Very Cutesy, Very Demure: A Lesson on How to Refigure Stigma with Jools Lebron

• In Event: Mediating Affect Onscreen and Online

Abstract

In August 2024, Jools LeBron went viral on TikTok after uttering the words “very cutesy, very demure.” LeBron is a fat, Puerto Rican, trans woman based in Chicago, Illinois. Her TikTok account features makeup and beauty content alongside stories of her lived experiences as a fat, Latina trans woman. Since her viral TikTok, LeBron’s life has changed forever. Dictionary.com named “demure” the word of 2024, and LeBron has amassed significant wealth, which has transformed her living environment. She is now partnering with public figures and corporations eager to market themselves alongside the viral TikToker. Interrogating this playful, short video and its success provides a way to think about how fat trans women of color, like LeBron, are gaining visibility through social media. What has contributed to LeBron’s success? How might LeBron’s story offer guidance on how to break through increasingly antagonistic, fascist social media platforms, like TikTok? This paper presentation explores what Jools LeBron’s viral TikTok teaches us about the aesthetic strategies fat women of color employ to represent themselves in the arts and media. I argue that the success of LeBron’s video is due in part to how it doubles down on the racist, fatphobic, and transphobic ideologies used to oppress her. This analysis is part of dissertation research which examines how fat women and femmes of color represent themselves in the arts and media.

Biographical Information

Joe Baez is a Ph.D. candidate in the American Studies department at The George Washington University. In her dissertation, titled “‘Blessed are the Hot, Fat Girls’: The Art of Stigma Refiguration,” she looks at how fat women and femmes of color represent themselves in the arts and in media in response to stigma and shame. Her chapters look at the work of Jools Lebron, Laura Aguilar, Mark Aguhar, Yesika Salgado, TS Madison Hinton, and Lizzo. As a scholar, Joe dreams of radically transforming the ways we love ourselves, our bodies, and each other.

Author

• Joe Baez, The George Washington University