Comic memes as resistance strategy to counter hegemonic discourses: an analysis of the reactions to the hashtag #GaysNoMerecenMedallas on Twitter

Abstract In August 2016, during the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, the hashtag #GaysNoMerecenMedallas (Gays do not deserve medals) became a trending topic on Twitter. This article aims to study the use of humor as strategy for giving new meaning to words, images and symbols which have been historically employed in the social representation of LGBT people in a negative way. It aims to show how that strategy may be effective as means for countering online attacks against this social group, undermining the harm potential of these attacks by turning them into something laughable. More specifically, this article analyzes five memes which were posted during the hashtag campaign #GaysNoMerecenMedallas, attempting to challenge the hashtag. Theoretically, it relies on the Critical Discourse Analysis’ concept of social actor, on Teun van Dijk’s concept of power and hegemony (2015), as well as on the criteria developed by Nascimento, Bezerra and Heberle (2011) for studying multimodal discourses as theoretical reference frameworks. The methodology follows the path established by Fairclough (2012).