The Power of Naming Brazilian Feminist Anti-racist Intellectuals in Digital Platforms

Abstract

This article examines the practice of naming anti-racist women intellectuals as a form of feminist digital activism in Brazil, in tweets referencing Carolina Maria de Jesus and Lélia González. The analysis combines the tools of feminist decolonial digital humanities, intellectual history and what has been called “distant reading”, in order to study the act of naming as a set of techno-discursive practices. It addresses the transnational circulation of tweets, hashtag emergence and relevance, users most frequently mentioned and the topics with greater traction in social networks. The main conclusion is that digital practices of naming Brazilian anti-racist feminist intellectuals on Twitter are powerful tools for creating and mobilising social meanings that: (1) subvert global and intellectual canons and hierarchies; 2) take advantage of the technical possibilities of digital platforms, but instead of privileging advertising and self-promotion, they go against platform determinism and stress an egalitarian logic; and (3) form and maintain collective identities and solidify counterpublics.