Affective aesthetization of politics and politicization of aesthetics in TikTok feminist activism: A case study from the Global South

This paper examines how TikTok is engendering new forms of feminist digital activism through a case study from the Global South. Centering on the hashtag #NiUnaMenos, we explore how users mobilize affect and aesthetic practices to protest feminicide, harnessing audiovisual performance, viral trends, and participatory remix culture. The study identifies a dual dynamic: the aestheticization of politics, whereby political content becomes emotionally resonant and visually compelling within the platform’s cultural logic, and the politicization of aesthetics, in which beauty culture is reconfigured as a tool of resistance. By foregrounding the intersection of affect, embodiment, and mediated visibility, this paper conceptualizes TikTok activism as a form of affective politics rooted in play and self-expression. Ultimately, it contributes to critical understandings of how feminist politics are enacted, circulated, and reimagined within contemporary digital culture.