Abstract
When the term ‘content creator’ began to gain popularity in the early 2000s, with the rise of social media and user-generated content, platforms like YouTube (launched in 2005) and Facebook (founded in 2004) provided new avenues for individuals to share their creations. Many Arab bloggers emerged, discussing politics, culture and personal life. Simultaneously, Gulf women content creators working in the public-eye, walk a thin line between fame, shame and honour, while appeasing nationalist agendas for women’s empowerment, conservative sectors and local audiences. But although current scholarship of Arab digital culture acknowledges the influence of gender on the region’s digital infrastructures, women and girls tend not to be central to these works. Conversely, this study develops a theoretical intervention to explore and illustrate how the Gulf’s creator economies and its burgeoning scholarship are being continuously shaped by systemic inequalities that underpin the collapsed offline/online context of women’s lives. A novel postdigital feminist framework facilitates more-than-digital ethnography, exploring creator economies being defined by women creators. Evidence-based examples of regional trends are related to earlier media genealogies; state feminism; and grassroots digital activism. In turn, theorising reveals ambivalent (in)visibilities, adherence, resistance and bargains with patriarchy, as Gulf female bodies are rendered the subject and object of fame, shame and honour.
Presenters
Zoe HurleyAssociate Professor, Department of Media Communication., American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Postdigital; Gulf; Women Creators; Feminisms; Creator Economies; Platforms; Patriarchy
