Description / Abstract
The talk offered a critical reflection on the relationship between media, gender, and sexuality, with particular attention to the role of digital cultures in shaping identities, relationships, and contemporary imaginaries. The first part of the session focused on defining some key concepts — including sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexuality, and sexual orientation — in order to provide theoretical and linguistic tools useful for understanding the complexity of lived experiences and media representations.
Building on this framework, the talk explored how digital platforms contributed to making issues related to gender and sexuality visible, while also shaping and at times polarising them. Examples drawn from influencer cultures, online self-representation practices, and the languages of digital pop culture were discussed, alongside more controversial spaces such as the manosphere, where discourses around masculinity, relationships, power, and gender inequalities took shape. The aim was to show how media were not simply tools of representation, but social and cultural environments in which identities, norms, and conflicts were continuously produced, negotiated, and contested.
