“I made myself a new safety bubble”: Building trans virtual homeplaces

Abstract

<p> Discussions on filter bubbles are often entangled with ideas of polarization and the internet as a public sphere. This article explores an alternative vernacular use of the term bubble, as used by Finnish trans/nonbinary social media users. In their use, bubbles are sites of safety and retreat. This article interprets this idea of bubbles in terms of <em>trans virtual homeplaces</em>, as plural and porous digital spaces where trans people come together away from the transphobia of the broader internet and resist a culture of constant surveillance, visibility and engagement. The article traces the meanings these spaces are given, the practices of their creation, and their messy boundaries of membership. Thinking bubbles in terms of homeplace avoids equating digital spaces to public spaces and moves toward thinking trans online communities beyond counterpublics<em>.</em> <br></p>