Celebrity activism from the Global South: the case of @actricesargentinas on Instagram

Abstract

Feminist activism in the digital environment has grown in recent years in Argentina. Several historical and new groups have turned to the networks to make their demands visible and amplify them. One of them is @actrices.argentinas, a collective that since its digital organisation in 2018 has accompanied struggles and led denunciations. This manuscript sets out to reflect on the theoretical postulate under which the activism of this group can be studied, and to do so it carries out a qualitative content analysis of its publications on Instagram, from its creation until the approval of the IVE Law. The findings indicate that neither the postulate of celebrity activism nor that of celebrity feminism, both originating from the academy of the Global North, manage to be frameworks from which to study this specific case. Therefore, it is asked whether it is not necessary to start thinking about new theoretical approaches that allow for the development of other dimensions that –born in the light of what is happening in the Global South– manage to examine the forms of activism that are specific to that context.