THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE CONSTRUCTION AND TRANSFORMATION OF GENDER IDENTITIES

Abstract

The article presents a theoretical analysis of the impact of digital platforms and social media on the construction and transformation of gender identities in contemporary society. Drawing on a synthesis of queer theory, Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity, theories of mediatization, and post-structuralist approaches to identity, it examines the mechanisms through which online environments become spaces of extended gender performativity. It is demonstrated that digital performativity is no longer confined to bodily repetition but unfolds through hybrid techno-body configurations. Particular attention is devoted to the specificity of digital self-presentation practices (visual filters, multiple accounts, textual markers, AR effects) on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter/X as technologies that enable the creation of gender-fluid and non-binary identities. The phenomenon of the “digital avatar” is explored as a permanent rather than episodic play with gender codes. The ambivalence of social media is analysed: on the one hand, they broaden the gender spectrum and grant visibility to marginalised identities; on the other, they generate new forms of normalisation through algorithmic regulation, the commercialisation of non-binarity, and the aestheticisation of “acceptable” forms of queerness. It is argued that recommendation algorithms produce “gender bubbles” that simultaneously amplify and marginalise particular identities. The role of platform capitalism in transforming gender activism into branded performance is examined separately, alongside the resistive potential of digital subcultures against hegemonic gender narratives. The concept of “algorithmic citationality” is developed as a novel mechanism of gender disciplining. It is theoretically substantiated that multiple profiles and “finstas” (fake Instagrams) function as contemporary analogues of Michel Foucault’s heterotopias, in which the binary gender order can be temporarily suspended. The connection between posthumanist theory (R. Braidotti, K. Hayles) and the possibility of a cyber-gender hybrid that transcends anthropocentric embodiment is revealed. The notion of “authenticity” of gender identity is critically reconsidered under conditions of constant mediatised editability of the self. In conclusion, it is argued that the digital sphere operates simultaneously as an emancipatory and disciplinary space, necessitating a critical rethinking of traditional concepts of authenticity, embodiment, and gender stability. The necessity of developing a new ontology of gender that accounts for nonlinearity, distributedness, and algorithmic mediation of contemporary identity is emphasised. Directions for further theoretical elaboration of gender identity in the context of platformised publicness, algorithmic governance of visibility, and post-human embodiment are proposed.