1,721,032 research outputs found
LGBTQ youth cultures and social media
No full textResearch has established that access to the Internet and social media is vital for many lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer + (LGBTQ+) young people. LGBTQ+ social media youth cultures form across platforms and are shaped by a range of media affordances and vernaculars. LGBTQ+ youth use social media for self-expression, connecting with other LGBTQ+ young people, entertainment, activism, and collecting and curating information. Through a digital cultural studies approach, the essay discusses themes of LGBTQ+ youth identity work, communities and networked publics, and youth voice to explore how digital and social media imaginaries and practices produce new forms of socialites. It situates LGBTQ+ youth social media practices in relation to the affective economy and algorithmic exclusion of platforms, as well as in relation to neoliberal paradigms of gender and sexuality and homotolerance
A Queer Tension:The Difficult Comedy of Hannah Gadsby’s: Nanette
Full text linkThis article concerns itself with feminist comedy that is deemed angry and difficult in an era of postfeminism. Hannah Gadsby’s Netflix show Nanette Live can be described as difficult because it is politically challenging, emotionally demanding and disrupts the established format of stand-up comedy. Yet it has had critical and commercial success. Nanette challenges the underpinning assumption of postfeminism: that feminism is no longer needed. It is feminist and angry. To explore the phenomenon of angry feminist comedy in the postfeminist era, the article considers the comedy of Gadsby through the figure of the feminist killjoy, coined by Sarah Ahmed, to reflect how the killjoy and the queer art of failing offer forms of political ‘sabotage’, that subvert comedy as masculinist popular culture
Social realism and the paranormal in Scandinavian fiction
No full textThis chapter discusses the style of ‘paranormal social realism’ by situating two contemporary Scandinavian popular novels in relation to current critical debates on the paranormal in popular culture, and the Swedish tradition of proletarian, social realist literature. In a reading of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 vampire thriller Let the Right One In alongside the young adult novel The Circle by Sara Elfgren and Mats Strandberg (2011) – two texts that take as their central concern a critique of the enduring myths of the welfare state – the chapter explores how paranormal themes are employed to engage with the politics of the everyday, and the often poorly documented experiences of marginalised or precarious lives from within the realm of popular culture. It argues that the particular combination of witchcraft and psi abilities in The Circle and vampire lore in Let the Right One In– mixed with a distinctly realist tradition – makes these texts stand out as examples of an emerging new style of the popular paranormal
Global Queer and Feminist Activism:An Introduction
No full textQueer and feminist visual activism has various origins across the globe and has emerged in a fluid cultural field of visual arts, popular culture, and protest aesthetics. Given the current context of gender backlash, these forms of activism have become urgent, and so too has scholarship that engages with global queer and feminist visual activism. In this special issue, we engage with the richness of activist aesthetics at theintersections of popular culture, subculture, art and activism, and other forms of visual political communication, not by attempting to contain these manifestations, but by offering a set of navigational tools. We conceive of three primary forms of queer and feminist visual practice – protest, process and product – each with its own histories and epistemologies. Each of these forms offers the capacity for resistance and collaboration. By opening up cross- and inter-disciplinary perspectives, and conversations across diverse global contexts, struggles and possibilities, we aim to expand on existing scholarship both geographically and conceptually. A central motivation for this work has been to think beyond the image; to be able to capture and engage with the activist communities (and the activism) behind and alongside theimage and produced through the image. Taking the notion of social practice as an integral part of the ‘process’ of visual activism, we identify three emerging themes across the articles in this special issue: refusal, care, and thriving
Trans youth and social media: moving between counterpublics and the wider web
Full text linkToday’s trans youth grew up with the internet and online LGBTQ resources and spaces are important to these communities. This article focuses on conceptualising the digital cultural strategies that trans and gender questioning youth adopt both as social media users and producers in order to cope and thrive. Drawing on ethnographic data detailing a group of trans youth’s engagements with LGBTQ social media counterpublics and the wider web, and their movement between these spheres, in combination with close readings of online material identified as salient by the participants, this article argues that in the face of rampant transphobia and cis coded online paradigms, trans youth respond both critically and creatively. More specifically, I highlight how they resist prescribed user protocols of mainstream social networking sites as well as employ pragmatic strategies for navigating a binary gendered online world, staking out their own methods and aesthetics for self expression and community formation. Having examined the content and style of social media examples highlighted by the participants, the article contends that trans youth’s consumption and production of types of online and social media is significantly more diverse than research to date has recognised
“Having an unfair advantage” vs “playing by the rules”: media discourses of trans women’s participation in the Olympics
No full textThis study reviews UK news media discourses surrounding New Zealand’s weightlifter Laurel Hubbard’s participation in the 2020 Olympics as the first ever publicly open transgender woman to compete at the Olympic Games. Discourse Analysis of 94 news and opinion articles published in the UK press before and after the Olympics, reveals contradictory portrayals of Hubbard as both having an unfair biological advantage and playing by the rules. While these discursive constructions appear contradictory on the surface, both draw on wider cisgenderist discourses to produce and police normative understandings of gender. We argue that sports media is a heightened site for the production of gendered bodies (in sport and in general), contributing to the production of ignorance around trans people, and influencing policy debates around the topic of trans inclusion
Liveability, environment and policy: reflections on trans student experience of entering UK higher education
No full textThis article examines the intersection of lived experience and equality policy in UK Higher Education (HE), focusing on trans students’ experiences of planning for and applying to University. The research is based on participatory research with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer / questioning (LGBTQ+) youth project in Brighton, UK. We frame the relationship between trans identities and equalities in education in terms of liveability. The article contributes to gender and education research by foregrounding the experience of trans students on the cusp of entering HE, illustrating how they navigate challenges around environment, bureaucracy and policy
‘Our pier’: leisure activities and local communities at the British seaside
No full textThe seaside resort has long held a distinctive position within the history of British leisure. Its peculiar physicality whereby the natural landscape of sea and sand combines with distinctive architectural elements, such as pavilions and piers, has accommodated many and varied leisure activities across the years. However, to date, the majority of research on British coastal resorts considers these activities solely in connection with tourism. Using a combination of contextual archival research, participant observations, semi-structured interviews and oral history narratives, this article attempts a deliberate shift in focus where the leisure activities of a young local population are brought to the fore in the history of British seaside entertainment and, in particular, their experiences of pleasure piers in the post-war era. The article also explores the potential for the concept of the ‘community pier’ in terms of nurturing seaside leisure cultures in the present and future
LGBTQ+ visual activism
No full textThis chapter sketches an overview of how LGBTQ visual activism has emerged in a fluid cultural field of visual arts and popular culture, as they intersect with politics. Queer resistance and activism aimed at bringing social and cultural change has mobilised visual resources and expressions in influential and prevailing ways. In contemporary digital culture, new visual languages for activist expression and campaigning have also emerged. This includes examples from across meme culture, originating in subcultural re-mix practices and counterpublics, to lifestyle and celebrity inspired vlogging, and sophisticated marketing imbued civil rights campaigning.Visual activism is a political struggle over presence, over visibility, through which LGBTQ identities are discursively constructed and maintained. We argue that there are four broad and often intersecting forms of LGBTQ visual activist practice – protest, partying, process, and product. All of these forms mobilise the visual image to provoke, support and sustain struggles for political change. In two case studies, from different contexts we sketch out some of central contours of LGBTQ visual activism in the current digital era.Our first case study explores the work of South African performance duo – FAKA – aka Desire Marea and Fela Gucci, who emerged in both clubbing and online spaces in 2015 with their unique contributions to fashion and music. FAKA went on, through their self-styled ‘siyakaka feminism’, to establish a ‘cultural movement’; a spiritual home ‘for the queer, the trans, the non-conforming, the female and the black’.Our second case study, in contrast, considers the US based organisation Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Facebook equal marriage logo meme that emerged in early 2013. This campaign for same sex marriage rights is situated in the intersection of digital activism and marketing strategies, based on creative and strong visual communication, and is arguably illustrative of western ‘mainstream’ LGBTQ activism in neoliberal times. <br/
'There’s a brand new dance': fashion in English men’s and women’s professional football
No full textThis article explores the intricate and evolving relationship between English football, its male and female professional players, and the fashion industries from the inter-war years of the last century to the present day. Following an historical overview that engages with traditional understandings of classed masculinity, the article argues that some of the most significant aspects of the contemporary football and fashion relationship can be uncovered by exploring the game’s dynamic relationships with race and gender. Additionally, the article illuminates the contrasting roles of social media, with digital platforms and social media sites both allowing players to express their styles and create brands, and influencing production and content in relation to neoliberal and gendered economies. The article combines approaches from cultural studies, fashion studies, media studies, history and sociology, and uses key examples both from within football itself and from selected print and digital sources from the fashion industries
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