Abstract
This paper examines how digital performances of blasphemy on platforms like YouTube and TikTok have become sites for community formation at the intersection of queer identity, religious critique, and cultural resistance. Focusing on content that stages the entanglement of gay sexuality with Christian imagery—from satirical TikToks to reenactments of passion plays in queer drag—the study explores how these performances transgress doctrinal limits while simultaneously constructing alternative sacred imaginaries. Rather than interpreting these expressions as mere provocations, the essay draws from media theory, religious studies, and queer critique to argue that blasphemy online functions as a kind of digital ritual: one that forges new forms of collective belonging, especially for users estranged from institutional religion but still deeply engaged with its symbols. These performative acts enable users to renegotiate inherited moral codes, often creating micro-communities where affect, irony, and shared trauma coalesce into new ethical spaces. this work shows how religious discourse is neither fixed nor confined to traditional institutions, but circulates across media in ways that challenge borders—geographic, doctrinal, and normative. Social media thus becomes a crucible for reimagining community through shared irreverence, where the sacred is not destroyed but reappropriated for visibility, healing, and protest.
Presenters
Alfonso Gómez-RossiTeacher, Education, Instituto Universitario Boulanger/UMIS, Puebla, Mexico
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Beyond Borders: The Role of the Humanities in Reimagining Communities
KEYWORDS
Blasphemy,Queer media,Digital ritual,religious imagery,Online communities
