Intersected ruralities: “campeiro” youth and narratives of self and other in social media

Abstract

This article presents current research on gender and identity among youth who take part in the campeiro cultural circuit in the Curitiba metropolitan area. We look specifically at the narratives that these youth formulate through use of social media, focusing on how they represent masculinity and femininity, sexuality and the body, consumption, cultural identities and leisure interests. Based on a study of young men and women and their Facebook profiles, linked to a broader project of ethnographic research, we argue that social media facilitate their participation in wider fields of discourse circulation, offering an opportunity and perhaps even encouraging them to express themselves in ways that partially disrupt conventional “traditionalist” patterns and ideals.