Killing in the Name of Love : A visual analysis of the reproduction of gendered and sexualised subjectivities in social media posts on the 2023-2025 Gaza war

Many actors have taken to social media to voice their support for, or condemn, the current war in Gaza. Interestingly, many posts on social media focus on women’s and queer rights in Palestine-Israel. This thesis explores how gendered and sexualised subjectivities are reproduced on social media as part of narratives justifying, and counternarratives condemning, Israel’s war in Gaza. A review of the literature on ‘homonationalism’ and ‘pinkwashing’ highlights how marginalised subjectivities can be employed by states to justify war but also reveals a debate over how this should be understood with regards to Palestine-Israel. This thesis takes a queer of colour approach and analyses how gendered and sexualised subjectivities are reproduced to uphold power structures, as well as how queer Palestinians can ‘disidentify’ with and subvert these power structures. Visuals are gathered from Instagram and X and coded using ATLAS.ti 24.2.1. A feminist visual narrative analysis is applied to these visuals, revealing that racialised, gendered, and sexualised subjectivities are reproduced on social media as part of narratives justifying Israel’s war to international audiences. However, social media also provides queer Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists opportunities to subvert dominant narratives and challenge the oppressive structures of Zionism, heteropatriarchy, and neoliberalism. Given the brutality of the war in Gaza, it is vital that we understand and reject the appropriation of minority rights on social media to justify genocide.