Digital Black Feminist Activism: Aesthetic and Sexual-Affective Politics

Abstract

Black activism has gained strength on the Internet since 2010 with a marked presence of young women activists. An expression of the newest social movements, the vocabulary and practice of these collectives focus mainly on aesthetics, romantic and sexual relationships, as well as representation and empowerment. In this article, we analyze this new face of digital Black feminist activism in Brazil, based on analyses of blogposts on the Blogueiras Negras site, and interactions in the Facebook group Afrodengo. We conclude that while adhering to individualizing postulates aligned with the neoliberal perspective, digital Black feminist activism contributes to the politicization of subjectivity.