Queer Selfies and the Shifting Landscapes of Queer Space
Arts
HAVC 190S
This essay contextualizes the popularization of the use of digital spaces for social connection within the history of neoliberalism’s impact on urban space. The loss of free and accessible space impacts everyone and holds particular significance for marginalized and disenfranchised communities who solely rely on those spaces to find life sustaining connections. Focusing on the selfies of L.A. based queer instagrammers Ynez (@crucifixmachine) and Carlos (@lobotimizeacop) and several interviews of young queers living throughout California, I will show how queer creatives and their followers are using social media as a tool for political resistance and survival within our increasingly privatized world.
