Linn da Quebrada and The Performative Engagements with Digital Media: A Sociological Analysis of a Gender Dissident Artistic Trajectory

Abstract:

The article analyzes the use of digital media by Linn da Quebrada, a dissident artist in terms of gender, sexuality, race, and social class. Linn identifies herself as “bixa”, black, sometimes transvestite, sometimes transsexual and “da quebrada”, having gained some media visibility from the publication of audiovisual productions on YouTube. The methodological approach consisted of wandering digital ethnography, in which we walked through the relationship flows created by the artist from the use of YouTube, in 2016 and 2017, in order to reflect on the performative engagements, she adopted on digital platforms. We also demonstrate how the emergence of the artist comes from the problematization of gender and sexuality norms, at the moment of intensifying the political debate about them in the country and the consolidation of a highly segmented media configuration in a digital society.

Keywords:
Linn da Quebrada; Performative Engagements; Digital Media; Gender; Sexuality