Caring for yourself and caring for your partner? The discursive legitimization of infidelity on dating platforms
2026-03-25
Infidelity in intimate relationships is widely perceived as “wrong” and related to relationship problems. At the same time, dedicated dating platforms are explicitly aimed at enabling and facilitating infidelity or affairs. Against this background, this study explores how five such platforms discursively legitimize infidelity. Based on a discourse analysis, I argue that infidelity is presented as a technology of (1) self-care, (2) relationship care, (3) belonging, (4) honesty, and (5) progressiveness. Through these framings, the platforms both draw upon and dissolve structural tensions of contemporary romantic love, intimacy, and relationships that individuals must navigate. By examining infidelity as a particularly contested object, I explore how the platform economy offers strategies for the legitimization and commodification of non-normative forms of intimacy and what these discursive formations reveal about the current intimacy zeitgeist.