The Colors and Pains of the LGBTQIA+ Community: a dialogical analysis of the hypertextualization of sexual and gender militance in facebook posts

Abstract

Bakhtin and his Circle, in the last century, evidenced the responsibility of ideology, subjectivation and history in the formation of the self and the other, reasoning the fields of possibilities that comprise them. These theorists took language as a hegemonic factor for the achievement of autonomy on the part of the subject, when they claimed that it acted as a regulator of social relations. In the 21st century, the new digital media, added to the popularization of the internet, have promoted increases in the uses of language, which generate a heterogeneity in the way in which one (inter)acts in specific social contexts. An example of this is the virtualization of social networks, which become, in cyberspace, groups for sharing information through multimodal resources, expanding the possibilities of human communication, as they break through temporal/spatial/linguistic barriers, which have always influenced dialogue. This virtualization of networks raises discussions on assorted topics, which provides opportunities for socio-political-ideological debates that clarify agendas considered social taboos, such as the LGBTQIA+ agenda. Nowadays, there is progress in the debate on issues related to sexual and gender diversity, especially with “online activism”, but there are also abundant opinions on the cause based on ultra-conservative values, which feeds the distilled hatred to this population, which is still the victim of discrimination of all kinds. That said, it is verified, in this work, the LGBTQIA+ discourse in the digital interface Facebook, most used social networking site in the world. Thus, the objective of this work was to investigate dialogism and the strategies of hypertextualization of statements and, consequently, of discourses used in Facebook posts to materialize the writing of LGBTQIA+ militancy and (non)fulfillment of interactional objectives. For this, it was based on the theories of Bakhtin (2015, 2016), Voloshinov (2018) and Xavier (2000, 2002, 2009, 2013, 2015) and observed four posts and their comments. It was found that, among the hypertextualization strategies of LGBTQIA+ discourses most used in Facebook posts to achieve interactional goals, are: 1) the use of written language to express a point of view in favor of LGBTQIA+ militancy; 2) highlighting statements based on their visual layout; 3) use of citations; 4) use of screenshots in the construction of the post; 5) work with elements that give the Facebook user the possibility to search for the original publication; and 6) use of background colors related to the LGBTQIA+ movement. In addition, the data revealed that the dialogic relationships that the subjects establish with a Facebook post on the LGBTQIA+ theme materialize their socio-historical and political-ideological positions, being influenced by the idiosyncrasies of the (mis)matches that a post can promote. In this space, the listener becomes a speaker and expects a return from his utterance. In addition to dialoguing with the other members of the enunciative scene, the subject also interacts with the theme in its social dimension, accompanied by the many social voices that circulate in the digital environment in which Facebook publications are located. It was also concluded that future investigations can uncover other points about this interface so popular and so useful to society: much has already been said, but there is still much to be done.