Swiping into risk and reward: dating apps, digital leisure, and feminism in the uneven terrain of technological intimacy

Dating apps have become central to contemporary digital leisure, functioning as immersive environments where intimacy, pleasure, and safety are negotiated across digital and embodied contexts. Drawing on feminist theory, post-humanist perspectives, and narrative inquiry, this study examines how these platformed leisure spaces shape sexual objectification, safety, and agency. Interviews with 48 diverse Canadian users reveal a complex leisurescape shaped by image-centred design, rapid sexualization, and emotional and safety labour, particularly for women and gender-diverse participants. Users navigate spaces where pleasure and harm coexist, requiring vigilance, boundary-setting, and resistance. Practices such as blocking, reporting, and strategic self-presentation demonstrate meaningful but constrained agency shaped by platform affordances, gendered norms, and broader systems of power. This paper advances a feminist, social justice perspective on equitable participation in digital leisure.