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ABSTRACT
Instagram has been identified as potentially offering opportunities for feminist activism and resistance against limiting normative ideals surrounding femininity and the body. Extending this work, this article examines a corpus of illustrations shared to Instagram by feminist sex-positive artists. Locating these representations within the constraints of a platform where gendered norms and hierarchies are predominant, we ask how and to what extent these visual and discursive digital representations may be representative of more transgressive constructions of feminine sexuality. To address these questions, we employed a qualitative feminist methodology, combining content analysis with critical discourse analysis of Instagram posts (n = 200) from a small sample of influential feminist artists (n = 10). Four key discursive strategies were identified: making the female body visible/refusing censorship, desexualizing the naked female body, diversifying feminine and sexual desirability norms and centering female pleasure and enjoyment. Our findings demonstrate how a current sex-positive movement on Instagram aims to re-orient the gaze through illustrations, to subjectify rather than objectify women.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Instagram artists who generously granted permission for their artworks to be reproduced in this publication.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ruby Sciberras
Ruby Sciberras is a graduate and researcher in Gender Studies and Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Her research explores messages about sexuality, sexual health and sex education and the ways they are communicated to and engaged with by young people. Ruby was recently awarded the Honours/Masters Award by The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) after graduating first in her year.
Claire Tanner
Dr Claire Tanner has a PhD in Gender Studies and is a Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies and Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Her research sits at the intersection of the sociology of gender, health and science. Across these fields she is particularly interested in the influences, potentialities and problems associated with digital cultures and their impacts on diverse publics. Her co-authored book, Stem Cell Tourism and the Political Economy of Hope, was recently awarded the Stephen Crook Memorial Prize for the best book in Sociology by the Australian Sociological Association. Claire also serves as associate editor of the Journal of Sociology.