#gainingweightiscool: the use of transformation photos on Instagram among female weightlifters in recovery from eating disorders

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore transformation photos on Instagram as ‘digital artefacts’ that can inform understandings of eating disorder recovery in the context of sport, exercise and health. Transformation photos are two images (from different time points) set alongside one another to represent the changing of bodies in look, shape or size. These images are prevalent within eating disorder recovery and fitness spaces on Instagram and typically display an individual’s recovery journey through a before (thin) and after (more muscular) image comparison. By triangulating interview, photo elicitation and netnography data from research on female weightlifting as a tool for recovery from eating disorders, we explore transformation photos in relation to three intersecting themes; 1) new modes of ‘becoming’, 2) representation and ‘mediated memories’, and finally, 3) survivorship and identity. Our findings demonstrate that transformation photos are integral to the process and practice of recovery for women who use weightlifting as a tool for recovery from eating disorders. Moreover, we suggest that by engaging with a popular mimetic device (transformation photos), we were able to ‘meet participants where they are’ and offer a novel qualitative approach to understanding how digitally mediated lives are lived.

KEYWORDS:

• Transformation photos
• female weightlifting
• eating disorders
• digital methods
• Instagram

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. We are also incredibly grateful to the women who participated in this study for sharing their stories with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/P000762/1] and the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number AH/N004841/1]; Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/N004841/1];

Notes on contributors

Hester Hockin-Boyers

Hester Hockin-Boyers is a Doctoral Researcher in Sociology at Durham University. Her PhD (funded by the ESRC) explores women’s use of weightlifting as an informal strategy for recovery from eating disorders. Her current research interests cohere around issues of embodiment and the sociology of the body, feminist theory, eating disorders and digital spaces.

Stacey Pope

Dr Stacey Pope is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University. Her research interests are broadly located in the area of gender, sport and inequality and she is especially interested in women’s experiences in traditionally ‘male’ sports. Her research has been published in a range of international journals and she is author of The Feminization of Sports Fandom: A Sociological Study (Routledge, 2017) and co-editor (with Gertrud Pfister) of Female Football Players and Fans: Intruding into a Man’s World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Kimberly Jamie

Dr Kimberly Jamie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Durham University. Her research interests centre on health, medicine, and sociology of the body. Her work is interdisciplinary and she has published in a range of social science, and practice-focused journals.