Queer Social Television: an empowering consumption assemblage explored through RuPaul’s Drag Race

Purpose Social Television (STV) describes the digital engagement of consumers with TV shows. Marketing studies have used this term to investigate how transmedia strategies broaden reach, engagement and co-productive consumption experiences. However, its managerial potential within contexts of gender and sexual dissidence remains overlooked. To explore this gap, this study aims to understand how queer fandom practices (re)configure the STV phenomenon toward the digital engagement of dissident identities. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a year-long netnography on Twitter/X with Brazilian fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Findings The findings suggest how discourses and practices are enacted through four interconnected categories of queering work that happen through broadcast, social media, fandom and activism. Social implications Four managerial strategies capable of promoting inclusion and social change are proposed, linking the study to Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities). Originality/value This study conceptualizes Queer Social Television and theorize it as an empowering consumption assemblage, explaining its nuances through a Global South perspective. In doing so, it contributes to both STV and Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) scholarships.