Aesthetics of identities: on the politics around representations in the digital age

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the politics of Brazilian identity that emerge from an incessant playing on the media , in which sociopolitical causes are fused with aesthetic options offered by the talking faces of influencers and design elements on social media platforms .In this sense, politics merges with aesthetics, transforming the way citizenship education is guided, especially among young people and adolescents. Starting from classic discussions about identities and aesthetics understood as political potential, we will observe how these phenomena appear the digital world. To do so, we use as a case study, two examples related to the LGBTQIA+ Community in Brazil: Rita Von Hunty and Erika Hilton. As a result, we observed that the aestheticization of identities, despite being a contemporary phenomenon typical of the visuality of the analyzed digital environments, can also claim spaces of power in which the image plays a significant role.

Keywords
aesthetics; social media; identity politics; LGBTQIA+