Abstract
Are there safe spaces for the construction of online communities with diverse gender identities and sexual desires? What makes some online spaces safer than others? And for whom? Does the architecture of these spaces influence the ways in which users navigate the Internet? We conducted a digital ethnography on a social media platform oriented towards the Spanish-speaking crossdresser community. Our analysis suggests that this platform acts as a digital counterpublic, as it allows users to inhabit a safe environment for self-expression, building support networks, organizing as a collective, and articulating their sexual intimacies. In addition, we found that the concept of online safety should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with the feminist perspective, where online safety is always construed in a situated manner and conceives the subjects of study as active agents involved in the definition of the concept itself. The research process raised ethical questions of great relevance, suggesting that the same factors to be considered when conducting research in digital platforms should be contemplated when designing and navigating online safe spaces. We thus propose that, both in carrying out online qualitative research and in the construction of online safe spaces, the following aspects should be taken into consideration: the implications of the privacy settings offered by the platform, the vulnerability of the users that populate it, the sensitivity of the topics covered by the platform’s community, and an ongoing negotiation and reaffirmation of consent in the utilization of the users’ personal data.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Crossdressing, Digital ethnography, Digital counterpublics, Ethics, Online safety, Affordances
