(Re)claiming subversive spaces on TikTok: the complexities of body activisms within physical activity cultures

ABSTRACT

Feminist organising in digital spaces, such as social media, has the potential for activism, resistance, and visibility; yet these spaces continue to be dominated by narrow body representations and shaped by unequal power dynamics. We propose that bodies of difference may find vibrant and difference-affirming homes within their digital communities via innovative algorithm-based social media spheres, such as TikTok. Using a creative methodological mashup that we call a ‘collaborative digital autoethnography’, we explored our experiences of difference-affirming hashtags (e.g. #CurvyGym, #DisabledFitness, #QueerFitness) and creators who shared explicitly inclusive and/or subversive content (e.g. #ThickTocker). Using reflexive thematic analysis and thinking with/through Safiya Noble’s work on algorithms of oppression, we developed four themes: #TheFringe, #(Re)claimingFlesh, #CircleOfSurveillance, and #TheWrongSideOfTikTok. In #TheFringe, we found normatively embodied creators who used TikTok as a space to question normative fitness trends – content that helped build our difference-affirming algorithmic space. In #(Re)claimingFlesh, fat-positive creators used TikTok to unapologetically reveal or grab body fat/flesh, and TikTokkers re-storied their body-related journeys by flipping the script of harmful body surveillance (i.e. #CircleOfSurveillance). Lastly, some creators shared grievances about the (oppressive) algorithms of TikTok that banished them to #TheWrongSideOfTikTok. We provide reflexive accounts of our own embodied differences while exploring the TikTok platform, searching for spaces that affirm our bodies while contending with algorithmic oppression. We conclude by discussing TikTok as a platform where powerful collective activism and revolution can form, yet always in contention with trolling, hate, and harmful algorithms that constrain activist movements within sport, exercise, and health contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• fitness
• social justice
• bodies of difference
• algorithms of oppression
• collaborative digital autoethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Trolling is repetitive and disruptive online content by an individual towards another individual or group(s), often with inflammatory, manipulative, or malicious intent (e.g. Fichman and Sanfilippo 2016).

2. Throughout our findings we describe the demographics of creators, but in cases when this information was not explicitly provided (e.g. sex or gender), we did not provide a description.

3. A stitch on TikTok is a creation tool that allows users to combine a portion of another creator’s video with their own.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [435-2021-0425].

Notes on contributors

K. Aly Bailey

K. Aly Bailey is a Mitacs-funded Postdoctoral Fellow working at McMaster University.

Meridith Griffin

Meridith Griffin is an Associate Professor working at McMaster University.

Kimberly J. Lopez

Kimberly J. Lopez is an Assitant Professor at the University of Waterloo.

Nosaiba Fayyaz

Nosaiba Fayyaz is a graduate student at McMaster University.

Serena Habib

Serena Habib is an undergraduate student at McMaster University.

Jaylyn Leighton

Jaylyn Leighton is a Postdoctoral Fellow working at Sunnybrook Research Institute.