From homophobic hate speech to lgbtqia+ resistance: an analysis of messages published on social networks

Abstract

Social networks represent an important instrument of communication and interactivity between individuals, reducing emotional distances and enabling contact with a multitude of speeches and information, which can contribute to harmonious coexistence in society or cause discriminatory and violent behavior among subjects. Within this perspective, this work aims to analyze some messages, published on Facebook and Twitter, so that we can verify the probable homophobic and resistance speeches, propagated in these virtual spaces referring to the LGBTQIA + theme. Our case study is based on the reflections of Borrillo (2016), Furlani (2008), Valadares and Almeida (2018), among others, so that we can understand the likely impacts, negative and / or positive, of such messages on the coexistence and respect to gender differences and sexual affective orientations. We adopted as a hypothesis the premise that social networks constitute one of the spaces with a high rate of discrimination against different expressions of sexuality, as a result of the physical distance between oppressor and oppressed, the possibility of anonymity or fake user profile and the probable type of education sexuality by which individuals were educated. In the course of the analysis, we will ratify the assumption that in part of the messages analyzed there is a strong speech of a homotransphobic character in social networks rooted in a moral-traditionalist and radical-religious sexual education. Thus, we hope that this reflection will contribute to a change in behavior among the subjects, leading them to assume a more empathic posture, respecting the different expressions of gender and affective-sexual orientations, in the various spaces of social, virtual or physical coexistence.