How to be a 'choni': Tutorial videos, class and gender in Spain's economic recession

Abstract

This article examines the construction of the choni (chavette) character through ironic and popular beauty tutorials created by Spanish vloggers and their connection with the economic recession in Spain. Our main objective is to discover the use of gender, cultural and class markers in this process and their relation to the dynamics of self-construction and self-differentiation existent on YouTube. In order to identify these characteristics, we are going to use a semiotic and Foucauldian discourse analysis based on the cultural approach to the chav phenomenon in the United Kingdom. The findings from our research illustrate how the figure of the choni is defined by the process of racialization and sexualization and by a lack of cultural competence.