Mexican queer influencers: corporeal-emotional social reconfigurations

Abstract Purpose The proliferation of queer influencers is framed in various phenomena that connect celebrity culture, digital psychopolitics and historical LGBTIQ+ movements, resulting in what we can call a post-reality. This study analyzes the tensions of bodies/emotions that arise from the visibility of queer influencers in Mexico in terms of representation and subjectivation of the sex/gender system, comparing visual narratives and political positionings or the lack of these in a necropolitical context for the LGBTIQ+ community. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive approach was carried out to have a overview of the diversity of profiles, and subsequently the mediabiography methodology was applied to a case study, with the selection of texts and digital images on an analytical model of three axes: corporality, emotionality and visuality. Findings The presence of Mexican queer influencers reconfigures dominant gender narratives and opens possible scenarios to recognize non-hegemonic corporalities and corporal practices. The content they generate articulates counter-narratives, counter-visualities and counter-emotionalities, such as pride in the face of shame, and anger in the face of the neoliberal depoliticization of pride. Practical implications Queer Studies guide the enactment of public policies that recognize the rights of sex/gender diversity. Mediabiography opens creative avenues for the study of contemporary visual narratives on social media. Social implications Counter-narratives, counter-visualities and counter-emotionalities legitimize the dignified existence of corporalities systematically and historically marginalized by the dominant gender model, and de-hierarchize life. Originality/value This is the first study that uses mediabiography for the analysis of visual narratives on social media. It contributes to new discussions for Communication Studies, Queer Studies and the Sociology of Bodies and Emotions.