A1 Journal article – refereed
Stigma Avoidance through Visual Contextualization: Adult Toy Play on Photo Sharing Social Media
List of Authors: Heljakka Katriina, Harviainen J. Tuomas, Suominen Jaakko
Publisher: Sage
Publication year: 2017
Journal: New Media and Society
Abstract
While the benefits of play have been widely recognized, carrying out
activities with toys at adult age is still often seen as stigmatizing
behaviour. Some adults solve this issue by referring to their toy
activities as either hobbies or collecting. Yet, the primary purpose of
toys is play. People may therefore utilize their toys for new kinds of
play. One popular decision is the utilization of toys in photographs and
videos aiming at personalization and storytelling on social media.
Using eight interviews, we point out that this visual contextualization
of play ties into not only the adults’ sublimation of their desires to
use their toys but also to threads of cultural history in which
sublimated or substituted artistic uses have been found for objects.
Finally, we show that this activity too is a form of play, made possible
by the existence of photo-sharing sites like Flickr and Instagram.