Interrogating patriarchy and homophobia in Nigeria’s Zikoko online magazine

ABSTRACT

The internet and digital platforms are contemporary ways of empowering and enabling openness about gender identity and sexual performance. Unsurprisingly, several studies have engaged the treatment of issues surrounding gender and sexuality in various digital spaces like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, there is the need to examine how blogs in Nigeria challenge heteronormativity and patriarchy. This article attempts a content analysis of articles from Zikoko online magazine’s HER and Ships series to examine the engagement of issues surrounding women and their sexuality. Zikoko is a popular blog which enjoys massive following and readership in Nigeria. Using Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, and drawing insights from Chimamanda Adichie’s Liberal Feminism, this article argues that though an online space like Zikoko enables female sexual (heterosexual and queer) agency, and plays a role in shaping Nigerian women’s experiences and self-identity, patriarchy and homophobia are persistent challenges militating against women’s sexual identity and other women issues in Nigeria.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexuality
• agency
• digital spaces
• patriarchy
• homophobia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ayobami Olajumoke Onanuga

Ayobami Olajumoke Onanuga has a P.hD from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria where she studied the victimhood of homosexual characters and the agency of women in sexually oppressing male homosexuals in African fictional narratives. She is an early career researcher and currently an independent scholar with research interests in African fiction, genocide narratives in literature, queer and gender studies. Her articles have been published in Journal of Literary Studies, Contemporary Music Review, Journal of the African Literature Association, Analize, and others.