily for them”: LGBTIQ+ young people, social media platform affordances and identity curation. Media, Culture & Society41(8): 1261–1278.
19.
HarrisEBardeyAC (2019) Do Instagram profiles accurately portray personality? An investigation into idealized online self-presentation. Frontiers in Psychology10.
20.
HornseyMJJettenJ (2004) The individual within the group: Balancing the need to belong with the need to be different. Personality and Social Psychology Review8(3): 248–264.
21.
HuangYLiuTChenY (2023) The (unlocated) in-game gender performativity in contemporary China: Exploring gender swapping practices in the online game sphere. Feminist Media Studies: 1–18.
22.
KaakinenMSirolaASavolainenI, et al (2020) Shared identity and shared information in social media: Development and validation of the identity bubble reinforcement scale. Media Psychology23(1). Routledge: 25–51.
23.
KangSKBodenhausenGV (2015) Multiple identities in social perception and interaction: Challenges and opportunities. Annual Review of Psychology66: 547–574.
24.
KarapanosETeixeiraPGouveiaR (2016) Need fulfillment and experiences on social media: A case on Facebook and WhatsApp. Computers in Human Behavior55: 888–897.
25.
KingDK (1988) Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a black feminist ideology. Signs14(1): 42–72.
26.
LearyMRBaumeisterRF (1995) The need to belong. Psychological Bulletin117(3): 497–529.
27.
LeonardelliGJBrewerMB (2001) Minority and majority discrimination: When and why. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology37(6): 468–485.
28.
LeonardelliGJLoydDL (2016) Optimal distinctiveness signals membership trust. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin42(7): 843–854.
29.
LeonardelliGJPickettCLBrewerMB (2010) Optimal distinctiveness theory: A framework for social identity, social cognition, and intergroup relations. In: ZannaMPOlsonJM (eds) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. New York, NY: Academic Press, pp. 63–113. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065260110430026 (accessed 14 November 2023).
30.
LiuTLaiZ (2022) From non-player characters to othered participants: Chinese women’s gaming experience in the “free” digital market. Information, Communication & Society25(3): 376–394.
31.
LuoZLiM (2022) Participatory censorship: How online fandom community facilitates authoritarian rule. New Media & Society26(7): 4236–4254.
32.
LynchTTompkinsJEvan DrielII, et al (2016) Sexy, strong, and secondary: A content analysis of female characters in video games across 31 years. Journal of Communication66(4): 564–584.
33.
MadianouM (2014) Smartphones as polymedia. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication19(3): 667–680.
34.
MadianouM (2016) Ambient co-presence: Transnational family practices in polymedia environments. Global Networks16(2): 183–201.
35.
MadianouMMillerD (2011) Mobile phone parenting: Reconfiguring relationships between Filipina migrant mothers and their left-behind children. New Media & Society13(3): 457–470.
36.
MadianouMMillerD (2013) Polymedia: Towards a new theory of digital media in interpersonal communication. International Journal of Cultural Studies16(2): 169–187.
37.
McCluneyCLRabeloVC (2019) Conditions of visibility: An intersectional examination of Black women’s belongingness and distinctiveness at work. Journal of Vocational Behavior113: 143–152.
38.
MillerDCostaEHaynesN, et al (2016) How the World Changed Social Media. London, UK: UCL Press. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69z35 (accessed 11 December 2023).
PakC (2019) News organizations’ selective link sharing as gatekeeping: a structural topic model approach. Computational Communication Research1(1): 45–78.
42.
RobertsMEStewartBMTingleyD (2019) Stm: An R Package for Structural Topic Models. Journal of Statistical Software91: 1–40.
43.
RubergB (2022) Trans game studies.Journal of Cinema and Media Studies61(2): 200–205.
44.
SettlesIHBuchananNT (2014) Multiple groups, multiple identities, and intersectionality. In: Benet-MartínezVHongY-Y (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 160–180.
45.
ShawA (2009) Putting the gay in games: Cultural production and GLBT content in video games. Games and Culture4(3): 228–253.
46.
SpearsR (2011) Group identities: The social identity perspective. In: SchwartzSJLuyckxKVignolesVL (eds) Handbook of Identity Theory and Research. New York, NY: Springer, pp. 201–224. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-7988-9_9.
47.
SpearsRJettenJScheepersD (2002) Distinctiveness and the definition of collective self: A tripartite model. In: TesserAStapelDAWoodJV (eds) Self and Motivation: Emerging Psychological Perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 147–171.
48.
SteinbergM (2020) LINE as Super App: Platformization in East Asia. Social Media + Society6(2).
49.
TandocECJrLouCMinVLH (2019) Platform-swinging in a poly-social-media context: How and why users navigate multiple social media platforms. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication24(1): 21–35.
50.
ThomaBCHuebnerDM (2013) Health consequences of racist and antigay discrimination for multiple minority adolescents. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology19(4): 404–413.
51.
WittebornS (2021) Data privacy and displacement: A cultural approach. Journal of Refugee Studies34(2): 2291–2307.
52.
ZhangZMuHHuangS (2023) Playing to save sisters: How female gaming communities foster social support within different cultural contexts. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media67(5): 693–713.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
