Paper short abstract:

This paper has two goals. The first is to reveal the gendered and stereotypical arguments that online dating studies mainly have put forward. The second goal is to propose a non-representational methodology for studying dating apps to challenge these arguments.

Paper long abstract:

Based on a critical literature review, this paper aims to make a feminist intervention to online dating studies that mainly generate gendered and stereotypical arguments. Following dominantly quantitative research methods, the existing literature insists on two arguments. First, women use online dating technologies for seeking love whereas men use them for hookup even though the majority of e-daters use such apps for hookup. Second and in relation to the first, men prioritize physical appearance while women tend to value socio-economic

status in mate selection because women, as mostly economically dependent, must think of future income potential despite that women have become more economically independent. To avoid the beauty-status and love-sex dualisms, this paper puts an emphasis on the conceptual difference between affect and emotion and suggests a non-representational methodology which concentrates on affective atmospheres. It argues that decisions, thoughts, and actions regarding mate selection are not simply already socially constructed, but they are very much influenced by affective atmospheres, hence they are given in action. To understand this

thought-in-action process, the non-representational methodology encourages scholars to engage with audio-visual materials, sensuous descriptions, and creative writing.