“Something a bit more personal”: Digital storytelling and intimacy among queer Black women

Abstract

Coming-out stories are important cultural texts wherein individuals articulate and interpret experiences of identifying as sexual minorities. Yet, much of the extant literature on coming-out stories examines narratives by white, middle-class gay men and lesbians. Critical inquiry into coming-out stories told by privileged queer subjects points to the formulaic and normative characteristics of their narratives, where sexual difference is downplayed or challenged. The goal of this article, then, is to ask whether and how coming-out narratives told by queer Black women conform to or depart from the “coming-out formula story.” Using an intersectional approach to narrative analysis, this article investigates the performative and discursive strategies that 50 women use in telling their coming-out stories on YouTube. Findings show that queer Black women’s use of intimate candor—the performative and discursive strategy of publicly revealing interior, often sexually explicit, aspects of the self—is a means through which women center desire and queerness; articulate a vision of queer Black womanhood; and complicate the coming-out formula.

Digital Safe Spaces and Self-Definition: Black British Women’s Confessional Vlogs

“…Their self-disclosure also consists of the processing of feelings, demonstrated by the tension of recording a video to discuss their thoughts, while sharing that they aren't yet sure of exactly how they feel about their emotions.Altogether, the findings in this study contribute new knowledge to the study of vlogs, YouTube, and the relationship between technology and society. Existing literature found vlogs were strategies of self-expression(Raun 2012;Werner 2012;Talvitie-Lamberg 2014;Gibson 2016;Phelps-Ward and Laura 2016;de Cerquiera Lana 2017;Sobande 2017;Berryman and Kavka 2018;Neil and Mbilishaka 2019;Adams-Santos 2020;Balleys et al 2020;Perrine 2020), as did this study.…”

“I Can be Unapologetically Who I Am”: A Study of Friendship Among Black Undergraduate Women at PWIs

“…In addition, the coding team had to reach a consensus on inclusion and exclusion criteria for “friendship.” Ultimately, we chose to exclude some forms of intimate relationships and social interactions that the women discussed in their interviews (e.g., complimenting other Black women in local, public places as not qualifying as friendship, queer Black women describing the overlap between their friendships and their intimate and sexual partnerships, and familial relationships with sisters and cousins as friendships). A critical area of future research is to consider the broader ecologies of Black women’s relationships with other Black women, including queer theorizations of intimacy and pleasure (Adams-Santos, 2020), the prosocial benefits of casual encounters with other Black women, and the importance of friendship among Black familial sisters (Soli et al, 2009).…”

Queering the Map: Stories of love, loss and (be)longing within a digital cartographic archive

“…Given the lack of user profiles on the platform, our analysis is limited in terms of the intersections of place, race, gender, culture, class and age in the articulation of queer experience (c.f. Adams-Santos, 2020;Carlson, 2020;Cho, 2018;Rodriguez, 2014). Future research that foregrounds users' accounts of posting, reading, and interacting with stories will likely elicit important insights into the affective participation and reception of audiences to storymapping, including normativities and/in forms of intimacy and belonging and the political or emancipatory potential of stories therein (Poletti,…”