I have a new journal article published based on my AoIR2018 talk, and with thanks to Jude Elund for shepherding this half Special Issue.

Abidin, Crystal. 2019. “Yes Homo: Gay Influencers, Homonormativity, and Queerbaiting on YouTube.” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 33(5): 614-629 <Paywalled | pdf>

(please use the paywalled link if you have institutional access)

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The article offers a more graduated and extended cycle of coming out narratives for queer Influencers on YouTube who sit at the intersection of queer publics and microcelebrity publics. Using Cover & Prosser’s (2013) narrative cycle as a skeleton (in the left column), I indicate the differentiated and graduated stages queer Influencers display through self-reflexivity and self-branding techniques in the digital age (in the right column).

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Building towards the concept of ‘Queerbaiting on YouTube’, the article maps out three strategies by queer and gay Influencers on YouTube that are triangulated to support their microcelebrity and their standing in their marginalized communities.

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The introduction to our half Special Issue by Jude Elund is here, and the collection also features papers from Rob Cover, Panizza Allmark, and Irfan Wahyudi.