Carefully Unmaking the “Marginalized User:” A Diffractive Analysis of a Gay Online Community

Abstract

HCI scholars are increasingly engaging in research about “marginalized groups,” such as LGBTQ+ people. While normative habitual readings of marginalized people in HCI often highlight real problems, this work has been criticized for flattening heterogeneous experiences and overemphasizing harms. Some have advocated for expanding how we approach research on marginalized people (e.g., assets-based design, the everyday, and joy). Sensitized by unmaking literature, we explore this tension between conditions, experiences, and representations of marginality in HCI scholarship. To do so, we perform a diffractive analysis of posts in a gay online community by bringing two readings of the same data together: a normative habitual reading of marginalization and an expanded reading. By examining the relationship between empirical material and its representations by HCI researchers, we explore how to carefully unmake HCI research, thus maintaining and repairing our research community. We discuss the political and designerly implications of different readings of marginalized people and offer considerations for attending to the processes and afterlives of HCI research.