Journal article
The Real Ones: Gang Femininity and Authenticity in the Digital Streets
Deviant behavior
05/30/2026
DOI: 10.1080/01639625.2026.2680461
Abstract
This paper revisits street gangs as an ideal context for theorizing femininities through a qualitative analysis of a gang Facebook page. We integrate insight on digitization, identity in deviant subcultures, and gangs to explain how public-facing groups disrupt the analog logic of gang culture and its practice in the digital streets, where converging audiences necessitate dualistic self-presentation as a decent female and capable gang member. We argue this self-presentation is central to how girls and women establish authenticity in a digital context. This research highlights how gang girls' and women's self-presentation in the digital streets reproduces and reconfigures gang culture.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Real Ones: Gang Femininity and Authenticity in the Digital Streets
- Creators
- Kate K. O'Neill - Univ Iowa, Iowa City, IA USAJohn Leverso - University of Cincinnati
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Deviant behavior
- DOI
- 10.1080/01639625.2026.2680461
- ISSN
- 0163-9625
- eISSN
- 1521-0456
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 20
- Grant note
- P2C HD042828 / Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 05/30/2026
- Academic Unit
- Sociology and Criminology; Center for Social Science Innovation
- Record Identifier
- 9985174609302771
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