Date of Award

Spring 5-16-2014

Degree Type

Capstone Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies (BA)

Department

Cultural Studies

First Advisor

Carmelo Esterrich

Second Advisor

Robert Watkins

Third Advisor

Steven Corey

Abstract

Using Queer blogs found throughout American blogging networks, while drawing upon Marxism, Michel Foucault’s notions of confession and coming out, and Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, this project is a materialist analysis that unveils how Queer identities are being consumed and commodified. In contemporary American society a phenomenon is occurring online: Queer blogs are acting as a platform where subjectivities are attempting to resist hegemonic notions of identity while they are simultaneously being incorporated into a capitalistic agenda of subject formation. This project ultimately calls upon an act of resistance, as these Queer blogs are in fact a negotiable space for agency, even though that very resistance is being incorporated into hegemonic discourses. Ultimately, Queer subjects should become aware of this kind of commodification as to prevent any further exploitation that these acts of blogging may cause upon an already oppressed identity.

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