Abstract: In this work, we explore the relationship between affect and the use of aesthetics by feminist digital activists to communicate their ideas and protest against sexual violence. Our focus, therefore, lies on the visual culture of digital protest. We consider visual artefacts a visual repertoire of protest (Jenzen et al., 2020, p. 420) that can both be articulated in a specific local context whilst simultaneously echoing global sentiments. In this paper, we analyse the visual repertoire of protest of Spanish feminist digital activism against sexual violence. To do so, we analysed 696 visual artefacts linked to the hashtag #HermanaYoSíTeCreo (#SisterIDoBelieveYou) shared on Twitter between May 1, 2018, and August 31, 2020. Our methodological framework incorporates a collaborative triangled analysis based on social semiotics (Ledin & Machin, 2018; Van Leeuwen, 2005), socio-hermeneutic analysis (Knoblauch & Schnettler, 2012; Serrano Pascual & Zurdo Alaguero, 2010), hashtag ethnography (Bonilla & Rose, 2015), and interpretative thick description (Geertz, 1973, pp. 3–30). Additionally, we also developed an ethnographic sensibility towards the corpus, which engaged us in a constant dialogue to overcome the positivist trend of data-driven visual digital analysis. Our work here addresses the understanding of how visual discourses can create the affective unification of social media users (Stage, 2013) as a key feature of feminist politics and online activism (Keller et al., 2018). We analysed the use of visual artefacts by the "virtual" community of sisterhood and concluded that these processes served as a basis for (a) establishing distinctive while versatile visual branding; (b) weaving an affective community; (c) articulating the desire to connect and to gather through love, hope, outrage and disgust; and (d) linking past and present as well as geographically distant feminist struggles.
Resumo: Neste trabalho, exploramos a relação entre o afeto e o uso que ativistas feministas digitais fazem da estética para comunicar as suas ideias e protestar contra a violência sexual. Assim, o nosso foco incide sobre a cultura visual do protesto digital. Entendemos os artefactos visuais como um repertório visual de protesto (Jenzen et al., 2020, p. 420) que pode ser articulado num contexto local específico e, simultaneamente, ecoar sentimentos globais. Neste artigo, analisamos o repertório visual de protesto do ativismo digital feminista espanhol contra a violência sexual. Para tal, foram analisados 696 artefactos visuais associados ao hashtag #HermanaYoSíTeCreo (#IrmãEuAcreditoEmTi) partilhado no Twitter entre 1 de maio de 2018 e 31 de agosto de 2020. O nosso quadro metodológico incorpora uma análise triangular colaborativa baseada na semiótica social (Ledin & Machin, 2018; Van Leeuwen, 2005), na análise sócio-hermenêutica (Knoblauch & Schnettler, 2012; Serrano Pascual & Zurdo Alaguero, 2010), na etnografia hashtag (Bonilla & Rose, 2015) e na descrição densa interpretativa (Geertz, 1973, pp. 3–30). Desenvolvemos ainda uma sensibilidade etnográfica em relação ao corpus, o que nos envolveu num diálogo constante para superar a tendência positivista da análise visual digital a partir de dados.