Quaring YouTube Comments and Creations: An Analysis of Black Web Series through the Politics of Production, Performance, and Pleasure by Faithe J Day A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication Studies) in the University of Michigan 2018 Doctoral Committee: Assistant Professor Andre L. Brock, Chair Assistant Professor Aymar J. Christian, Northwestern University Professor Robin R. Means-Coleman, Texas A&M University Professor Lisa Nakamura Assistant Professor Candace M. Moore, Carleton College Faithe J. Day [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1770-5897 Ⓒ​ Faithe J. Day 2018 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my department, my committee, and the many friends and family who have helped me along the way. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ii ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER I. Introduction: Theory and Methods 1 Background 1 The Burden of Blackness: On Representation and Stereotypes 3 Quare Shared Recognition and Black Web Series 9 Interventions and Significance 12 Research Questions 14 Research Design and Methods 16 Ethnography of the YouTube Platform 16 Discourse Analysis of Commenting Communities 19 Chapter Outline and Overview 22 II. From Cool to Quare: Awkward Black Girl and the Production of YouTube Content 25 Using YouTube: Social Media and Video Sharing 26 Television and the Study of Production 29 Fandom and the Production of Black YouTube Web Series 32 YouTube Users: From Viewers and Audience to Community and Counterpublic 35 iii From One Awkward Black Girl to Another: Examining the Creator 41 The Struggles of an Awkward Black Life: Textual Analysis 46 Quare is to Awkward as Black is to Queer 51 Negotiating (Dis)Identification: Analyzing Series Comments 54 Oppositional Readings of ABG 57 The Role of Fandom in Counterpublics 63 Conclusion 65 III. Get in Queer Formation: The Performance of Intersectional Identity in The Peculiar Kind 67 Introduction 68 The Presentation of Identity in Everyday Life 69 Assumptions of Difference: Performing Class and Sexuality 74 Quare Shared Recognition and Intersectional Performativity 78 On Lesbian Identity and Performance 81 On The Peculiar Kind: Racial Formation and Performativity Offline/Online 84 Gender Roles versus Gender Performance 85 The Butch/Femme Binary 88 Generational Differences 91 Complicating Power Dynamics 93 Critical Discourse Analysis of Comments 96 Gender Roles/Gender Expression 96 Education/Class Privilege 98 iv Learning Space 102 Cultural Differences 104 Conclusion 106 IV. Not Just Between Women: The Politics of Sexuality within Black Communities 108 Introduction 109 Black Nationalist Thought and the Politics of Liberation 115 The Possibility of a Black Queer Female Subject 119 Quare Shared Recognition as Black Feminist Cultural Politics 122 Between Women and Black Queer Representation: Critical & Textual Analysis 127 Commenting on Black Femmes and Heteromasculinity 133 Commenting on Black Lesbian Representation 139 Commenting on the Politics of Desire 144 Conclusion 150 V. If I Was Your Girl: Preaching and Pleasure in Black Queer Commenting Communities” 152 Introduction 153 Defining the Erotic 153 Black Feminist Touch: Reading and Feeling Sexuality Online 161 Pleasure in Looking: The Uses and Gratifications of Black Queer Web Series 166 The Black Church: On Race, Religion, and Mediated Respectability 170 Textual Analysis: Reading If I Was Your Girl 174 Discourse Analysis: The YouTube Comments for If I Was Your Girl 179 v The Politics and Performance of Pleasure 183 Conclusion 185 VI. Conclusion: Unpacking the Quare Politics of the YouTube Platform 188 On the Production of Black Web Series 189 Politics of the YouTube Platform 194 The YouTube Algorithm 196 Pushing the Platform and Audience Labor 200 Open TV and the Future of Web Series 201 Concluding Remarks 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY 207 vi ABSTRACT Drawing on a legacy of Black television and film production, Black web series remediate earlier media forms in order to usher in a 21st century revival of indie Black cultural production. Specifically, video sharing and social media platforms operate as a sphere in which content creators and users are afforded unique opportunities to engage with video content and each other on a variety of levels. Focusing on the YouTube media sphere, one can also observe the myriad ways in which the performance of race, gender, region, class, and sexuality influences the types of discourse that circulate within these sites. In watching and analyzing Black queer web series on YouTube, I examine how the performance of gender and sexuality by Black queer women within and outside of web series are policed and protected by both community insiders and outsiders. Utilizing an ethnographic framework, which includes a critical discourse analysis of the YouTube comments for the series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, The Peculiar Kind, Between Women, and If I Was Your Girl as well as a textual analysis of series content, this project draws conclusions about the role that the politics of production, performance, pleasure, and the public sphere play into the recognition and/or refusal of queer sexuality within and outside of Black communities. vii CHAPTER I Introduction: Theory and Methods “Within culture, marginality, though it remains peripheral to the broader mainstream, has never been such a productive space as it is now. And that is not simply the opening within the dominant of spaces that those outside it can occupy. It is also the result of the cultural politics of difference, of the struggles around difference, of the production of new identities, [and] of the appearance of new subjects on the political and cultural stage” -Stuart Hall “What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture” Background When I first came to the world of YouTube the possibility that the burgeoning video sharing site would change the way that we thought about video production and consumption was far from my mind. As a teenager in high school during the early 2000’s, my main interest was interacting with the many communities surrounding my favorite authors and artists with other like-minded individuals. As the years progressed, YouTube went corporate and the site became another Google product, affixed with all of the advertising and money making capabilities that went along with that inclusion. I saw many of the “YouTubers” that I discovered gain the opportunity to make a career out of content creation, moving from YouTube to Television. Entering college, the YouTube scene changed from a space that was heavily populated by a 1 combination and conjunction of vloggers, comedians, and cover singers to a space where polished and professional original content was being produced. It was during this time that I first came upon the series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and Friends (2011-2013), as well as other Black web series, such as Between Women (2011-Present) and The Unwritten Rules (2012-2014). These productions, while not traditional television series in their shortened length and indie production value, gave me the opportunity to watch programming that represented everything that I wanted television to be. That is, a medium which mediated my own existence, turning my reality into a universal fiction in less than twenty- one minute episodes. The same could be said, and is said, by many of the individuals who watch these series. In the comments section of each video, viewers gather and express their support of the series’ and identification with the characters and stories. It is by analyzing these commenting communities that we can fully begin to understand the importance of viewing a variety of mediated images of Blackness. Beginning with The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, I argue that YouTube, as an online space, gives Black content creators the opportunity to respond not only to a niche audience of viewers, but also to a legacy of corporate television and the representations of Black identity that are found there. Unique in their representation of Black queer women, Black web series foster discursive commenting communities on YouTube in which both the voices of community insiders and outsiders are represented. At the same time, YouTube is not a queer utopia or a digital democracy, and it is important to understand both the possibilities and limitations of the platform with regards to the of study Black queer women’s web series. Drawing on queer of color critique and Black feminist theory, I utilize an in depth intersectional lens which takes into account the even more limited mainstream media portrayals 2 of Black queer women. I argue that Black web series have become a popular format for displaying Blackness in a variety of ways in order to foster a quare shared recognition between the audience and the portrayal of Black identity that the characters represent. Through online interactions and offline relationships, individuals are able to find a space for community that challenges the perceived norms and expectations of the collectively imagined Black American identity, which is mired in a history of stereotypes and representational norms. By focusing on the performance of gender and sexuality as it is articulated and responded to within queer of color web series and commenting communities, I discuss how discourse around gender identity is communicated, which speaks to the decisions that these women make (and the responses to those decisions from community outsiders and insiders) when it comes to the performance and articulation of both gender and sexuality. These performances bring up concerns around visibility and invisibility in public/private spaces (i.e. what does it mean to be “out” online/offline, etc), and I am invested in conceptualizing a politics of recognition which describes the discourse around and the representation of queer identity both on and offline. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the role that online spaces and digital media play in creating new realities and communication practices for individuals, as well as the way that the production and consumption of Black web series makes space for and queers the norms of these practices.