Performances políticas feministas no ambiente de rede social online do Instagram do coletivo Vote Nelas

Abstract

This thesis aimed to study how feminist performances are constructed within the political context of the social network Instagram, specifically on the @votenelas profile, as effects of their linguistic performativities. Theoretically and analytically, this investigation is configured as an interdisciplinary study (Moita Lopes, 2006), since I use the notion of performativity of language (Austin, 1962; Butler, [1997] 2021) to explore how words not only communicate meanings but also act and have effects in the social world. Furthermore, the indexicality, as outlined by Bauman and Briggs ([1990] 2006), Silverstein (2009), and Blommaert (2010), is fundamental for understanding how linguistic elements relate to specific social contexts and how these elements index identities, power relations, and linguistic ideologies (Gal and Irvine, 2019) to investigate the beliefs and values that permeate language use. For this purpose, the methodology of intersectional debate was adopted (Collins and Bilge, 2021), considering the intersection of diverse elements evoked in social network texts. The data analyzed were drawn from online media texts published on the Instagram profile of the Vote Nelas collective, from the municipal electoral campaign period of 2020 through 2022, which includes state and federal electoral campaigns. The dynamism of digital communication plays a fundamental role, as women employ language as a decisive tool for engagement and resistance in virtual spheres. The social media profile has used online tools as a space of resistance to foster women's participation in the national political arena. In this space, they exchange experiences, communicate the topics they propose to debate, identify obstacles, shed light on normalized events, reveal how the marginalization of gender manifests in the political environment, and offer insights for understanding forms of resistance within the political field.