Abstract
Literacy practices are defined as what one does with literacy: events in which literacies are actively engaged toward particular goal. One such purposes is that of identity performance: using one’s literacy practices to display identity and/or group affiliation or to build and strengthen social ties. Through New Literacy and Queer Theory frameworks, this essay examines this sort of literacy practice — identity performance — through the case of members of a specific counterpublic (Warner, 2002), in the arena of Twitter. The often stigmatized counterpublic in question is the furry fandom, a group defined by their shared affinity for anthropomorphized animal characters. This essay explores and describes their identity performance literacy practices, discusses those practices that are most common or most potent, offers explanations for why certain practices are more or less common, discusses the interactions between these practices and the counterpublic’s stigmatization, and proposes future study regarding furry literacies and the group’s status as a counterpublic.
Keywords: identity, identity performance, literacy practices, counterpublics, The New Literacies, Queer Theory, furries, Twitter
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