LGBT-phobic discourse in the cyberspace of the the interior of Pernambuco, Brazil: discrimination and resistance

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Danuzio Weliton Gomes da
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Castro, Gustavo Henrique Carvalho de, Siqueira, Marcus Vinicius Soares
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Em Questão (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/EmQuestao/article/view/101386
• topic: Blog; Sertão pernambucano; LGBTfobia; Análise foucaultiana do discurso.; Blog. Pernambuco. LGBT-phobia. Foucauldian discourse analysis.

This study discusses how LGBT issues have been the subject of comments on blogs and how, as such, they have elicited both oppressive discourses and at the same time resistant counterdiscourses that raise the visibility of non-normative gender identities and sexualities. The study used Foucauldian discourse analysis to investigate, on two blogs from the interior of the northern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, virtual interactions that reflected those power relations. Discourses preaching traditional Christian values, discourses emphasizing biology over cultural and social issues and discourses seeking to enforce heterosexuality were found to be influential. On the other hand, the exercise of resistance exhibited less hypocritical behavior and supported the inclusion of LGBT intelligibility in these discursive orders. The findings of the study show blogs as means of communication in which discourses are increasingly put to the service of particular interests; furthermore, they also highlight the importance of social media comments to the perpetuation of conservative values, as well as their social and political repercussions.