Spanish gay male subjectivity, body, intimacy, and affect on Instagram

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19005611
AutoresAdrián Gras-Velázquez (0000-0002-7678-7765, Smith College, autor correspondente), Antoni Maestre Brotons (0000-0002-1469-2947, University of Alicante), Antoni Maestre-Brotons (University of Alicante)
Ano2021
Volume26
Fascículo3
Páginas331-353
Data de publicação2021-07-15
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSexualities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/13634607211031418
OpenAlexW3186877834
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas34

This article analyzes how a neoliberal understanding of identity shapes gay subjectivity, body, affect, and intimacy in digital environments, particularly Instagram. This social media has become one of the most relevant elements of gay subculture in Western countries, including Spain. Neoliberalism usually reduces gayness to a sort of global marketable brand which is understood as an individual attribute rather than a collective identity that provides common ground to fight for LGBT rights and against homophobia. Drawing on previous research on online self-representation and gay subjectivity, we specifically explore this global pattern in Spanish gay users of Instagram. To this end, we examine posts containing the tag #gaySpain uploaded between April and May 2020. In general, our research shows that the profiles tend to provide narratives of successful personal self-engineering and self-promotion, rather than activism and collective empowerment. These narratives present the gay body as a commercial product or something to be admired and consumed, whilst affect is part of an online highly ritualized performance and communication, and by no means a force for social change. As part of self-representation in social media, intimacy is constructed on Instagram for a large audience as an attractive example of a thriving gay life; in simple terms, Instagram has become gay show business like other manifestations of this subculture such as the Pride march

Aesthetics · Narrative · Political science · Pride · Queer · Social media · Sociology · Subjectivity · Transgender · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

Ferramentas

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