Social Justice Warriors: LGBTQIA Tumblr Blogger Identity Construction

Abigail Oakley

PhD Student, Writing, Rhetorics, and Literacies

Arizona State University

@laughternstrife

Tumblr as a Distinct Discursive Space

• Blogging platform
• Dissimilar from sites such as Wordpress and Blogger
• A junction of SNSs and blogging
• Hashtags as organizers and commentary vehicles
• Place for marginalized groups

Tumblr as a Distinct Discursive Space

Social Justice Warriors:

• “A term that bigots use to insult people who don't like their bigotry - someone who fights against discrimination and hatred, annoying people who like to discriminate and to hate” (“Social Justice Warrior,” n.d.).
• “an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation” (“Social Justice Warrior,” n.d.).

Social Justice Warrior buttons by Sarah Dixon @chiparoo

Bathroom stall graffiti on Arizona State University Campus (Oakley, 2014).

Tumblr as a Distinct Discursive Space

Educational LGBTQIA blogs:

• Focus on nonbinary genders and sexualities (NBG&S)
• Public identification & exploration of blogger’s gender/sexuality
• Seek to educate their audience about NBG&S
• Not necessarily education-focused

Online Identity Construction

Commentary on the subject:

• Bargh et al. (2002) suggest anonymity allows users to express themselves in ways unavailable in face to face (F2F) social interactions (p. 35).
• Nancy Baym (2010) finds that “reduced social cues make it easier to lie, but separation, time lags, and sparse cues also remove social pressures that make lying seem a good idea” (p. 116).
• Katrin Tiidenberg (2013) argues “that a sex blog allows people to type themselves into being in a more open and layered way than, perhaps, some other form of non-sexualised social media participation” (p. 179).
• Yee et al. (2007) find that even when people are represented by digital avatars in an online game, they are still “governed by the same social norms as social interactions in the physical world” (p. 119).

Online Identity Construction

• Internet users provide a more complete sense of self (Bargh et al. 2002; Tiidenberg, 2013).
• Bargh et al. (2002) argue this is because of the “Strangers on the train effect” (p. 35).
• “True self” v “actual self”

Tumblr Identity Construction

• Identity construction is something that happens within the Tumblr community and often in a very positive way.
• Identity construction establishes a Tumblr blogger’s ethos.
• In order to be seen as a legitimate source of information on this topic, Tumblr bloggers must establish their identities as a firm and active member of the LGBTQIA community.
• This establishment is not a singular act or a goal to be achieved, but rather something that must be consistently maintained.
• Tumblr bloggers do this in a variety of ways, but they most visibly reify their identities through response to Tumblr asks.

Sexuality does not follow from gender in the sense that what gender you “are” determines what kind of sexuality you will “have.” We try to speak in ordinary ways about these matters, stating our gender, disclosing our sexuality, but we are, quite inadvertently, caught up in ontological thickets and epistemological quandaries. Am I a gender after all? And do I “have” a sexuality?

Judith Butler, 2004, Undoing Gender

References

• Bargh, J.A. & McKenna, K. Y. A. (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 573-90. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141922
• Baym, N. K. (2010). Personal connections in the digital age. Malden: Polity Press.
• Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. New York: Routledge.
• Social justice warrior. (n.d.) Retrieved October 17, 2014, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=social%20justice%20warrior
• Tiidenberg, K. (2013). How does online experience inform our sense of self? NSFW blogger identity narratives. In A. A. Allaste (Ed.), Back in the west: Changing lifestyles in transforming societies (pp. 177-202). New York: Peter Lang GmbH.
• Yee, N. Bailenson, J. N., Urbanek, M, Chang, F., & Merget, D. (2007). The unbearable likeness of being digital: The persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(1). 115-121. doi: 10.1089/cpb.2006.9984

Abigail Oakley

Arizona State University

ahoakley@asu.edu

@laughternstrife