The Internet and the Intimate: Gender, Sexuality, and the Body Online

What does intimacy look like when mediated by screens, algorithms, and data? How do we love, relate, and see ourselves in the digital age? This course examines the intersections of digital cultures and gender, sexuality, embodiment, and human connection. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks from digital sociology, gender studies, and media theory, these questions may be explored through topics such asthe manosphere, dating apps, deepfakes, filters and body dysmorphia, chatbot romances, and commodification of the body. Students will critically analyze emerging technologies that promise solutions to human loneliness while potentially creating new forms of isolation, surveillance, and harm.