Belonging, responsibility and reflexivity: mediated intimacy among Finnish nonbinary and trans social media users

Abstract

Platforms are essential spaces for gender and sexual minorities to develop identities and build connections. However, even though social media activism has itself been a recurrent unit of analysis, less is known about the ways in which the everyday use of social media facilitates political agency as a form of subjectivity. This article examines the experiences of Finnish nonbinary and trans social media users through a conceptual focus on mediated intimacy. The conceptualisation sheds light on how divergent discourses and institutional sites interweave private and public domains through media, influencing subjectivity. An unstructured diary interview method is utilised to understand the participants’ specific experiences and guide the participants to a better awareness of the feelings sparked by daily media use. Three modes of political subjectivity— belonging, responsibility and reflexivity—are identified. These modes are used to discuss how non-cisgender users navigate their experiences in data-driven media. Emphasis is placed on how the processes of reflecting on one’s gender identity often involves the broader political milieu.