High-school stories and semiotic bodies: autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) in the cultural field

Abstract In dialogue with Sigmund Freud, D. W. Winnicott, Stuart Hall and Julia Kristeva, this article examines ASMR as phenomena, representational form and modality of performance. Through a close analysis of the high-school subgenre, it is argued that affect and storytelling are interlaced, re-presenting the ASMRtist as actor and performer, and demonstrating the interdependence of semiotic and symbolic dimensions of content. Themed videos presenting the ‘toxic best friend’ and the ‘girl who is obsessed with you’ (re)inscribe sensuality on feminine bodies, producing a form of ‘killjoy’ queering irreducible to a specific sexual identity. The subgenre creates a reiterative scene in which adolescent experience is traced on the body as sensory, sensual, and intimate.