Interpreting the Internet: Feminist and Queer Counterpublics in Latin America

Every user knows the importance of the “@” symbol in internet communication. Though the symbol barely existed in Latin America before the emergence of email, Spanish—speaking feminist activists immediately claimed it to replace the awkward “o/a” used to indicate both genders in written text, discovering embedded in the internet an answer to the challenge of symbolic inclusion. In repurposing the symbol, they changed its meaning.

In Interpreting the Internet, Elisabeth Jay Friedman provides...