Shamelessly cute: Understanding gender ambiguous identity performances via 'The Desi Bombshell' Snapchat video selfies
Dados Bibliográficos
AUTOR(ES) | |
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ANO | Não informado |
TIPO | Artigo |
PERIÓDICO | First Monday |
ISSN | 1396-0466 |
E-ISSN | 1396-0466 |
EDITORA | University of Illinois |
DOI | 10.5210/fm.v26i4.11677 |
CITAÇÕES | 1 |
ADICIONADO EM | 2025-08-18 |
Resumo
Indigenous Pakistani transgenders — khwaja sira — employ gender ambiguous identity performances as a resistance tactic against politics of shame. This article explores how a tactical performance of a gender ambiguous identity portrayed via Snapchat's cute animal lenses can subvert the culture of gendered shaming. Drawing on two feminist resistance tactics: performative shamelessness and weaponized/agentic cuteness, I investigate how Snapchat's animal lenses can be used to achieve a subversive effect as identified in the case of 'The Desi Bombshell' — a fictive online persona. Through close reading and content analysis of 'Desi Bombshell' video selfies, I propose the concept of shamelessly cute. I argue that a shamelessly cute, gender ambiguous performance is a novel resistance tactic on social media as it explicitly displays a clumsy, Snapchat enabled identity, while implicitly it challenges the Pakistani politics of shame from within its culture by reworking indigenous practices and gestures.