Performing Atheist Selves in Digital Publics

This book considers how the non-religious self is performed publicly online, and how digital culture and technology shapes this process. Building on a YouTube case study with women vloggers, it presents unique empirical data on non-organized atheism in the United States. Lundmark suggests that the atheist self as performed online exists in tension between a perception of atheism as sinful and amoral in relation to hegemonical Christianity in the U.S., and the hyperrational, male-centered discourse that has characterized the atheist movement. She argues that women atheist vloggers co-effect third spaces of emotive resonance that enable a precarious counterpublicness of performing atheist visibility. The volume offers a valuable contribution to the discussion of how the public, the private, and areas in-between are understood within digital religion, and opens up new space for engaging with the increased visibility of atheist identity in a mediatized society.

Evelina Lundmark currently holds a postdoctoral position at Agder University in Norway. She has a PhD in the Sociology of Religion from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Introduction: US Women and Non-Religious Identity Online 1. Atheist Identity in the United States: Civil Religion and Christian Privilege 2. New Atheist Discourse and Hyper Rationality: Authority, Femininity, Atheism 3. Precarious Selves: Digital Media and Exacerbated Vulnerabilities 4. Third Spaces: Evoking Resonance 5. Counter Publics: Resistance Through Dissonance Index