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Accepted Paper:
What is a woman? Ethnographic perspectives on uncertainty, trolling and far right metapolitics
Konstanze N'Guessan
(Mainz University)
Paper short abstract:
Building on ethnographic fieldwork among far right internet activists in Germany, my paper will look at different facets of the memefication of uncertainty in the debate about trans rights. I will specifically focus on post-digital modes of memetic communication and on humor in community making.
Paper long abstract:
In 2022 Matt Walsh's documentary "What is a woman?" was discussed vividly among far right internet activists in Germany. The question "what is a woman?" quickly turned into a meme expressing how far a supposedly "LGBTQ+ agenda" had pushed the boundaries of certainty. A little later, Bijan Tavassoli - member of the German party "Die Linke" - carried the question to the extremes when he posted his candidature as bearded woman and "transmuslima" in an attempt to troll trans rights activists with their own weapons. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among far right internet activists in Germany, my paper will look at different facets of the memefication of uncertainty in the debate about trans rights. I will specifically focus on post-digital modes of memetic communication and on humor in order to forge communities and deal with what was pereceived as the threatening uncertainty of contemporary gender debates.