Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the online personae of three urban South African queer performance artists. It argues that the construction and performance of these online identities are locally specific iterations outside of homonormative and universalizing narratives of globalized “queerness”.

Paper long abstract:

Instagram has provided a space for the promulgation of niche queer interests and subcultures. This social medium can be seen as a significant mode of queer subcultural consumption and production. This online platform encourages the construction of various queer identities and practices - albeit in hyperreal form. This paper examines the online activities of three gender non-conforming and queer performance artists from Johannesburg, South Africa. It examines online Instagram posts by Umlilo (vocal artist), BlackPearl Leeroy Alexis Kubeka (drag female impersonator) and Kieron Jina (dancer). It analyses the online constructions of each artists' persona, and their urban queer aesthetics. This paper discusses the nuanced, and sometimes overlapping, ways through which critical questions about "queerness", race, sexuality, gender, class, cosmopolitanism and urbanity are explored on these artists' Instagram pages. It undertakes a discourse analysis of their photographic images, online discussions, as well as their responses from interviews about their desires, tastes, ideas, and artistic performances. Moreover, this paper posits that their aesthetics provide an alternative to homonormative representations about queer subjectivity and identity construction.