A Qualitative Analysis of Facebook Micro-Celebrity: the Case Of

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A Qualitative Analysis of Facebook Micro-Celebrity:

The Case of Qandeel Baloch

A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies & Research

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

Master of Arts

Media Studies

University of Regina

Shahrukh Hussnain

Regina, Saskatchewan

March, 2020

UNIVERSITY OF REGINA

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH

SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Shahrukh Hussnain, candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies, has presented a thesis titled, A Qualitative Analysis of a Facebook Micro-Celebrity: The Case of Qandeel Baloch, in an oral examination held on December 11, 2019. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material.

External Examiner: Prof. Wes Pearce, Department of Theatre

Co-Supervisor: Dr. Christina Stojanova, Department of Film

Co-Supervisor: Dr. Sheila Petty, Department of Film

Committee Member: Dr. Philippe Mather, Department of Film

Chair of Defense: Dr. Philip Charrier, Department of History

ABSTRACT

This thesis looks at how Facebook (FB) facilitates the transformation of micro-celebrities such as Pakistani social media micro-celebrity Qandeel Baloch, into embodiments of notoriety, and examines the mechanism through which the newly acquired fame destroys them.

Predicated on the shifts and changes in celebrity culture in general, the micro- celebrity model constructed in this thesis, reveals how online self-presentation, facilitated by FB, has evolved into a set of behaviors, or celebrity performative practices, driven by self-importance and narcissism, resulting in the rapid proliferation of fame to non-exceptional people on FB. In addition to speculative techniques like intimacy, emotionalization, dramatization and self-sexualization, the thesis also examines the role of FB audiences in exacerbating the situation, particularly in cases of open sexual portrayals of toxic micro-celebrities, thus causing

FB backlashing and resulting in dire real-life consequences. And lastly, in addition to using the constructed micro-celebrity model, this thesis looks at the attempts of FB management to control the damage specifically in the case of Qandeel Baloch.

For this research, I examined 45 Baloch videos and over 1400 comments, posted on FB between 2014 and 2016. The data are analyzed based on a Qualitative approach. The principal findings of the study demonstrate that Baloch’s case could be seen as a textbook illustration of an infamous micro-celebrity who performed her desired identity as a controversial drama queen and became an embodiment of toxicity by posting notorious video content on FB. Baloch’s case also demonstrates

the significant role played by FB audiences in creating and sustaining her role as a notorious and toxic micro-celebrity. Audiences have consumed her content for entertainment, belittled her for fun, provoked her to post more sexual content, made her a top trending micro-celebrity, and have simultaneously marginalized her, and eventually petitioned FB to ban her for posting shallow and obscene content.

The thesis concludes that FB bias played a significant role in causing Baloch’s untimely demise. While she followed the FB terms and conditions regarding her posted content, FB failed to uphold its end of the contract by not censoring the massive harassment against her, including a serious death threat

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Christina

Stojanova, for her endless encouragement, mentorship, guidance and support during my study at the University of Regina. She made the writing process of this thesis so much easier for me, and I am truly thankful for her optimism, patience, and support at every step of the way.

I would also like to thank Dr. Sheila Petty, who served as my co-supervisor.

She truly is one of the best in her field of study, and it has been an honor working with her. And although she stepped in late as my co-supervisor, I am very grateful to her for providing me with the rigorous guidance I needed throughout the writing process of this thesis. I have been lucky to have Dr. Stojanova and Dr. Petty as my supervisors.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Dr. Philippe Mather as my internal committee member for his valuable insights as well as to the Department of Film and the Faculty of MAP for my memorable time experience at the University of Regina.

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DEDICATION

I am dedicating this thesis to my mother, Basharat Naseer, my sister Mahrukh

Hussnain, my supervisor Dr. Christina Stojanova, and last but not the least, my boyfriend Jason Stone, whose help and unwavering support have made this thesis possible!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract …………………………………………………………………….… i Acknowledgment….……………………………………………..…………… iii Dedication …………………………………………….…………………….... iv .……………… Table of Contents …………………………………………………………..… v List of Tables……………………………………………………………..…... vi List of Images…………………………………………………..……...……... vii

INTRODUCTION….……………………………………………………..… 1 Case Study of Qandeel Baloch.………………………...... 5 …………Aim……... of the... Study……………………………………….……………... 6 Overview of the Study…………………………….…...... 6 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY..……………….…..…...... 7 The Celebrity and Celebrification………….………...... 7 Facebook Affordances……………………………...... 11 Participatory Culture on Facebook……………………...... 13 Devalued Fame or Vfame ……………………………………...…….. 14 Gender and Culture………………………………………………...…. 14

CHAPTER I: Constructing the Micro-Celebrity Model…………………. 21 1.1 Micro-celebrity Practices…………………………….………...... 21 1.1.1 Performance of Self and Authenticity……….…………. 22 1.1.2 Mantainence of Fan Base………………………...…...… 24 1.1.3 Performed Intimacy………………………...………..…. 27 1.1.4 Affiliation to the Mainstream Celebrities.………...……. 30 1.1.5 Performing Sexuality……………………..………....….. 31 1.2 Facebook Audiences and Toxic Micro-celebrities....,...... ….…. 34

CHAPTER II: Research Methodology…………………………………..… 3 9 2.1 Principal Research Methods……………………………...…..… 39 2.2 Data Collection and Approaches to Data Analysis…………..…. 40

CHAPTER III: Findings and Analysis…………...……...... 4 4 3.1 Performance of Self and Authenticity ………..………...…...…. 44 3.2 Mantainence of Fan Base ………………..………...….……….. 47 3.2.1 Greetings and Dedications to Fans………………..…… 48 3.2.2 Responding to Haters…………………….……….……. 51 3.3 Performed Intimacy………………………………...……..……. 55 3.4 Affiliation to the Mainstream Celebrities……..…….……..…… 58 3.4.1 Proposing to the Mainstream Celebrities……..…..……. 59 3.4.2 Lashing out at the Mainstream Celebrities..………..….. 62 3.5 Performing Sexuality…………………………...……...……….. 65 3.6 Comments of Facebook Audiences…………..….……...……… 71 3.6.1 Participatory Culture……………….….……...…….…. 73 3.6.2 Mimicking Micro-celebrities……….……...……..….... 65 3.6.3 Hate Culture…………………..…………………..…… 77

CHAPTER IV: Discussion and Conclusion………………...………..……. 83 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………… 91

….…………

List of Tables

Table.1 Maintenance of Fan Base………………………………………….……... 47 Table.2 Affiliation to the Mainstream Celebrities……..……………………...... 58 Table.3 Performing Sexuality……………………………………………………... 66 Table.4 Comments on Baloch Videos………………………………………….….. 72

List of Images

Image.1 Qandeel Baloch AKA Fouzia Azeem……………………………………… 44 Image.2 Greetings and Dedication to Fans………………………………………….. 48 Image.3 Greetings and Dedication to Fans………………………………………….. 48 Image.4 Greetings and Dedication to Fans………………………………………….. 48 Image.5 Responding to Haters………………………………………………………. 51 Image.6 Responding to Haters………………………………………………………. 51 Image.7 Responding to Haters………………………………………………………. 51 Image.8 Responding to Haters………………………………………………………. 51 Image.9 Performing Intimacy……………………………………………………….. 56 Image.10 Performing Intimacy………………………………………….…………... 56 Image.11 Performing Intimacy…………………………………………..………….. 56 Image.12 Performing Intimacy…………………………………………….………... 56 Image.13 Proposing to the Mainstream-celebrities…………………………………. 60 Image.14 Proposing to the Mainstream-celebrities…………………………………. 60 Image.15 Proposing to the Mainstream-celebrities…………………………………. 60 Image.16 Proposing to the Mainstream-celebrities…………………………………. 60 Image.17 Proposing to the Mainstream-celebrities………...…………………… 60 Image.18 Lashing out on the Mainstream-celebrities………..…………………...… 63 Image.19 Lashing out on the Mainstream-celebrities………..…………………...… 63 Image.20 Lashing out on the Mainstream-celebrities………..…………………...… 63 Image.21 Lashing out on the Mainstream-celebrities………..…………………...… 63 Image.22 Lashing out on the Mainstream-celebrities………..…………………...… 63 Image.23 Lashing out on the Mainstream-celebrities………..…………………...… 63 Image.24 Posing in Front of Camera…………………………………………..…..... 64 Image.25 Posing in Front of Camera……………………………………….….…..... 64 Image.26 Posing in Front of Camera……………………………………….….…..... 64 Image.27 Posing in Front of Camera………………………………………….….…. 64 Image.28 Music video titled “BAN” ……………………………………….…….… 64 Image.29 Striptease Teaser video. ………………………………………………….. 67 Image.30 Dancing on the Bed………………………………………………………. 67 Image.31 Dubmash of Baloch videos………………………………………………. 76 Image.32 Blocking of Qandeel Baloch’s Facebook Page…………………………... 81

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INTRODUCTION

In 2004, Facebook (FB) was launched with the highly publicized objective "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected"

(Newton Feb 16, 2017). In February 2017, FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg recognized serious drawbacks and weaknesses that the company's original mission did not envision. He pointed out that it was essential to consider and manage the after-effects of connecting people on FB. He writes:

For the past decade, FB has focused on connecting friends and families. With that foundation, our next focus will be developing the social infrastructure for the community… Social media is a short-form medium where resonant messages get amplified many times. This rewards simplicity and discourages nuance. At its best, this focuses on messages and exposes people to different ideas. At its worst, it oversimplifies important topics and pushes us towards extremes. That's why I'm so worried about sensationalism in media (Newton Feb 16, 2017).

Zuckerberg reckoned that where FB gave people a voice and a platform to get a diversity of opinions out there, it has also pushed them to express extreme and polarized viewpoints on social, cultural, religious and political issues. Hence his emphatic concern is about creating safe, supportive, and inclusive communities, which would minimize the harmful effects of this platform, which has inflicted on the real world.

Indeed, FB’s merits in connecting people with friends and family, in networking, and in spreading news and information cannot be denied. And because of its 2 billion active users, FB's contribution in these areas is exponentially more significant than any other social media platform, and it has proven to be a major catalyst for a cultural shift as well. One of the significant changes that FB has brought with time is the transformation of a celebrity culture, which is one of the issues under scrutiny in this thesis.

Becoming a celebrity or achieving fame was once a far-fetched dream for ordinary people, attainable only by the few exceptionally talented where their fame was a result of the constant maintenance of the extraordinary celebrity image by the

PR teams or agents. However, within the celebrity culture, ordinariness also has a long, intricate, and vexed history. Celebrities were not always famous for extraordinariness, as put by Leo Braudy, “fame never simply resulted from heroic action or for doing great things.” (qtd in Gamson 2011, 1063). Regardless of merit, the celebrity culture has been built on transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. As Neal Gabler suggests, “what distinguishes celebrities – most of whom are known for something they’ve done – is narrative: a celebrity/star in his or her own ‘life movie’ and provides entertainment by the very process of living” (qtd in

Gamson 2011, 1062). There are many examples of pre-social media unexceptional people who have achieved global fame for showcasing their lives – the names of Paris

Hilton and Zsa Zsa Gabor should suffice. Then indeed, it is true to say that pre-

Internet, this fame was limited to only a few unexceptional people. However, with the instantaneous nature of social media and with its ease of access, it has brought this

fame to ordinary people, just like us. With the advent of social media, celebrity production has now become pervasive, more dispersed, and more visible and accessible to the masses. (discussed in detail later in this Chapter).

One of the differences between FB and pre-internet era fame has to do with speed in which fame is accessed and acquired; quicker and readily available now than before due to technology. Therefore, in this thesis, the fame granted to unexceptional people refers to ordinary individuals in the post-internet era. FB, with its pervasiveness, ubiquity and global reach, has changed what it means to be a celebrity and has redefined fame by giving ordinary people a chance to create their own online space, where they can self-promote and become famous (or infamous) if they so wish.

In this sense, it can be argued equally persuasively that either the celebrity status has become democratized, or that it has been devalued. To describe this phenomenon,

Terri Senft, in her book Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social

Networks, coined the term "micro-celebrity," which she defines as:

[A] new style of online performance in which people employ webcams, video,

audio, blogs, and social networking sites to ''amp up'' their popularity among

readers, viewers, and those to whom they are linked online (2008, 25).

The linking of "micro" with celebrity indicates that in contrast to mainstream celebrities who get their global fame on major traditional media platforms, the

"micro-celebrities" of FB make use of its technological means to get well-known or quasi-famous by carefully constructing an online persona, which will garner

maximum attention, even through notoriety. Following Senft, I have adopted the term

"micro-celebrity" to describe a self-made celebrity who has achieved notoriety through social media. Makeup vloggers, prank videos, narcissistic selfies, songs with no lyrical integrity, or just posing and rambling in front of the camera can get people famous on FB. Therefore, the phenomenon of micro-celebrity can be described as an ever-changing performance rather than as a set of extraordinary intrinsic characteristics.

In this thesis, micro-celebrity will be examined as a performative practise, as laid forth by prominent social media scholars Dannah Boyd and Alice Marwick

(2011) in their article, To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter. Since similar patterns can be seen on FB, it makes Boyd and Marwick’s article relevant to this thesis. Furthermore, in order to examine how a celebrity practice is performed, they draw upon Sociologist Erving Goffman's (1959) study on “dramaturgical” metaphors, which make their work a good base for the current study as well.

In addition, this research focuses on how these micro-celebrities, especially females, garner attention through self-sexualization and over-the-top sexual performances, which often becomes notorious and even toxic. Allison Maplesden, a well-credited author, was much appreciated for her research, titled Toxic celebrity (2015), where she introduces the term "toxic celebrity" to describe female celebrities “who are imagined to embody particular denigrated behaviors and lifestyles to such an extent that their disgrace and perceived lack of cultural value become the dominant trope of their celebrity, and they are imagined to be poisonous

to culture" (i). I am applying Maplesden's understanding of "toxic celebrity" to the discussion of micro-celebrity – or what I call in this research "FB toxic micro- celebrity."

Although FB promises fame to these toxic micro-celebrities in exchange for engaging content, they also must be prepared to face not only acceptance but also, and most likely, extreme criticism from FB audiences. In Undoing Gender (2004), influential gender theorist Judith Butler explains that gender is shaped through discourses and social practices. Her concepts of performativity are important in understanding why these toxic micro-celebrities are marginalized by society as the result of their publicly displayed behaviors. As this thesis argues, FB – as one of the biggest media platforms for controversial viewpoints – is also a vehicle for ridicule, addressed at micro-celebrities, whose online fame turns toxic and even backfires with real-life consequences, which in extreme cases harm them irreparably. The fate of

Qandeel Baloch, the case study for this research, is a prime example of such a tragic outcome.

The Case of Qandeel Baloch

This research is based on the case study of Pakistani social media micro- celebrity Qandeel Baloch, a 26-year old Pakistani social media starlet who took the

Internet by storm with her stunts of notoriety. She had over 750,000 followers on FB alone. A controversial FB personality, she was called a drama queen and the Kim

Kardashian of Pakistan, due to her manipulatively explicit sexual self-portrayal. Her

content was subjected to vicious criticism and public humiliation by FB audiences, leading to the blocking of her FB page. Her younger brother, Wasim Azeem, eventually strangled Baloch to death on July 15, 2016, and took responsibility for her murder, claiming that, by killing her, he saved the honor of the family. Baloch's case study is significant as proof that even though FB is a platform that encourages healthy interpersonal communications, it can also be a dangerous place, especially for individuals who fail to realize that easy fame comes with a hefty price. The price that

Baloch had to pay is a case in point: her notorious and sexual acts on FB led to her marginalization not only by society but also to people's relentless fury and aggression, which ultimately resulted in her untimely and violent death.

Aim of the Study

This study aims to find out how FB affordances facilitate the process of becoming micro-celebrities as embodiments of notoriety, and at which point, their

FB-acquired fame becomes toxic. The study will demonstrate how notorious and sexual content aggravates the toxic consequences that micro-celebrities face as a result of their online behavior. In doing so, it is significant to examine the role of FB audiences in exacerbating the situation, and the role of FB management in controlling the damage, specifically in the case of Qandeel Baloch.

Overview of the Study

In the first chapter, based on a detailed analysis of the extant literature, a micro- celebrity model that reveals how FB facilitates the emergence of micro-celebrities as

embodiments of notoriety is constructed. The micro-celebrity model facilitates the examination of the mechanism for distributing fame to non-exceptional people, which eventually destroys them. The micro-celebrity model thus reflects on online practices for self-presentation, which, facilitated by FB affordances, have evolved into a set of behaviors, or celebrity performative practices. The model segues to a literary review of the most relevant theoretical propositions and concepts, selected with Baloch’s case study in mind.

The second Chapter explains the research methodology applied, more particularly, the methods of data collection for the case study and its analysis. The third Chapter first focuses on the detailed study of Baloch’s case findings and then proceeds toward an in-depth analysis and discussion of these findings in light of the theoretical propositions. Lastly, the Conclusion provides a discussion of the analysis and the outcomes of the study.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The Celebrity and Celebrification

This section discusses the development of the concept of celebrity. The vast literature on celebrity studies defines celebrity in various ways, but having a distinct social status is a common characteristic among all the definitions. American historian

Daniel Boorstin (1961), in his book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in

America, points out that since the 17th century, the term celebrity has been referred to as a condition, rather than as a person having achieved fame. However, since 1850, at the time of the Graphic Revolution, the use of the word referred to a famous person.

Boorstin then defines celebrity as “a person who is known for his well-knownness”

(1961, 57). His statement clearly defines that in order to be called a celebrity, what matters is the popularity – that is, the end result – and not the means a person uses to become popular.

For my usage here of the terms “celebrity” and “star” interchangeably, I am indebted to the work of celebrity culture theoretician Richard Dyer (1979, 1986), as his critical study of stars has had a seminal influence on celebrity discourse. In his book Stars (1979) the analyses stardom in the context of representation and ideology, with a primary focus on the Classical Hollywood period, by focusing specifically on the case study of Marilyn Monroe – a textbook case of one of the greatest bona fide celebrities, destroyed by her fame (Dyer 1986). Prominent media scholar Paul

McDonald surmises the gist of Dyer’s star theory in saying that the “stars are seen as

owing their existence solely to the machinery of [celebrity] production” (1998, 174).

Machinery which – one might add – Dyer sees as instrumental in his analysis of the ideal celebrity/star image, which in his view is nothing more than a skillful assembly of promotional materials and smart branding.

More pertinent to the current thesis is McDonald’s summary of Dyer’s main argument regarding both the contextual construction and the consumption of a star image: “rather than merely some ‘special,’ ‘magic’ quality of the individual, a star’s

‘charisma’ is a product of how their image engages social issues and dilemmas (qtd in

Holmes 2005, 11). Thus, McDonald throws in high relief Dyer’s main emphasis on the context and the consumption of the star image, which according to him, is mostly based on prevailing social and cultural discourses through which stars are circulated.

Ann Jerslev, in her article In the time of micro-celebrity: Celebrification and

Youtuber Zoella (2016), points out that in more recent celebrity discourses, it appears that celebrity is distinctive of a broader and less demarcated position in contemporary media culture. An author and professor of sociology Chris Rojek define contemporary celebrity as “the attribution of glamorous or notorious status to an individual within the public sphere” (2001, 10). Cultural studies scholar Graeme Turner’s definition of a celebrity is similar, although with more media-dependent approach and emphasis on time to celebrity formation:

We can map the precise moment a public figure becomes a celebrity. It occurs

at the point at which media interest in their activities is transferred from

reporting on their public role . . . [to] investigating the details of their private

life (2004, 8).

P. David Marshall, a prominent scholar of new media, communication, and cultural studies discourses, points out that by the 1980s, mainstream media like print and television had begun to play a vital role in establishing and maintaining the status of what he calls “modern celebrity” (2006, 634). Up until the 21st-century, the celebrity phenomenon fundamentally relied on the concentrated power of studio heads, networking, and ultimately “breaking through.” Whoever “got the break,” became a celebrity – a public figure – whose image and fame was managed by a cohort of press agents, gossip columnist, PR agencies and the likes. Etc. However, with the introduction of new media technologies like the Web 2.0 phenomena and the rise of participatory sites such as FB, the dynamics of celebrity culture and celebrity practice have rapidly changed. Possibilities brought on by the new media have given more control to celebrities in creating and maintaining their online persona. Marshall describes this change in celebrity culture as a shift from a “representational media” to a “presentational” one (2006, 2010). With the new media applications like FB – suitably termed by Marshall as “presentational media” – celebrities are now more focused on the presentation of themselves than altogether relying on being represented by the traditional mainstream media (2010, 38).

Similarly, professor of sociology Joshua Gamson suggests that this formation of celebrity is somewhat new and medium-specific, claiming that “the Web 2.0 has generated a sort of bottom-up, do-it-yourself approach to celebrity production and

fame acquisition,” as it relies less on the mainstream media and more on the enterprising spirit of individuals, who use the power of social media to establish and maintain fame for themselves (2011, 1065). Thus, within the celebrity culture, there has been a shift from the subject of celebrity to the process of becoming one, or to celebrification.

The term celebrification is used in various ways in celebrity studies in reference to the growing personal power and control granted with the rise of networked media. Turner uses it specifically for online stardom and claims that on social media sites, “celebrification has become a familiar mode of cyber-self- presentation” (2010, 14). On par with Turner’s definition, Olivier Driessens, who is known for his research in the field of communications, uses the term to identify the process by which individuals are transformed into celebrities (2013, 642). To

Driessens, celebrification incorporates elements of democratization of the celebrity culture, which is crucial for understanding contemporary micro-celebrity (qtd in

Holmes & Redmond 2006, 335).

To emphasize the democratic tendencies in the micro-celebrity making process on the Internet, Turner uses the term “demotic turn” (2004, 82). Media scholar Jessica Evans uses the term “populist democracy” to denote the same practice

(2005, 14). Alternatively, Boyd and Marwick see it – following the idea of trickling down economics, which is supposed to make neo-capitalist societies wealthier – as a

“trickling down of celebrification”, which would somehow democratize the celebrity status. Moreover, being attainable only by a selected few, particularly talented

individuals, celebrity status would become achievable by everyone (2011, 141). This shift in the celebrity culture can be linked to Andy Warhol’s (1968) most celebrated quote, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes" (Hirsch et al., 2002). With the advent of social media, the bar for entry into the celebrity world has been lowered to allow in not only those who attain or sustain fame thanks to both talent and years of hard work, but also everyone with an Internet connection and a smart device. Furthermore, as that bar continues to get even lower, Warhol’s prediction becomes ever more truthful as the rising number of short-lived contemporary online micro-celebrities exemplifies. In this sense, it can be argued equally forcibly that either the celebrity status has become democratized, or that it has been devalued.

Facebook Affordances

Donald Norman, the author of the famous book, The design for everyday things, defines affordances as the designed aspects of an object or technology, instrumental in their relationship with users (2013, 11). When applying this concept to social networking sites like FB, the term means rather built-in features and tools provided by the platform for its users. FB affordances are thus a useful lens to explore how the users’ behavior is shaped and steered toward notorious micro-celebrity practices and how their eventual notoriety is made accessible and consumable for the

FB audiences.

As Dana Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison (2007) point out, affordances of different platforms vary depending on the features provided by each site for the system's intended purpose. With regards to FB, its account creation and profile management affordance help users to create their unique profiles and give them control to organize their personal information. Boyd and Ellison describe the process of creating an online profile as "an explicit act of writing oneself into being in a digital environment" (2007, 74). In the dynamics of the digital world of FB, a user's identity is what he/she decides to show on their FB profile to online audiences.

The primary purpose of FB is to enhance interactivity between users.

Therefore, on FB, users make connections by adding friends or by following pages of micro-celebrities. Moreover, FB affordances facilitate the sharing of content produced by its users. The sharing of content on FB happens on two levels: it first allows micro- celebrities to broadcast the content on their profile/page, where it becomes available to their followers, who then facilitate the spreading of the content of their liking with their followers and friends by using FB tools like the “share” button. FB further provides two analogous ways in which users interact with each other: posting comments in response to each other’s posts, and by clicking "like" button to show validation to the post of their liking.

In addition to these communicative and interactive features, FB admin also provides a tool for users to mark profiles/pages as inappropriate and block users. This control tool to report or block other users on FB can have positive or particularly adverse effects on people’s lives, as will be demonstrated in Chapter IV.

Participatory Culture on Facebook

According to Senft, micro-celebrity is a process through which “an unknown individual makes him/herself known, mainly relying on their personally generated online content” to get famous (2008, 26). Therefore, on FB, this dynamic works both ways; people garner attention through attention-seeking practices, and audiences actively and quickly consume the content. Various scholars like Dyer (1979), Gamson

(1994), and Marshalll (2006) have argued that “the subject position of the celebrity has always existed in dialectical relation with the audiences; audiences actively produce the celebrity via their consumption habits” (Hearn and Schoenoff 2015, 195).

Prominent media scholar Henry Jenkins coined the term “participatory culture”

(1992) to describe the accelerated participation of the audiences on the Internet. With the rise of participatory sites such as FB, not only have the dynamics of celebrity culture and celebrity practice changed, but media audiences have changed as well as they are no longer the passive entity that only consumes media content but actively participates on social media sites.

This participatory activity can be seen on FB, where the audience gets together to gossip or start an interesting discussion on a post of their liking. As seen in the previous section, sharing is indeed the prime and most significant tool that keeps FB functional. Therefore, it is essential for micro-celebrities that their content gets immediately seen and shared by followers, gets likes, and gets subscribers. The biggest nightmare for FB micro-celebrities would be of “disappearing and becoming

obsolete” (Bucher 2012, 1164) as it would rob them of the possibility of getting famous or losing their established fame.

Devalued Fame or Vfame

Writer and philosopher Mark Rowland is highly critical of contemporary celebrity culture and the ease of obtaining online fame. He argues that, because of the rise of social media, people are now craving to get famous more than ever, which in its turn has devalued fame. In his book, Fame (The Art of Living), he coined the term

“new variant fame” or “vfame,” which he describes as the fame achieved through extreme and widespread notoriety in the absence of any recognizable achievement or quality (2008, 23). Rowland’s critique, however, is not an attempt to belittle the social media promise of equality and accessibility for everyone, yet he believes it has caused a “flattening out of culture, and a hollowing out of hierarchies of value” (2008, 91).

He contends that micro-celebrity fame should be granted only to those who are worthy of it, unlike FB, with its rising “number of singularly untalented people becoming famous” (2008, 14). In particular, Rowland’s major critique of devalued fame is in reference to Maplesden’s “toxic celebrity,” concerning women who sell sex on social media sites to get famous.

With the evolving digital media and new market spaces of consumption, a significant degree of democratization and domestication of sexually explicit content involving women has been noted (Attwood, 2007). Rowland’s vfame associated with such female celebrities’ attributes to the display of “bodily disgust,” which, according

to him is “the epitome of cultural bullshit” and audiences’ “inability to distinguish quality from bullshit” for granting fame to such denigrated females (2008, 28).

Although “toxic micro-celebrities” manage to garner attention through self- sexualization, this attention could often end in humiliation and social marginalization.

It is, however, important to note that, “the public disapproval of such celebrity behavior appears to be strongly gendered” (Maplesden 2015, 72). The case of

Qandeel Baloch is a graphic example of such a strongly gendered denigration.

Gender and Culture

Butler’s theory on performativity conceptualizes gender as a performance and states, “there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender” (1990, 25).

Maplesden highlights Butler’s arguments, claiming that the ideal characteristics that are associated with women’s femininity, and the way in which they should behave, are “produced by disciplinary practices which prescribe female bodily styles and appearances through received gender norms” (2015, 244). In general terms, ideal gender roles are largely based on social structures, cultural practices, and religious beliefs that assign acceptable gender roles. Furthermore, on gender and deviance,

Gies contends that women whose “actions […] are perceived as deviating from the social norms of femininity […] are more intensely surveilled for potential wrongdoing than men” (Maplesden 2015, 72).

As an insider of the Pakistani culture, I was intrigued by Baloch’s case. If, in

Butler’s words, punishing “those who fail to do their gender right” (1990, 140) is a

global phenomenon, then how important is the cultural context in Baloch’s case? In

Pakistani society, the gender role of women is most heavily influenced by cultural practices, which are fueled by religious beliefs. The subordination of women is part of the patriarchal culture and religious ideologies, which normalize and even encourage the control of the female body and sexuality by her male relatives (Hunt & Jung,

2009). Nevertheless, Baloch is not the only victim of this subordination, as Facebook offers a wide variety of examples pointing to the irreversible harm inflicted by the exploitative Pakistani patriarchal culture on women’s real lives as a consequence of their online behavior, which is perceived as deviant. A recent example is the 24-year- old Beauty Blogger Amna Atiq, who committed suicide after her husband became abusive on account of her Facebook fame. After she went live on Facebook and stated that she intended to get a divorce, her father threatened to have her killed or put in a mental asylum.

Another rising Pakistani female controversial figure, Hareem Shah, a star on the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok, is currently widely being discussed in

Pakistan. Her story loosely parallels that of Baloch’s. Shah rose to fame overnight when she shared a video of herself sitting in the Prime Minister’s chair at Pakistan’s

Foreign Office. Soon after that, her viral videos with other celebrities and officials of

Pakistan spread rapidly. The most prominent of these include her videos with Prime

Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet members, especially the extremely controversial and sensitive one, which exposes the Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid for having a sexual relationship with Shah.

Shah’s example is crucial to understand Baloch’s case as there are uncanny resemblances between their lives. Like Baloch, Shah created an online alias to hide her true identity. Both were eventually exposed to social media (Shah’s real name being Fiza Hussain). Both were married at an early age. Both were widely popular with over a million followers on social media and received death threats as a result of their inappropriate video content. Shah’s family is also staunchly opposed to her flashy, in-the-public-eye lifestyle.

Moreover, although Shah has not yet been subjected to an extreme and life- threatening action like Baloch, her father posted a video on FB crying and apologizing to the public for his daughter’s inappropriate behavior. He publicly called off his relationship with Shah. Pakistan is still a traditional and conservative society in many parts of the country and gaining popularity and challenging traditional values invites danger, especially if these challenges come from female stars and thus could be considered as dishonoring their families. Following the footsteps of Baloch, Shah is putting herself in danger, which is evident from the speech of her father, who expressed his worries for his daughter. Shah is now moving to Canada in attempts to avoid a tragedy similar to the one that befell Baloch.

Nazia Hussain, a researcher of Qandeel Baloch’s display of open sexuality, in her journal on Disseminating Liberal Values for Women’s Empowerment in

Pakistan (2019) points out that, through traditional and social media, Baloch’s personality was constructed simultaneously as a “badly behaved woman, brave daughter, true female internet celebrity, flesh-and-blood woman, promiscuous,

salacious woman, a very nice girl, one-woman army, and a social media star” (89).

She further contends that these conflicting qualities describe a woman who challenges society, culture, and religious norms in the name of her right to be herself. Her plight exposes the core problem of Pakistani society, which – in its fears that “construction of rights detaches women from any traditional social collectivity” – “takes the position that women have no rights at all” (91).

Hussein further argues that a modern woman must go against the traditional discourses of “piety, chastity, and modesty because the individuality and equality” since they “cannot be enjoyed unless freedom is achieved and practiced” (2019, 91).

The dangers of such a challenge are double, and Baloch is a case in point. On the one hand, she was victimized by traditionalist guardians of patriarchal culture. However, on the other hand, she was praised by narrow-minded liberals1, who considered her a bold, sexually provocative modern woman, who openly practiced her sexuality – and this in a culture where sleeveless shirts are considered a vulgarity – encouraging her to take off her clothes publicly as the ultimate expression of personal courage, freedom and progress.

Baloch heard these encouraging voices and pushed the limits of what was acceptable in her culture. As analyzed later in this thesis, she flaunted her sexuality to the extent that would rival even what the acceptable limits are in relatively more liberal-minded countries like the United States, which is well illustrated by the case of

1 Broad minded individuals can be defined as people with high a tolerance and acceptance level to understand the right of freedom of expression for everyone. However, in Pakistani society, narrow minded people are conservatives who object to other peoples’ right of freedom of expression whether political, sexual, social, or religious; they tend to find flaws in everything and everyone except in themselves. 19

American star Kim Kardashian. And, although Kardashian, like Baloch, is both widely shamed and praised for her overtly sexual suggestiveness, she faces no comparable level of threat and danger that Baloch and many others do in Pakistan.

It should be noted that in Pakistan, like in any country, various ideologies and cultures percolate and vie for attention within the public space, with the upper classes and more educated strata being generally less traditional (patriarchal) in their beliefs about women’ rights and behaviors. There are social niches and cultural spaces where it is not dangerous for a woman not to cover her head, and also, not all women from lower social and material status are being punished for engaging in any of the aforementioned behaviors.

Conversely, while there has been a growing level of support for the Pakistani

Internet stars, it does not mean that their status makes them immune to the public ire.

A case in point is the Pakistani actress Neelam Muneer, who performed a sexy, fully clothed dance in her car with her friends. One of the friends, however, leaked the video onto Facebook, and she was subjected to an avalanche of criticism. However, the criticism was counteracted by lots of support from fans and followers who were not happy at people bashing her on social media for a private dance. Pakistani Actor

Saba Qamar also publicly stood for Muneer by recording and posting an exclusive video where she and her friends all express their love and support.

There is no doubt that Baloch’s display of nudity was intentional, done for the sake of fame, and for Pakistani women, who choose to put themselves at risk by

posting similar videos on social media, because they – as well as many others like them, both males and females worldwide – enjoy the fame and attention it brings them, whether positive or negative. Therefore, with the introduction of Facebook and the opportunity to engage in such behavior, both males and females are faced with the personal responsibility to make an enlightened decision in whether their desire for fame and their inherent right to pursue it would not be outweighed by the potential consequences they could face.

Facebook is a western commodity, and as there has been little research focusing on Pakistani social media culture, I will restrict from my study of toxic micro-celebrities’ examples from western popular media. In so doing, the thesis maps the restrictive structures of patriarchal power in Pakistan, which oversees the production of normative gendered roles. And, as is to be expected, its normativity clash with the complex and often contradictory – neoliberal and globalized – social media, sometimes bringing about dire real-life consequences for FB consumers outside the west. Hence, I believe that the case study of Qandeel Baloch, a quintessential Pakistani example of an extraordinary female – bold in her recklessness and earnest in her delusions – to be my contribution to knowledge in this scantly researched area.

CHAPTER I: Constructing the Micro-Celebrity Model

After extensive research of extant theoretical literature on the FB phenomenon and bearing in mind the specifics of the case study under scrutiny, I have come up with a model revealing how FB facilitates the emergence of micro-celebrities as

embodiments of notoriety and toxicity. This model is built on major research findings in new media studies, as well as theoretical discussions and concepts concerning the micro-celebrity phenomenon. These include attention-seeking performative practices of micro-celebrities and the role of FB audiences in their eventual destruction.

1.1 Micro-celebrity Practices

Boyd and Marwick (2011) define celebrity as a practice and investigate the online behavior of famous mainstream celebrities through analyzing 300 tweets from their Twitter accounts. Building on Goffman's dramaturgical metaphors, they describe the attention-seeking methods or practices, developed and employed by celebrities, to garner attention; “to construct a consumable persona the practice of celebrity involves, authenticity and access, ongoing maintenance of a fan base and performed intimacy” (Boyd and Marwick 2011, 140). Another celebrity practice Boyd and

Marwick mention is the so-called showing “affiliation to other [traditional] celebrity practitioners” (2011, 147). This chapter also introduces the category of Performing

Sexuality within the context of the celebrity practices discussed in order to capture the sexual practices employed by micro-celebrities.

1.1.1 Performance of Self and Authenticity

Boyd and Marwick’s element of Authenticity and Access refer to practices that verify the authenticity of mainstream celebrity practitioners on twitter accounts.

In order to determine the authenticity of Twitter accounts, they focus on identifying

the signals of authenticity.2 For Boyd and Marwick, intimacy has no value if the account or the person handling the account is not the one they claim to be. Thus, on the one hand, micro-celebrities should keep disclosing “true, unscripted, unrehearsed” information about themselves to verify their authenticity as “a display of their hidden inner life, complete with passion and anguish" (Trilling qtd in Boyd & Marwick 2011,

149). Yet, on the other hand, the emphasis is not so much on whether they are “truly revealing intimate details about their life to fans,” but rather on “creating a sense of intimacy and authenticity through their performance” (Myrskog 2014, 30). Boyd and

Marwick, therefore, conclude that “determining whether the audiences are watching the authentic self of the micro-celebrities or a performed celebrity is not a point because it is the uncertainty that creates pleasure for the celebrity watcher” (Boyd &

Marwick 2011, 144).

Goffman made a significant contribution to developing a theoretical basis for research on performative authenticity in the 1960s. In his book Presentation of Self in

Everyday Life (1959), he uses the term “performance” to establish what he calls the

"dramaturgical approach,” which focuses on the ways an actor constructs and performs identity through mimic, behavior, emotions and actions that are believable and elicits the approval of others in the interactive process.

Goffman puts forth the exciting idea that while performing one's actual self (otherwise authentic or real self), an individual usually approaches his or

2 like “(a) looking for presence of typos, it is expected that real celebrity practitioners will make grammatical or spelling mistakes; (b) tweets that are personal, controversial, or negative – in other words, that contradict the stereotype of the overly managed celebrity account – signal greater authenticity; (c) if the writer interacted with fans, used the first-person voice, and posted candid snapshots, they seemed more authentic” (Boyd & Matrwick 2011, 149) 23

her ideal self more closely than usual. He, therefore, contends that identity and self are constituted through interaction between the performer and the audiences, whereas the performer works to uphold his or her idealized self. Goffman’s concept of

“impression management” is in agreement with sociologist Charles Horton Cooley, who claims that people seem to present themselves always as a bit better than the reality (Goffman 1959, 44). His view is shared by Richard Mark Leary, professor of psychology and neuroscience, who explains impression management in terms of social and personal psychology, arguing that it is a form of “self-presentation,” “a process by which individuals attempt to control the impressions others form of them”

(Leary and Kowalski, 1990, 34). Furthermore, individuals do not only restrict the impression construction process to behavioral changes but also alter their “attitudes, moods, roles, status, physical states, interests, beliefs etc. (ibid).

Therefore, while creating an impression on the perceived audience, people are aware of how much information they want to pass on to others. Revealing too much would destroy the impression they wanted to create in the first place. In order to make sure that others perceive them accordingly – and that their image is not being sullied by negative attributes, which would disrupt the process of impression management – individuals “hesitate to claim images that are inconsistent with how they see themselves” (Leary and Kowalski, 1990, 40). In other words, the image created “must remain consistent with what the audiences already have accustomed to trusting. This central element of self-presentation is what Goffman calls "expressive coherence"

(1959, 63). The presentation of one's self, he explains, must be in line with past and future presentations of the self to the same audience" (Goffman qtd in Uski, 2015,

30). In Goffman's thinking, constructed identities are validated and accepted by the audiences, and if not consistent in the performance, are rejected by the audiences.

1.1.2 Maintenance of Fan Base

This second practice refers to the activities in which micro-celebrities communicate with fans, acknowledge their presence, and show affiliation to them. FB

Micro celebrities maintain an ongoing fan base by (1) creating constant presence/visibility on FB and thus staying connected with their audiences, and by (2) interacting directly with audiences and viewing them as fans.

Firstly, using FB affordances of share-ability and interactivity, micro- celebrities achieve a distinctive "Internet-enabled visibility" (Marwick, 2013a, 114).

Micro celebrities cannot be absent from social media even for a day if fame is what they are after since the chances of the audience's attention moving to other content are very high. In other words, the loyalty of fans on FB is fickle. Therefore, constant visibility for micro-celebrities is an essential factor in achieving online fame and maintaining fans’ interest regardless of the nature of the shared content by the micro- celebrities.

Secondly, the visibility attained by micro-celebrities through constant sharing facilitates interaction and a more engaging relationship between micro-celebrities and online audiences. As Boyd & Marwick state, this is a two-way interaction, where

"celebrity practitioners use public acknowledgment, in the form of replies, to connect with others. Fans reply to famous people not only in the hope of receiving a reply but

to display a relationship, whether positive or negative" (2011, 145). It could be concluded, therefore, that as long as there is a constant presence of micro-celebrities on social media and consistent fan interaction in the form of views, likes, shares, and comments, the popularity of these celebrities stays intact.

P. David Marshall, a prolific new media and cultural studies scholar, rightfully notes the vested interest of the micro-celebrity in sustaining its media platform visibility by noting that the recognition of social media users through online

"exchanges are extensions in the production of the self, and are vital to the maintenance of one's digital identity and digital public self" (2010, 42). To explain these public selves that are lived in the online dynamics of the social networking sites,

Marshall further establishes the category of the "intercommunicative self," which is

"engaged in a multi-layered form of communication that kneads mediated forms with the conversation" (2010, 42). In other words, to fill the online gap formed by the absence of face-to-face interaction, these intercommunicative selves create a virtual presence and interaction through pictures, videos, and other visual and textual tools.

Marshall refers to this process as "narrowing of the gap" between celebrities and their fans or followers (2006, 637). Due to the narrowing of the gap between micro- celebrities and their followers in the online world of social media, micro-celebrities tend to treat fans as friends and family for the sake of intimacy (discussed in the following section).

However, Boyd and Marwick point out another aspect of the Maintenance of

Fan Base practice, which reinforces the inequality between micro-celebrity and their

audiences: their tendency to view followers as fans, rather than as friends or family; this dynamic requires fans to recognize their lesser status and act accordingly, cherishing no expectations of reciprocity, especially from micro-celebrities with hundreds of thousands of fans (qtd in Myrskog 2014, 31). Micro-celebrities usually deal with this issue by finding ways of mentioning their audiences/fans in their content, such as by asking specific questions or asking for feedback and thus creating a sense of connection. Following Marshall, Boyd and Marwick call this semblance of accessibility a parasocial interaction, "...the illusion of a 'real,' face-to-face friendship"

(2011, 144).

1.1.3 Performed Intimacy

The third micro-celebrity practice of interest in this thesis is Performed

Intimacy, which is a key aspect of the micro-celebrities’ performative practices. As

Marshall points out:

The constant need for visibility and interaction pushes celebrity culture into a constant and accelerated game of recursive revelation of the private and the intimate…an online culture where the intimacy moves outward into a new quasi-public presentation of the self through various displays of text and images (2010, 499).

Intimacy is a highly valued asset in attracting attention on social media platforms; therefore, notorious micro-celebrities perform intimacy by usually treating audiences as friends and family and creating the illusion that followers are getting uncensored information about their private lives by (1) sharing day-to-day mundane 27

details, (2) sharing personal feelings/emotions and (3) incorporating notorious, controversial dramatic content.

The first important aspect of Performed Intimacy is sharing mundane details that are regularly seen on FB newsfeeds. For most people, it appears to be a long list of minute daily activities, which is aptly called by Clive Thompson, a well-known science and technology blogger, "digital intimacy” (2008,1). He explains the insatiable need for constant up-to-the-minute updates on what others are doing as addictive for online audiences. He introduces the term, "ambient awareness" or,

“ambient intimacy,” which is a form of present-day narcissism, taken to a new […] extreme [as] “the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world”

(2006, 2-3).

Thompson defines the ubiquitous phenomenon of frequently posting minute tidbits as absurd and virtually meaningless (2008, 2). Similarly, and based on his qualitative analysis on user’s performance and interactions on FB and Twitter, Jaime

R. Riccio contends that online users treat the social networking sites as a “public diary,” where they register most intimate personal details in a manner that would get them the most public attention (2013, 46).

The second aspect of Performed Intimacy is "displaying of hidden inner emotions [and] revealing intimate information that creates a bond between micro- celebrity practitioners and their audiences" (Boyd & Marwick 2013, 30). Marshall

calls this essential aspect of Performed Intimacy an obsessive need of construing a

"transgressive intimate self," or an "intimate online version of the self that is motivated by temporary emotion" (2010, 45).

As is pointed out, there is a constant struggle for attention on FB, which foregrounds the elements of “emotionalization” and “dramatization” (Driessens 2013,

644). Coupled with “display of hidden inner life, the act of revealing intimate information” creates a solid bond between micro-celebrity practitioners and their audiences (Marwick 2013, 30). Therefore “dramatization” is yet another, a third important aspect of Performed Intimacy Boyd & Marwick’s article, The Drama! Teen

Conflict, Gossip, and Bullying in Networked Publics (2011) provide an interesting insight into online melodramatic behaviors of micro-celebrities. They define on-line

"drama" as

[A] performative set of actions, incorporating elements of gossip, conflict,

public emotional display in the form of relational aggression, [and] playing the

victim - in short making a big deal out of anything unnecessarily (1).

According to the authors, “relational aggression” serves as a narrative basis of

“relationship drama, romances and breakups” (8 & 16) and is therefore “one of the manifestations of drama as gendered practice” (8). Their findings are supported by the frequent display of sadness by female micro-celebrities when articulating their feelings for men.

Similarly, Minna Aslama and Mervi Pantti (2006), in their article Talking alone: Reality TV- emotions and authenticity, define the disclosure of earnest emotions as a key component of contemporary confessional culture. References to this representational specificity can also be found in Pamela Ingelton's article Celebrity seeking micro-celebrity: 'new candour' and every day in the Sad, Sad

Conversation (2014). She examines the indulgence of micro-celebrities – in “Sad, Sad

Conversations" in order to garner attention by a public display of "self-obsessed, semi-self-loathing honesty about the state of one's crushed hopes, dreams and ambitions" (526).

1.1.4 Affiliation to the Mainstream Celebrities

The fourth element of micro-celebrity practices, according to Boyd and

Marwick, is demonstrated Affiliation with mainstream Celebrities, which is meant “to provide value to their fan base and to emphasize commonalities between the practitioner and his or her followers” (2011, 147). For micro-celebrities craving for attention, there are other ways of targeting mainstream celebrities to come into the limelight; for instance, by taunting them by playing the victim, and by levelling against them absurd, unreal accusations. Boorstin (1961), for example, introduces the idea of "simulation," suggesting that the identities of the media celebrities are mere illusion, full of false appearances, fabrications and "pseudo-events," deliberately staged attention-seeking strategies, with little link to the reality of their lives, and which "tend to be more interesting, more attractive…and less real" (1961, 37).

Boorstin's "pseudo-events" are the rule micro-celebrities abide by in order to get as many likes as possible.

More specific to the current study is Zeynep Tufekci’s discussion of the ways social media micro-celebrities use social and political activism to garner attention and introduces the concept of "micro-celebrity networking activism." It refers to:

Politically motivated non-institutional actors who use affordances of social media to engage in the presentation of their political and personal selves to garner public attention (2013).

She further emphasizes the micro-celebrity tendencies of "falsification and framing political discourses" solely for the sake of attention-seeking. On social media, mainstream celebrities, micro-celebrities, and the audiences actively participate in the discussion of contemporary political issues for mainly two purposes. As an expression of their freedom of speech, some use social media as an outlet for putting their legitimate opinions out there. Then again, others use social media to broadcast their views on politics as a tool for acquiring attention by starting conversations or igniting arguments on sensitive social/political topics that they usually are, to say the least, not very competent about.

1.1.5 Performing Sexuality

FB users generate attention-seeking content. Lakshmi Chaudhry, in her article Mirror, Mirror on the Web, argues that narcissism is the driving force of fame, which has contributed significantly to the rise of micro-celebrities on FB (2007, 19).

Chaudry’s observation is echoed seven years later by Sarah Nelson, (2014), who claims that:

[n]arcissist tendencies leading to a desire for fame, have increased with the

rise and access to social media platforms since now there are more ways to be

seen and known (11).

Nelson analyzes the concept of narcissism in light of micro-celebrities in order to explore the current FB obsession. Her study, based on interviews and observations of the online behavior of FB users, throws in high relief “the role of narcissism” as a

“trigger for engagement” and a “person’s motivation to engage” (2014, 25). FB users, who generate attention seeking content and end up achieving fame, complete with fans and celebrity status on FB, are mostly driven by narcissism and the idea of self- importance. Furthermore, Nelson suggests that on FB, “fame is changing into notoriety” (ibid). Her argument provides particularly valuable insights and understanding of the connection between micro-celebrities and narcissism in my research.

The instantaneous nature of technology stimulates a craving for instantaneous attention, allowing online users to pursue instant fame through the shortcut of controversy and scandal. Besides, there are many examples of mainstream celebrities who have achieved global fame through sexual scandals, but the names of Paris

Hilton and Kim Kardashian should suffice. So, it is no small wonder that female micro-celebrities employ similar tactics. As Hillary Radner (1999) points out, online sexual practices are accomplished through “the use of highly revealing clothing, use 32

of makeup and posing sexually” in front of the camera, with the degree of dishabille reflecting the degree of the micro-celebrity’s “sluttiness” (15). These performative practices are among the most valuable on FB as they immediately translate into followers, likes, subscribers, and so on.

It is indeed difficult to ignore the gendered character of this practice. On the one hand, as Writer Devyn Olin writes, these sexually suggestive behaviors are successful in the online world because “sex sells because of sex startles” (2018, para.6). New York Times contributor Peggy Orenstein also contends that, because of the male online presence, “female sexuality is presented as a performance for male pleasure” (2016, 21). Indeed, the micro-celebrities who gain fame through notorious practices are sometimes derided as “fame-whores implying that visibility itself is not enough” (Attwood 2007, 107). For such micro-celebrities, Margaret Schwartz uses the term “attention whores” (2011, 233).

Furthermore, Mady Coy and Maria Garner in their article Glamour modelling and the marketing of self-sexualization (2010), highlight the role of the social contexts and suggest that sexual performance on social media platforms is highly public on two levels,

[F]irst, in that it is narrowly framed as (at least) exposed breasts and revealing

lingerie, and, second, that, in order to be lucrative, such performance must be

publicly available for consumption (661).

They also argue that female micro-celebrities “market their sexualized self for reward, and their performance is for the benefit of men as consumers of women’s bodies in the sex industry and sexualized popular culture” (Coy & Garner 2010, 661).

I would argue that while the sexualized performances of these female micro- celebrities is merely done for men’s pleasure, they could also be seen as an act of self- empowerment, associated with gaining self-confidence through conformity to beauty standards while being desired by men, which grants these women a better social position thanks to achieving online fame and admiration from all audiences. Indeed, taking further Butler’s famous argument – that gender is shaped through discourses and social practices, and that “all women share characteristics as a consequence of adopting the same social role, being laced within the same kind of social structures or being subject to the same symbolic order” (2004, 137) – it could be assumed that, by fearless and extremely bold portrayal of sexuality on FB, female micro-celebrities move beyond what is socially acceptable and enter into the “domain of risk” that can harm them on many levels (Butler 1997, 29).

It is thus understandable that some authors define the growing abundance of sexualized female images on social media as a cultural shift from sexual objectification to sexual subjectification. As already mentioned, Maplesden (2015) uses the term “toxic celebrity” to describe young female celebrities, who are “train wrecked, out-of-control, superficial, and narcissistic” and who gain a large popularity by embodying a “confident up-for-it spoiled femininity,” constantly made-up and exuding sexual allure, but often not classy or elegant, or in line with appropriate feminine behavior, and therefore “less able to generate cultural value” (307).

1.2 Facebook Audiences and Toxic Micro-celebrities

Social media sites are distinctively known for their open public participation and their sharing of content, which is indeed the prime and most significant tool that keeps Facebook micro-celebrities functional. In her study of audience motives to seek active involvement in online content, Katherine L. Fleming (2007) points to the rise of participatory fandom as the major one which, in Fleming’s view, is explained not only by the fact that “audiences seek out social interaction with celebrities,” but also that they “enjoy being a part of a participation environment” (2007, 71). Sonia

Livingstone also highlights the role of “audiences as a relational or interactional construct [creating a] diverse set of relationships between people and media” (2008,

4). She explains that the basic “audiences’ activities” are motivated by seeing social media mostly as a “source of pleasure and/or information” (2008, 7).

Michiko Izawa (2010), in her study of the reasons behind the viral content phenomenon, conducted an online survey of 176 participants to observe online audiences’ behavior. Her study reveals that “those who had shared or would share the videos felt happiness, humour, surprise, fear, sadness, and anger more strongly than those who had not shared or would not share the videos” (2010, ii). The study also asserts that online audiences tend to share harmful content, such as rumors, gossip, which are sexually or otherwise provocative, more than they would share positive content. Izawa also indicates that, for content to go viral, it needs to be extreme – either “as optimistic as possible,” or “as pessimistic as possible” (2010, 30). Jonah

Berger and Katherine L.Milkman (2012) reach similar conclusions and argue that content evoking “high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral,” while “content that evokes low-arousal or deactivating, emotions (e.g. sadness) is less viral” (2012, 1). Their study also suggests that negative content tends to be shared more readily than positive content.

In the same line of thought, Boyd writes, “gossip on social media spreads farther, and faster, and persists longer when people choose to share it” (2014, 145).

She further states that with social media users, “spread” is the content “they find fascinating, fueling the attention that it receives” and that what “they share widely is often most embarrassing or humiliating, grotesque or sexual content” (ibid).

Similarly, Sarah Ahmed argues that hate figures accumulate “affective value” (2004,

123). Thus, the negative features of micro-celebrities, exposed on the internet, tend to turn into positive value in terms of attracting likes, shares and comments. However, micro-celebrities run a very real risk of being discredited by their audience if they share too much negativity on Facebook. Indeed, as Maplesden argues, that hate figures have value in the media precisely because they bring micro-celebrities to the brink of “toxic celebrity,” which “materializes fears” of transgressing “cultural mores” (2015, 162). In her view, toxic celebrities get the most space and attention on social media because their content is circulated to ignite fear, and these figures are held up as models of bad behavior for others to avoid. Conservative circles construe increased representation of female sexuality and their access to social media sites as a threat that is destabilizing the moral core and challenging the cultural norms of society.

The commenting feature on Facebook enables anyone, anywhere, anytime to express an opinion on anything. This freedom has allowed the proliferation of hateful and extreme speech on notorious micro-celebrity posts, which could harm them. It is, therefore, essential to understanding the dynamics of the ‘new’ kind of harm in the online world, where the perpetrators are hiding behind the screen, and are anonymous

(Bryant 2011, 415). This ‘new’ harm is therefore defined as “any emotional, physical, or psychological impact on a person’s well-being as a result of words, actions, or behavior,” which is an outcome of actions, facilitated by any online platform (Harper

2017, 18). Although these actions do not require physical activity, they – in addition to causing intentional emotional harm through insults, obscenity, profanity, abuse, mocking, harassment, bullying and name-calling – can also cause physical harm indirectly, thus contributing to creating a hate culture (Jay 2009, 81).

Professor Nicolaus Mills, in his commentary on reality television, coined the term “culture of humiliation,” whereby users on Facebook humiliate each other, and this practice is so common that it is considered the primary source of entertainment

(2004, 79). A fundamental theoretical approach to the understanding of the risk of this culture of hate and humiliation is the work of Ulrich Beck. According to Beck, mass media has generated a “risk society” since social media has opened a gateway to risk, as the content that is considered appropriately funny in one context can be inappropriate and dangerous in another, and bring potential risks for the people who produce such questionable content (2006, 332).

This emergent hate Facebook culture is thus a culture where users (trollers or haters) humiliate and belittle each others’ content for fun. Internet trollers thus troll anyone for entertainment or to seek attention either without realizing the harm they can inflict or by doing it deliberately.3 However, trollers or haters are not the worst problems in the case of notorious and toxic micro-celebrities, since their major motivation in circulating scandalous content is garnering attention, which tends to grow in direct proportion with the spread of gossip throughout the online communities. While the audiences indulge in the in-depth discussion of bad social conduct and appropriate modes of moral and ethical behavior, scandalous media celebrities successfully maintain their fame. As Marshall (2006) points out, micro- celebrities often “act out” by accepting notoriety in order to remain in the public eye, since severely damaging controversies tend to push their visibility index to an all-time high.

3 Herring et al. identify that the troller – or the antagonist, “provokes other group members, often with the result of drawing them into fruitless argument,” while appearing at the same time “to enjoy the attention they receive” (2011,371). The authors further suggest strategies to deal with trollers, aimed at minimizing the harm done to individuals, and limit the harmful effects of their trolling. The first strategy, as suggested by Herring et al. is to ignore the troller as “it denies troller’s desire to stir up trouble” (2011, 378). The second strategy is to refute the troller's claims by “answering questions, suggesting counterexamples, or pointing out logical flaws” (ibid). Furthermore, the third strategy is to return insults for insults, but they further suggested that this method may not be very effective as it would mean lowering themselves to the troller’s level, which further promotes the culture of hate online. 38

CHAPTER II: Research Methodology

This chapter describes the research methodology of the study, including the primary research methods, as well as the methods applied to the collection and selection of data, and the general categorization and characterization of data.

2.1 Principal Research Methods

The qualitative approach used in this study is usually applied when the nature of the research is to explore and gain a deeper understanding of a situation or a problem (Stake, 2005). Since this study aims at building a micro-celebrity model revealing how Facebook facilitates the emergence of micro-celebrities as embodiments of notoriety and toxicity, and thus gains a deeper understanding of the phenomenon, the qualitative research approach has been deemed most appropriate.

A case study is the other major methodological approach applied to this research. Robert E. Stake claims that “case study is a common way to make the qualitative inquiry” (2005, 23). He further explains, “a case may be simple or complex. It may be a child or a classroom of children or an event, a happening” (ibid,

24). I choose a singular case and apply the micro-celebrity model on Qandeel Baloch to explore her motives for becoming a notorious micro-celebrity on Facebook.

Yin notes, case studies are beneficial in “understanding contemporary and complex social phenomena,” because “the case study method allows investigators to

retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events,” especially when the focus is on the “how” and “why” questions, and when the researcher has no control over the behavior of those involved in the study (2003, 5-10). Case study methodology maintains deep connections to core values and intentions and is

“particularistic, descriptive, and heuristic” (Merriam 2017, 46). As a study design, a case study is defined by an interest in individual cases rather than the methods of inquiry used. Therefore, the case study method is appropriate for this thesis because besides examining Baloch’s content, I have also analyzed the audiences’ comments and viewpoints to help me understand the Facebook mechanism for making a non- exceptional person like Baloch famous, and in revealing the process of her becoming notorious and toxic, which eventually destroys her.

2.2 Data Collection and Approaches to Data Analysis

The data collected for the purpose of this study are Baloch's Facebook videos as they were her primary tools for getting attention on Facebook. During the data collection process, it was noted that videos outnumbered her photos, both in terms of frequency as well as in terms of the viral and controversial potential of their notorious content. Therefore, Baloch’s videos are the primary source of data gathered for this research. The steps in the collection of qualitative data from Facebook are as follows:

• By using the keyword “Qandeel Baloch,” Facebook pages were scoured in

order to get a general idea of the available amount of data. Since Facebook

blocked the original Qandeel Baloch official page, all the data she had posted

during her lifetime is unavailable on her Facebook page timeline. However, numerous Baloch fan pages were created in her memory after her death.

Therefore, the fan pages were filtered and selected based on the maximum number of followers and the number of available posts of Baloch from her original page. The selected fan pages are (1) Qandeel Baloch Official, (2)

Qandeel Fouzia Baloch and (3) Kuch such kuch gup – only one video of

Baloch doing striptease is extracted from this page. This is her most controversial video, which led to her demise, hence significant for this research because of which FB page it was found on, which is referenced here.

For the triangulation of content, the Google search tool was also used to find more videos. Google redirected to two websites with Baloch's original content: storify.com and dailymotion.com. During the data collection process, the content on storify.com was made unavailable.

Therefore, dailymotion.com was used as another primary source for extracting

Baloch's videos.

It was then necessary to determine the timeline of the material posted.

Baloch's official FB page was active from 2014 to 2016. Her fame was at its peak from January 2015 to July 2016. From the selected FB pages, 31 videos and over 1400 comments, dated from January 2015 to July 2016, were randomly selected. In addition, 14 videos were selected from dailymotion.com, bringing a total of 45 videos and over 1450 comments. The data were categorized below in thematic subgroups, based on the prevalent micro- celebrity practices.

• Performance of Self and Authenticity: This category analyzes Baloch’s

authenticity in terms of her FB performed persona vs. her real identity. The

main concepts used in the analysis are Goffman’s “performance theory”

(1959) to analyze how and why, in order to maintain her FB identity, she gets

involved in what Leary calls “impression management.” (Leary and Kowalski,

1990).

• Maintenance of Fan Base: This category is interpreted given the activities

that Baloch engages with as a form of communication with fans: to

acknowledge their presence and show affiliation to them. She maintains an

ongoing fan base by (1) Greeting and making various audio-visual dedications

to fans in order to sustain constant presence/visibility on FB, and by (2)

Responding to haters by interacting with them and viewing them as fans.

• Performed Intimacy: Pertains to the ways in which Baloch shows affection

to followers: treating the audiences as friends or family, by sharing intimate

details about her personal life. There are elements of Performed Intimacy in

most of her videos that are under the other categories as well.

• Affiliation to the Mainstream Celebrities: Refers to the notorious tactics

used by Baloch to affiliate with mainstream celebrities by (1) showing love or

proposing to them or by (2) lashing out at them and/or falsely accusing them.

There are also the elements of Performed Intimacy, Performing Sexuality, and

emotionalization and dramatization in her videos under this category.

• Performing Sexuality: This category was formed on the basis of Baloch’s

image as a “drama queen” and “disgrace to society,” in short, a bad example

of a woman who gathered fame by mainly using her sexuality, and thus

embodying notoriety and toxicity. This category analyzes Baloch’s sexually

suggestive activities of posing and dancing in her videos.

• The consumption behavior of FB audiences is analyzed to see how they

respond to Baloch’s videos. To do so, the comments collected for this research

are classified under two main headings – Positive and Negative – and six sub-

headings, with those under the Negative heading, like Bullying, Harassing,

and Hostility being the most numerous. Chapter IV also looks at the

responsibility, and the role played by the FB management’s bias in causing

Baloch’s untimely demise by blocking her page but failing to protect her from

harassment and vicious bullying.

CHAPTER III: Findings and Analysis

3.1 Performance of Self and Authenticity

The first finding of this study is Baloch's Performance of Self and the question of her Authenticity in terms of her real name and true identity, which came to the surface a few weeks before her murder. Taking advantage of the freedom and tools granted by FB for profile creation, she created the alias Qandeel Baloch for her online persona. Her legal name, Fouzia Azeem – and her true identity – was a secret she carefully guarded from her audiences. The Image.1 below (on the left) released posthumously on social media, shows that hidden identity. This picture came as a shock for her followers as people knew nothing about Qandeel's past and instead only knew her as a flamboyant social media celebrity.

Image 1. Qandeel Baloch AKA Fouzia Azeem (Real-Life vs. Online Identity)

Fouzia Azeem (Image.1 on the left): A young girl from a small town called

Dera Ghazi Khan in Pakistan, who belonged to an underprivileged, conservative family and had six brothers and two sisters. They lived in poverty with no exposure to media and did not have the privilege of an education. She was forced to marry a man named Aashiq Hussain at the age of 17 and had a son with him. A year later, she left

her husband claiming that he was abusive and that she wanted to study and achieve something in life.4

Qandeel Baloch (Image.1 on the right): A single, young, beautiful, and vibrant independent woman who took the Internet by storm with her attention-seeking tactics.

According to this newly assumed identity, she was a singer, model, and actor who lived in a metropolitan city5. She was one of the Top 10 most searched for persons on the Internet in Pakistan when her fame was at its peak between 2015 and 2016.

Goffman's understanding of performance is accurately illustrated by Baloch's performance of self on FB. Fouzia Azeem emerged on the social media scene as

Qandeel Baloch and maintained this identity to the very end. For Fouzia Azeem,

Qandeel Baloch was an identity that she idealized and fantasized about – someone she wanted to be for the world. Since Baloch is a respectable and high-status family name in Pakistan6, by adopting this name and building a new identity around it, the village girl Fouzia Azeem upgraded herself socially. She found relative freedom and fulfillment in this role.

4After her divorce, she left her son with her ex-husband because she could not support him financially. In the last few interviews before her murder she said, “Now I will fight for my son.” After her murder, in several interviews her parents admitted that she was supporting them financially, buying them a new house, furniture, and all the luxuries they could have asked for. She was also supporting her siblings to get a better education which suggests a much more complex human psyche and individuality than the façade she construed for public consumption. 5 Baloch first received mass recognition online in 2013 when she auditioned for the singing show Pakistan Idol. The audition video of her crying for getting rejected went viral, resulting in granting her overnight fame. Later, she created her FB page and started her journey of online micro-celebrity fame and notoriety. 6 Baloch is a prestigious surname in the northern part of Pakistan with an old lineage. People from the Baloch tribe are known for their long history of involvement in politics, for having strong cultural values, are famous in keeping the honor of their family name, and especially in maintaining the honor of their women. Anyone who is a Baloch is considered a person who belongs to a wealthy and respectable family. 45

Once she established this new identity, Azeem-Baloch dedicated herself to constant impression management (Goffman, 1959). It remains unclear how she behaved and looked in real life while she was putting up the FB performance as

Qandeel Baloch. However, on FB, she had to constantly fight against comments like:

“she is not a real Baloch,” “she is fake, Baloch is not her last name,” “Baloch women cannot be so shameless.” By consistently and confidently ignoring people who denied her the right to call herself a Baloch, she maintains her “expressive coherence” (Goffman 1959, 63) and tries her best to give a homogeneous performance of an infamous self-acclaimed Baloch. However, one of the most serious clues to the inauthenticity of her last name was her spoken English. In most of her videos, she speaks English, because the use of English in Pakistan and India (her target audiences) is an intangible and impressive symbol of class and status.

Her self-taught English has attracted much criticism. It was clear she was never formally educated in the language and spoke in what could widely be considered a ‘pidgin’ English, betrayed by her excessive repetition of “like,” and by her often incorrect grammar. Her most popular videos are those containing her catchphrase "How em luking?" (How am I looking?) or “I am so much happy today”.

And although comments like,” she should learn to speak English first” abound, she did not seem to be deterred by this criticism.

She was hesitant to claim the images that were inconsistent with how she wanted to be seen, as it would have destroyed the impression she had already created of her desired identity (Leary and Kowalski 1990, 40). Her persistent unwillingness to

admit to some of these images could be seen not only as an act of desperation, not wanting to succumb to the audiences’ harassment; it could also be seen as a rebellious expression of a spontaneous and deeply ingrained sense of justice and equality in representation, which Facebook initially stood for.

Therefore, her reluctance to provide any additional information that would have revealed her true identity was a by-product of her carefully dedicated efforts to be accepted and validated by her audiences. Unfortunately, the posthumous revelation of her real identity sabotaged and eventually destroyed her glamorous, wacky, publicly consumable image she worked so hard to create and sustain on Facebook and proved it ultimately inauthentic.

3.2 Maintenance of Fan Base

Videos in Fan Maintenance are divided into three categories, and Table.1 shows the distribution of the videos. Following the table is a closer look at the different manifestations of Maintenance of Fan Base with examples and discussion of

Baloch’s interaction with her fan base.

Table.1 Maintenance of Fan Base

Number of Maintenance of Fan Base Videos a. Greeting Fans 2

b. Dedication to Fans 2

c. Responding to Haters 5 Total 9

3.2.1 Greeting and Dedication to Fans

Considering that these two categories feature the least number of videos, they are analyzed under the same heading. A total of four videos contain phrases positively directed at the fans. Compared to her other videos, they are more cheerful and simply contain greetings and even a song dedicated to the fans, and conclude with her saying,

“thank you [kiss] love you.”

Images.2, 3 & 4 (left to right) Greetings and Dedication to Fans

Image.2 is a screenshot from a 16-second long video of Baloch sitting by the poolside with the cup of coffee/tea. She looks at the camera, smiles, and says, “good morning, have a nice day, love you [kiss].” Image.3 is a screenshot from an 11- second video showing Baloch rubbing her eyes as if she just woke up from her sleep, and then saying, “good morning.” Image.4 is a screenshot from the video that is 2:58 in duration. It shows Baloch lying in her bed, holding the phone saying:

“I am not in a mood to sing today, I just want to sit here and look at you all.

You all were missing me, right? I know you were missing me! [Long pause]

There is one fan of mine who asked me to sing for her. I cannot say her name

because she asked me not to… [Then she sings the song]” (Translated from

Urdu to English).

These videos signify her goodwill toward fans, and a genuine desire to make them happy. Her simple “good morning” takes her beyond just practicing micro- celebrity performance tactics just for the sake of maintaining a distinctive “Internet- enabled visibility” (Marwick 2013a, 114). While it is indeed important for micro- celebrities to stay visible for their fans, Baloch is achieving two goals by posting videos like these: creating and maintaining a perpetual “intercommunicative self”

(Marshalll 2010, 42). Moreover, she tirelessly works on sustaining the illusion that her fans are a vital part of her life, being always on her mind from the moment she wakes up to the moment she goes to bed, by assuring them at the end of her videos that she loves them. Phrases like, “I am not in a mood to sing today, I just want to sit here and look at you all” are interesting as their heartfelt sincerity makes them transcend the formal expectations of just another element of performed intimacy.

She chats with her audiences late at night, as one would do with closest friends and family. She makes herself accessible to her fans and relates to those who are up late at night with her. With phrases like “who is up late at night with Qandeel?” She is creating the illusion as if she is sitting next to them, ready to chat. This kind of interaction of performed intimacy can be seen as “parasocial interaction and a poor substitute for actual interaction" (Boyd and Marwick 2011, 147). Although FB provides both the possibilities of one-on-one private interaction in the form of

messages on FB chat and through the video feature, she chooses to be more intimate with her audience by using the video feature and thus treating the whole audience as one- a ‘4 a.m. friend’.

What helps her performance of the Greeting and Dedications to Fans – which implies that she actually has fans who acknowledge her singing and ask her to sing for them – Baloch “thinks of herself as a celebrity” (Marwick 2013a, 115). One can sense her conviction in her almost whispered phrase, “You all are missing me right, I know you all are missing me,” which demonstrates her confidently taking ownership of her assumed celebrity status on FB. Similarly, in the phrase, “who is up late at night with

Qandeel” she is again reinforcing her assumed micro-celebrity persona by mentioning her first name at the end of the phrase, and in the third person. Famous mainstream celebrities are usually addressed by their first names – like Madona,

Shakira, and Adele – as a sign of both democratized fame and intimacy. By doing so,

Baloch is positioning herself as a “real” celebrity.

Though the previously mentioned fan she sang to requested to remain anonymous, micro-celebrities on FB usually favor the mentioning of fans’ names as a desired, visibility-boosting practice. The online performance of Maliha Rao- a

Pakistani FB beauty vlogger who does live makeup for her audiences on FB – offers an eloquent example. She regularly gets requests from her fans to mention their names in the live chat. While streaming live video, she usually spends almost half of her time repeating their names and sometimes feels the need to offer an apology when she does not have time to name them all: “I apologize if I skipped your name because

I have to talk about such and such subject now.” The fact that Baloch’s fan requested their name not to be mentioned could be interpreted either as that Bloch is making up a non-existent fan to boost her micro-celebrity image, or that her fans do not want to associate their name with her because of her brazen image.

3.2.2 Responding to Audience Hatred

A total of five videos are included in this category, and they feature Baloch’s addressing her fans in sad, angry, or aggressive tones. Baloch is among FB micro- celebrities who are subjected to ridicule on the basis of their ostentatious content. And while audiences’ reactions to her videos are discussed in detail below, the five videos in question demonstrate how she deals with hate comments.

Images. 5, 6, 7 & 8 (left to right) Responding to Haters

Image. 5 is a screenshot from a video where Baloch is mischievous with the audience, posing and humming for a brief time in front of the camera, and then she says, “I am still alive… why? That I will tell you later,” then she giggles with a sarcastic undertone. She made this video in response to some comments she received from some of her haters, who consistently tell her to die. Although it is a common

occurrence for FB audiences to post regularly on a micro-celebrity’s page and openly wish them dead, in Baloch’s case they are exceptionally vicious in mocking, bullying, harassing, and abusing her by the majority of her viewers, usually provoked by her unusually excessive desire for attention. Interestingly, she rarely expresses any real concern about this. Her carefree attitude and mischievousness shine through most of her videos when responding to these hate comments.

However, that was not always the case. In another video, she expresses her sadness about hate comments. Image.6 is a screenshot from a video that starts with her holding a teddy bear, looking into the camera, humming slowly, and then talking in a tired and sleepy-sounding voice:

“You guys post bad comments, abuse me and ask me to die. If I die, will you

guys be happy? Tell me. I can die for your happiness; it does not make any

difference to me. But ask yourselves when I die, will you guys like it, will you

be happy? Very sad… it hurts me” (translated from Urdu to English).

In Image.6 Baloch’s facial expressions reveal her crushed hopes; her tired voice indicates she is affected by the audience's hatred. She sees her tireless efforts for creating a popular and admired persona crumble and backfire to the extent that viewers keep on insisting on seeing her dead.

On her journey of acquiring micro-fame, Baloch carries an image of a bold woman, a self-acclaimed “one-woman army.” Yet these videos are a prime example

of how she sometimes inevitably succumbs to feelings of despair. In her efforts to understand what she should do differently, she periodically tries to maintain contact with the haters through these videos.

In doing so, Baloch epitomizes what Marshall calls the “para-social self” – that is, creating an “intercommunicative” sense of connection to her audiences (2010,

43). Since it is extremely difficult to address hundreds of hate comments, she does what could be defined as a textbook example of “parasocial interaction” by posting videos from time-to-time that are meant to handle the comments in bulk, creating the illusion of two-way individualized communication. In this regard, Baloch sometimes fits the micro-celebrity model laid out in this research, yet sometimes she does not, vacillating between the extremes of either being too earnest and eager to win her audiences over, or too flippant and frigid towards them.

Indeed, Baloch’s preferred tactic is to "ignore the antagonist," which is corroborated by the fact that only 5 out of the 45 videos collected feature a direct response to haters (Herring et al. 2011, 374). Furthermore, in these five videos,

Baloch reacts defensively when dealing with the online bullying and abuse that is directed at her content. Thus, she assumes the stance of what Herring et al.'s (2011) describes the “vulnerable victim” strategy, meant to minimize the damage of the abuse, construing her haters as the antagonists, who are always out to mock and belittle her, and openly expressing that she needs to die.

When the abuse persists, she usually chooses to "refute the antagonist's claims" (Herring et al. 2011, 374) by posting a video asking the audiences what she is doing wrong to provoke their negative reaction and why they want her to die, expecting a clarification. She shows her disappointment and confusion by emphasizing that she is a public figure and her job is to entertain people, and by stating over and over that "if you do not like my content then do not watch it, do not follow me, who is asking you to follow me, block me, but don't abuse me." (Translated from Urdu to English).

The numbers of hate comments on Baloch’s videos began to grow rapidly over time. Therefore, as a last resort, she applies the tactic of "insulting the antagonist" by lashing out at the hateful audiences, showing indifference and anger

(Herring et al 2011, 374) simultaneously. For example, in one of the videos, she sounds both sad and furious when talking directly at haters: “you can post as many bad comments as you want, I don’t care! But it definitely shows how ignorant and filthy you are with your dirty minds.” In another video, she says, “you all do the dirty work behind walls, what I do in front of the camera. Instead of appreciating my boldness, you are abusing me, shame on you! You are cowards.” (Translated from

Urdu to English).

In these videos, she is spending time beforehand thinking about how to deal with the cyber-bullying done to her and tries various ways of lessening the negative responses. She also tries to communicate that she has done nothing wrong and that the problem is in the subjective perception of some of her fans who need to cool off and

become more open-minded, i.e. less threatening. To her dismay, she found little success in reducing the increasing ire of her audience.

3.3 Performed Intimacy

A total of 9 out of 45 videos feature Baloch Performing Intimacy with the audiences in different ways. The irony in the interaction between Baloch and her FB audiences is that while she responds to haters, she seems to perform intimacy with them as well. This kind of intimacy is best illustrated the video (image.5) where she is sharing minute details of her day, before expressing her concerns, while looking at herself in the phone camera she says:“[M]y eyes… mascara… and lipstick, I am a mess! And it’s understandable, I am up since 4 am. Had to go to a morning show. I am very tired.” (Then she goes on to address hate comments – as seen in the previous section).

It is ironic to see Baloch treating her audiences (who want her to die) as close friends and family members when sharing the details of her day, as someone would do when they come back home after a long day. Baloch’s behavior can be seen as an attempt at “saving face” rather than taking on the mantle of either a bully or a victim

(Boyd & Marwick 2011 2). She resumes her shared intimacy behavior, ignoring all the abuse she is subjected to and makes sure whatever she is doing is consistent with the image she presents to others.

Figures. 9, 10, 11 & 12 (left to right) Performing Intimacy

It is common to see Baloch using self-flattering phrases like, “I can’t sleep all night. Someone told me when you can’t sleep, assume that someone is missing you.

Now I can’t sleep at all, obviously because millions of people are missing me. How can I sleep? Please, leave me alone. It’s good not to miss me sometimes.” Although her pursuit of attention can be considered a narcissistic desire for self-importance, the driving factor behind her demand for attention, even in the face of severe and numerous death threats, could be defined as profound existential loneliness of a deeply saddened, alone, and vulnerable person. Desperate for fulfillment and happiness, she continues to engage in the same behavior that she knows would bring her even more emotional pain, yet keeps herself in this infinite feedback loop of pain, followed by more behavior, prompted by the desire to alleviate that pain – all in a desperate call for understanding and compassion.

Further instances of performed intimacy corroborate this observation – images.11 and 12, for example, which are the screenshots from the videos where she is sharing details of her illness: “I have a very high fever, my head is hurting, and my eyes are burning with fever” and then in the next video she gives her audiences an

update saying, “I just took medicine, and now I am going to sleep.” (Translated from

Urdu to English). She then posted another video, which is not included in the collected data because of the similarity of previous content. The fact that she posted three videos on the same day she got sick is a prime example of the popular practice of posting up-to-the-minute updates, acting on the assumption that fans and followers are interested in every new detail, thus representing a classic case of “digital intimacy” and “ambient awareness” (Thompson 2008, 1-3).

However, as opposed to displaying her vulnerability with her audiences, she also makes the most private events of life public. For example, one video (Image.10) is very intimate in nature. It is an excellent example of one aspect of Marshall's

“specular economy,” where “micro-celebrities employ various poses of privacy and intimacy at the leisure of their home environment for consumption of the online audiences (2010, 499). In this video, Baloch is in an intimate pose, lying in bed with her head on a man’s torso kissing his hand: “Today I am so happy, you know why? I don’t have a teddy bear today, I have someone else instead of a teddy bear,” With the audiences’ expectations in mind, and in pursuit of as many “likes” as possible, she is sharing most “private” and “sensitive information” (Jerslev 2016, 57).

Yet the paradox of “ambient awareness” is such that videos (Image.11) of her sharing up-to-the-minute details of her sickness got 122k views, 634 likes, 2.1k comments, and 497 people shared it. Note the proportion of views, to likes, to comments, which almost always indicates a very high percentage of negative comments. Similarly, the follow-up video (Image.12) got 57k views, 278 likes, 1232

users commented on it, and 125 chose to share it. Judging from these numbers, it is evident that on FB, fame is devalued when videos like these are spread with such high frequency. Obviously, the entertainment standards have fallen to an all-time low point if someone’s illness can make them famous on FB. And as Rowland rightfully notes, the fame generated from this producer-consumer dynamic “is a direct result of … having nothing to do with their lives” (2008, 87). Therefore, Baloch did what she thought would garner sympathy in her audience, and it backfired.

3.4 Affiliation to the Mainstream Celebrities

Videos in Baloch’s practices, demonstrating Affiliation to Celebrities, are divided into two categories, and Table.2 shows the distribution of the videos.

Following the table is a closer look at the different ways in which Baloch is talking in extremes about famous mainstream celebrities with either love or hate. Most of the videos in this category granted Baloch a lot of attention on FB because of their highly absurd content.

Table 2. Affiliation to the Mainstream Celebrities

Showing Affiliation to Mainstream- Number Celebrities of Videos a. Proposing to mainstream Celebrities 10

b. Lashing out on mainstream Celebrities 6

Total 16

Over the year under research during which these videos were made, Baloch has created content targeting celebrities such as the current Prime Minister of

Pakistan, Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Indian Cricketer,

Virat Kohli; and Pakistani cricketer, Shahid Afridi.

3.4.1 Proposing to the Mainstream Celebrities

Videos in this category aim at proposing to famous people and are incredibly intimate and audacious in nature. She displays extreme emotions and love for these famous people. In the span of a year, she proposed to two different celebrities, switching back and forth between them. First, she expressed her love for Virat Kohli, saying: “OMG, Virat Kohli is so charming, he is so handsome… I have gone crazy for him… I would love to be with.” In another, she is floating on water while holding a selfie stick and repeatedly saying, “Virat, I love you baby, Virat, miss you baby.”

Later, she goes on to confess her love for Imran Khan by proposing to him on

Facebook: “Imran Khan, I really love you and I just want you to be mine… I will give you so much love… please accept my proposal.” Again, on St Valentine’s Day, she expresses her love for him again: “Imran Khan I just want you to be mine, that’s it, I just want you to be mine forever, not just for one day.”

Images. 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17 (top-left to bottom right) Proposing to the Mainstream-celebrities

This attention-seeking behavior and publicly articulating her short-lived emotions for one person to another is a quintessential exposure of the “transgressive intimate self” (Marshalll 2010, 45). The fact that both videos went viral not only on social media but also on traditional media – making her the talk of the town – foregrounds the visceral quality of the “transgressive intimate self,” which invariably

“accelerates one’s pathway to notoriety” (Marshalll 2010, 45). Her over the top, melodramatic, and intensely performed “narratives of the intimate” (Marshalll 2006,

643) are also relatable to what Aslama and Pantti call “confessional culture” (ibid,

168). Setting aside the issue of her sincerity, Baloch, by staging a public drama to entertain the audiences, believed that by proposing to these men she could boost her status and popularity and serve as a mechanism to obtain more social capital, since proposing to these men creates the perception that she is in a position of a high enough status to do so.

Additionally, this behavior, in and of itself, is entertaining to the audiences, who reward her regardless of the success or failure of her attempts at winning the hearts of these famous men. Thus, not only do audiences “shape, spread, and direct drama, they [also] fan the flames that allow it to escalate” for, without audience engagement, “it can burn out faster” (Boyd & Marwick 2011, 2). Moreover, in her heart of hearts, Baloch might have hoped that her very public emotional drama and proposals would somehow further her chances of success with the intended recipients.

It goes without saying that marrying Imran Khan would make instantly make her a national, and perhaps a worldwide mainstream celebrity. Yet she was ready to settle for the fame she garnered by merely proposing publicly to these men.

Moreover, a key attraction for the audiences is the revelation of the “true” emotions of Baloch, who – in her talking about her daily life and sharing thoughts – was drawing them in, forming a unique sensation of bonding. Her painful experiences, in particular her experiences with cyber-bullying, enhance even more the special connection the audience feels with her and the privilege to be made privy to her “true” feelings. Qandeel was smart enough to capture this momentum and attract even more viewers, thus furthering her quest for self-enrichment through fame.

However, when articulating her feelings of love, she also exhibits negative emotions: “I see you are hurt these days because Reham (his ex-wife) wasn’t fair with you. She was bitching about you saying you are an alcoholic”. The over-the-top nature of her performance fits well into the description of “relational drama,” connoting “something immature, petty, and ridiculous” (Boyd & Marwick 2011, 1-4).

On top of that, in order to garner maximum attention, she sustains the illusion of unrequited intimacy, with which young and inexperienced, or overly emotional audiences can identify. For example, phrases like “Imran if you don’t marry me I swear I will never marry anyone ever again, all my life, this is my promise to you” and “I don’t have anyone, I am alone and I want you to be my valentine” illustrate her deceptive “Sadster” behavior (Ingelton 2014, 526).

Furthermore, as Boyd and Marwick suggest, “denigrated people, who stirred up drama as attention-getter,” usually tend to “entangle themselves in conflicts that did not involve them” (2011, 3). A fine example of this is her remark in the video

(Image.14) “I really feel, he (Virat) should leave Anushka Sharma (his wife) and be with me… please leave her and be with me” (Translated from Urdu to English). Such statements could be seen both as a proof of well-calculated attention-seeking behavior, but also as a self-delusion of a person who is otherwise well-aware but does not want to accept her inability to jump impassible social barriers. In any case, her little show is designed and carried through in the eclectic and highly effective tabloid, social media style, combining gossip, conflict, and featuring romances and breakups, which audiences are sure to relate to.

3.4.2 Lashing out against the Mainstream-Celebrities

A total of six out of 45 videos contain moments with Baloch screaming or crying, and mostly accusing other celebrities of the pain they have caused her; lashing

out at celebrities, and using her self-made understanding of politics/activism in order to promote Pakistan either on a national-political level or in sports.

Images. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 & 23 (top-left to bottom right) Lashing out on the Mainstream-celebrities

By applying her “excessive emotionality,” she “sensationalizes” political events by incorporating drama in ill-chosen moments and situations (Maplesden 2015,

4). On the other hand, it would be intriguing to analyze her views from a sociological point of view as they represent a strange mixture of tabloid nationalism and raw populism. For example, in one of her videos, she targets the prime minister of India

Narinder Mohdi by saying, “You are just a ‘chaiwala’ (Tea Vendor), and when the prime minister of a country is ‘chaiwala,’ who is not even educated, no wonder he will make bad decision, so tell me why do you kill Muslims?” Further on, she includes the whole of India in her accusatory tirade: “I ask you, India, why your neighbors are not happy with you? We are not happy, China is not happy, even Bangladesh… why they are not happy with you?” While her statements represent a pseudo-political discourse, based on outrageous falsities (Tufekci, 2013), she generally captures

discursive tendencies, percolating just below the radar of official media since – as is well known – false facts are “more interesting and less real" (Boorstin 1961, 37).

In these videos, Baloch seems to have given little thought to the validity of her political views, but apparently had realized that by making brash statements, whether true or not, she could garner more attention – and perhaps, even more, when her facts were incorrect! Again, it is unclear whether this was a conscious attention-seeking technique, or she was just following her intuition. Perhaps she believed that what she was saying was true, but the end result was more attention garnered, which was her goal. It also expanded her target audience to India, as Indians would obviously find offence in her criticisms, directed at them, and react to her posts.

Another notable example is her extravagant accusation against the Pakistani cricket team for hurting her feelings for losing against India. Her video (Image.20) shows her crying bitterly, and lamenting in an ear-piercing voice how the Pakistani cricket team crushed her hopes and dreams by losing the game: You guys have caused me insult and disgrace, I sacrificed by putting on the teaser of my striptease hoping you will win, but you have ruined my life, I will never forgive you.” Phrases like these prove Baloch’s capabilities for “playing the victim” – that is, “by making a big deal out of anything” and creating the drama of issues she believes are potentially explosive and could garner her attention (Boyd & Marwick 2011, 1).

Prior to this video and the releasing the teaser of her striptease video she released another video, dedicated to Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan “I am about to

make a special announcement… if Calcutta Night Riders win IPL, I will celebrate it, and I will celebrate it in a way that people will lose their minds… I will do something so special that will blow everyone’s mind.” (Translated from Urdu to English). What she means is that she intends to perform a striptease to honor the team’s victory, using her sexuality as a tool to create a “buzz” (Marwick 2013). It is an established, albeit somewhat frowned-upon tool micro-celebrities like Baloch use to go viral on the

Internet by objectifying themselves. However, when they get more involved in such emotionally charged and sensual performances, more often than not, they get seen, and then either appreciated or rejected and, in some cases, cruelly dismissed and punished. The striptease video in question precipitated her demise later, discussed in

Chapter V.

3.5 Performing Sexuality

Despite the abundance of sexual innuendos in most of her videos, this section focus is on videos where she is posing sensually, singing or dancing in front of the camera, and wearing revealing clothing. The number of videos that serves the

Performing Sexuality function is 14 out of the 45 videos, which is second highest after the function of Affiliation to Mainstream Celebrities. However, Performing

Sexuality function still stands quite high numerically, considering that the videos here serve strictly that single function – that is, to present an extremely sexualized portrayal of Baloch.

Table.3: Performing Sexuality

Number Performing Sexuality of Videos a. Posing 8 b. Dancing 6

Total 14

For convenience, this function is divided into two sub-categories of Posing and Dancing. What follows is a closer look at these two manifestations of Performing

Sexuality of videos under this category as well as the discussion of visual aspects of the videos used in the analysis before.

Image 24, 25, 26 & 27 (left to right) Posing in front of camera

Image. 28 Screenshots from a music video titled “BAN.”

Image. 29 (two images on the left) Screenshots from the Striptease video.

Image. 30 (two images on the right) Dancing on the bed

In Images 29 & 30, she is seen choreographing her movements from simply posing suggestively, to dancing on her bed. Obviously, Baloch makes good use of her sexuality as the most valuable asset of micro-celebrities in general and hers in particular. Building on Marwick’s statement, “Micro-celebrity is something one does, rather than something one is” (2013, 6). Baloch seems to fit the bill perfectly here as someone who is “out-of-control, superficial, and narcissistic” (Maplesden 2015, 307).

In her velfies – an advanced form of selfies – Baloch poses in an overtly provocative, sexualized manner, with her squirming, posing, and dancing for the camera projecting

“an excessive body which desires too much, is too much, and does too much”

(Maplesden 2015, 4).

In these videos, her attire and activities are explicitly self-sexualized: provocative highly-revealing clothing; posing and dancing on her bed with exposed skin, with her hands on her hips or head, with a finger in her mouth, legs spread, bending in front of a man, moving her hips, and showing her cleavage from multiple angles; or just lying around being sleepy, or acting bored in a seductive manner.

While such self-sexualization on social media is generally unacceptable in most places across the world, in the patriarchal society of Pakistan, where this kind of public female dancing is sternly frowned upon, her infamy is understandable. All the more that her willingness to explore sensuality even further is enhanced by her brief background in modelling, which had undeniably helped her pursuits, putting her ahead of her social media rivals.

Baloch demonstrates that she understands what her male viewers generally like to see in a woman on a sensual level and uses her femininity and sexuality to maximize the appeal to her male fans. Images 24 to 27 feature her simply looking at the camera, and confidently posing, demanding the audience’s gaze with her heavily made-up prettiness, thus validating her narcissism. These videos reveal in a somewhat overblown fashion the practices and behaviors, shared by all contemporary celebrities, both mainstream and micro, motivated by “narcissism as the driving force of fame” (Nelson 2014, 10). Baloch’s persistent strong eye contact presumably makes the audiences’ feel more connected to her (Ibid, 53).

Furthermore, Baloch’s velfies work as “visual artifacts,” thus giving her the freedom and tools to justify certain notorious aspects of her personality

(Koliska & Roberts, 2015). Her “self-presentation” (Goffman, 1959) employs an array of settings, appearances, and mannerisms to create her online persona. In a way, she not only gradually and consistently creates her imaginary identity, but also her imaginary environment and even an imaginary social reality, thus making her tragic end look all the more as the logical termination of a life that has entirely lost its touch

with reality. Considering who her local viewers as a whole are, this increases the likelihood of her tragic end as they may view her as someone who not only pushes far past the boundaries of what is socially acceptable but also as a woman who has entirely lost its touch with reality.

From the images above, it becomes apparent that more than anything else,

Baloch is concerned with sharing voluminous visual representations of herself in her most intimate environment, with 40 out of 45 videos featuring prominently one single location– her bedroom. There, she shows herself in a vulnerable position: lying on her bed, “letting her guard down, being goofy… doing something lame, scandalous, or with sexual tendencies” (Benson, 2014). These “virtuosic bedroom performances”

(Burgess 2008, 105) allow for easy access to her most private space, conveying a strong message about the dangerous “online collapse of the public/private divide”

(Kitzmann 2003, 58).

Nonetheless, the authenticity of Baloch’s self-presentation could be questioned. Despite her claim of spontaneity, she seems never to have a bad hair day or wardrobe malfunctioning. In a way, she is reinforcing stereotypical conceptions of beauty by being overly concerned with her exterior and performative expression of self, and with her overtly sexualized self-objectification, thus perpetuating the stereotype of women as objects to be looked at. Contrary to reality, she always looks well-groomed, coiffed, and impeccable. Her videos show her flawlessly made-up face: even when she says she is sick, she is wearing thick black eyeliner (Images. 11

& 12). And although she tries to offset the impression of artificiality with the rest of

the videos by wearing natural-looking make-up, she still comes across as unreal, as a simulation of a “simply fabulous” celebrity who likes “artificial naturalization”

(Maplesden 2015, 245).

Moreover, the sense of artificiality and play-acting is enhanced by the quality of her videos, which betray a natural talent for creating visual metaphors, based in part by stylized images of herself and her vividly colored clothing. For example, in one of her videos (Image.16), she is wearing a red dress with red makeup on St.

Valentine’s Day, and makes the best out of the conventional symbolism of the color red in that it expresses passion, love, and strong romantic desire. In tune with the naturally dramatic color red, she chooses St. Valentine’s Day to express her love for

Pakistan’s Prime Miniter Imran Khan. In another video (Images. 25 & 26), she is wearing a revealing black dress, as the color black is considered profound, sombre, and glamorous, and she chooses to wear it in most of her overly sexualized videos where she is squirming in front of the camera. Here, she plays on the contrast between the color black and her far-from-sombre behavior.

Other purely cinematic devices she uses with versatility are filters, lighting, plug-ins, and racking focus, the use of which speaks volumes about how she wants to present herself. Through the mostly used sepia filter, she succeeds in looking prettier on screen. However, in her most controversial striptease video (Image. 29), she uses the racking focus technique in order to blur her striptease, thus controlling both the rhythm of her undressing, the visibility of her nudity, and the curiosity of the audience. Baloch later admitted that she posted the striptease video because she

promised her fans she would do so, but then later regretted it. She confirmed that the short duration of the video (under 16 seconds) and the fact that it was blurred out was because of the predicted backlash. The video later became the leading cause of her demise and the blocking of her FB page.

Images 9, 14, 15 and 17 show that she uses a plug-in, which enhances the image and making it uniquely stand out. The rest of her velfies are well focused, with less blurry consistency, which showcases her professional agility in capturing and keeping the audience’s attention. Thus, by creating a wide variety of well-polished videos, Baloch has been able to establish a dramatic viewing experience for her audiences and garner maximum attention, not only thanks to their notorious content but also to their artistically handled representational value and modality.

3.6 Comments of Facebook Audiences

As discussed in Chapter 1, FB audiences play a vital role in creating, promoting, or demoting micro-celebrities. Therefore, it is important to understand their behavior, more specifically, the commenting patterns on the contents of notorious micro-celebrities. The comments of Baloch’s audiences are divided into positive and negative categories and further assigned sub-categories, as shown in

Table. Four below. The ascending order of the occurrence of comments shown in the table below goes: Usually > Frequently > Occasionally > rarely.

Table.4 Comments on Baloch Videos

POSITIVE a. Optimistic b. Impressed Encouraging Rarely Complimentary Occasionally Fr. Understanding Rarely Amazed Occasionally i. Complimentary Amused Occasionally Affectionate Occasionally

NEGATIVE ii.

a. Displeased b. Bullying

Sad Occasionally Laughing Usually Fr. Fr. Disappointed Occasionally Mocking Frequently iii. Worried Rarely Sarcastic Frequently iv. v. Annoyed Usually Body shaming Occasionally vi. c. Hostile d. Harassing

Disgusted Frequently Provoking Usually Fr. Aggressive Frequently Name-calling Frequently

Cursing Frequently Vulgar Occasionally viii. Vengeful Occasionally Offering sex Frequentlyvii. N ix. NEUTRAL

Tagging Usually a Fr. m

The average estimate of the comment’s occurrence is done on the following- basis:

a. Usually: Occurring on every post more than twice c a b. Frequently: Occurring on every post at least once l c. Occasionally: Occurring on average in every two posts l d. Rarely: Occurring on average less than in every two posts, but no less than i

every 3 posts. n

While coding the collected data, it was noted that the majority of comments could be characterized as negative. Also, the comments, where audiences simply tag each other were neither positive nor negative and were coded as neutral. With most frequently occurring negative comments under the ‘Hostile,’ ‘Bullying,’ and

‘Harassing’ categories as compared to the rarely or occasionally occurring positive

comments under the ‘Optimistic’ and ‘Impressed’ categories, it is clear that FB audiences have been almost always furious at Baloch’s indecent content. Rarely are audiences encouraging or demonstrate an understanding of her performances. These findings make it evident that Baloch had more haters than she had fans.

3.6.1 Participatory Culture

As seen above, the occurrence of positive comments on Baloch’s posts is occasional or rare. Yet ‘Encouraging,’ ‘Complimentary,’ and ‘Amused’ comments are seen on Baloch’s official music video (Image.28), which received 19000 views, 1011 likes, 950 shares, and 628 comments stating: “Keep doing it, good work,”

“Performance is good but work on your poetry,” “Make account on Instagram, you will rock it there.” Although her music videos are very much mocked for obscene content and demeaning lyrics, some of her audience appreciated the fact that she was doing more creative work and encouraged her to persevere in this, advising on areas where she could improve. For example, one of the comments on her music video, called “Touch of the Lady,” reads: “Nice work but lyrics can be improved.”

The videos where she is directly addressing her fans in the form of greetings, or by dedicating songs to them, have also received comparatively more complimentary comments than negative. For example, her video where she is singing a song to an unknown fan received 16000 views, 1760 likes, 700 comments, and 480 shares. The other video (Image.2) of her sitting by the pool and simply greeting her fans received

46000 views, 422 likes, 339 comments, and 220 shares. Thus, videos, where she is

not performing her sexuality or acting notoriously, seems to get audiences’ attention positively, with comments mostly ‘complementary’ in nature: “She has a pretty voice,” “Love you baby,” “Very nice,” “Looking good,” “Beautiful,” “Cutie,”

“Gorgeous,” etc.

Some of her audiences were amused by her videos, while others simply laughed at them. ‘Laughing’ is coded negatively and ‘Amused’ is coded positively, because comments under laughing are of a negative, insulting nature: “Hahaha,”

“lmao,” “Rofl,” “I can’t stop laughing, she is a cartoon character,” etc. Audiences that acknowledge her content positively say something in addition to the Laugh. For example, “Haha, she is pure entertainment” or “Lol, she is hilarious.” These comments were seen on most of her videos, testifying to the mixed reactions to her content. People with negative attitudes asked others to watch her videos and encourage them to do the same: “watch other videos you will die laughing,” “watch her videos guys, someone stalks her and let me know,” “lol I stalked her, and I regretted it.” On the other hand, people who were amused in a positive way seem to have enjoyed her content for pure entertainment and were curious to watch more and said so in their comments.

In addition to that, there were very few people who were ‘affectionate’,

‘amazed’, and sometimes ‘worried’ for Baloch. For example, in the video (Image.6) where she is asking the audience why they hate her so much. This video received

38000 views, 424 likes, 522 comments, and 580 shares. Similarly, in another video

(Image.5), she mischievously addresses the audience, saying she is still alive and will

keep doing what she does. This video received 109000 views, 639 likes, 15000 comments, and 526 shares. Most of the people laughed at these videos. Someone commented, saying, “she makes such videos and then she asks us why we laugh at her?” However, most people were amazed and posted comments like, “you are a very bold girl,” “I am impressed with your guts.” Some of the audiences were more understanding and affectionate and asked others not to make fun of her: “do not make fun of her, she can do whatever she likes,” “If you don’t like her content, you don’t have to watch it.” Some of the worried commenters also discouraged others from making fun of her, but with a slightly negative undertone, “do not make fun of her, she needs psychiatric treatment,” “on a serious note, she has a mental illness, it’s not a joke.”

Such commenting behavior of the audiences validates Livingstone’s finding that audiences enjoy the online “participatory culture.” They watch and promote micro-celebrities’ content for mere entertainment purposes, mostly as a “source of pleasure” (Livingstone 2008, 7). Moreover, audiences are also strongly influenced by what other active users are liking, sharing and commenting on. Thus, in addition to seeking interaction with micro-celebrities, fans in audiences also seek interaction with other fans on FB. When tagging Baloch’s content, they are as interested in the content as they are in interacting with other FB users, using the content as a conversation starter.

3.6.2 Mimicking the Micro-celebrities

In Marwick’s (2015) point of view, participatory celebrity culture on FB also enables users to self-present, mimic, and even compete with micro-celebrities, using their tactics and viewing “themselves as a public persona to be consumed by others, use strategic intimacy to appeal to followers, and regard their audience as fans”

(O'Gorman 2019, 10). Thus “while fans use available materials to create content about media properties, practitioners turn the discourse on its head to create content about themselves” (Marwick 2015, 8). One of the best examples of this endless process of aping and replicating content in search of micro-celebrity status was the trend of the so-called dubmash culture. Baloch’s videos (Images. 11 and 12) were highly mocked for her heavy eye makeup. Many people commented that “she is under the weight of her make up”, “who wears so much makeup in bed”, “why is she wearing so much eye makeup if she is sick.”

Baloch’s videos became a popular choice for spoofs of her notorious acts. As mentioned above, one of those instances was her wearing heavy eye makeup and at the same time telling her audiences she was not feeling well. Image 31 shows how even male viewers picked on the phrase “my eyes are burning with fever” and mocked her makeup and her hair-do, parroting her mannerism and even played a sound track of her voice in the background. All these videos went viral and got thousands of likes, shares, and comments.

Image. 31 Dubmash of Baloch videos

Apart from laughing, mocking and imitating Baloch’s videos, it is ‘sarcasm’ and ‘mocking’ that runs as common themes throughout the comments, most of them parodying what she said in her videos. For example, in a video (Image. 10) she is kissing a man’s hand and saying, “I am so much happy today,” which audiences found hilarious and in a large portion of the comments repeat the same phrase with an added laugh: “lollll I am soooo much happy rofl, she should learn to speak English first.” The video where she asks, “why do you hate me?” someone commented, “why do you hate me lol, tell her, guys, why do we hate her, we don’t hate you, you are the epitome of respect and sanity.” The inconsistent behavior of Baloch’s audiences correlates with Izawa’s study, which concludes that micro-celebrities who get the most shares are the ones who churn videos that inspire different kinds of emotions – either highly positive (entertaining) or highly negative (anger, aggression).

3.6.3 Hate Culture

Although none of Baloch’s videos ever had less than 150,000 views, the content that receives greater attention and is shared at a higher frequency is not necessarily the content that is more appreciated by the audiences. Participatory culture

enables the online audiences to be more engaging, more opinionated, and more critical than before and generally reacting in a manner that is more difficult to predict.

And while it could be easily explained as to why the videos, where Baloch is performing sexuality evoked more negative emotions, her videos (Images. 28 to 30) where she is provocatively posing or dancing in front of the camera, most of the comments expressed ‘disappointment’ and even ‘sadness’: “I have nothing to say, its just sad”, “I can’t watch this anymore, it make me sad.”

FB provides the technological framework that ensures freedom of speech but also allows for the proliferation of hateful and extreme speech, provoked largely by the content of notorious micro-celebrities. Intentional insulting, abusing, mocking, bullying, and harassing are commonly seen in comments on Baloch’s videos, thus contributing to what Mills calls “hate culture” (2004, 79). The bullying and mocking by the audiences, discussed above, is often being done just for fun. However, as Beck

(2006) suggests, content that is considered appropriately funny in one context can be inappropriate and dangerous in another, thus bringing potential risks for those who produce such questionable content. This is seen in Baloch’s underlying motivation to circulate scandalous content to garner attention, which, however, often perpetuates gossip with unpredictable consequences. And while some audiences indulge in an in- depth discussion of her bad social conduct for entertainment, others seem to take it extremely seriously.

Most of the comments on her more sexual content shows how ‘angry,’

‘disgusted,’ and ‘annoyed’ people could be: “I feel like vomiting when I see you,” “I

am disgusted,” “wtf is this,” “what the hell is going on,” “who is this woman and why she is spreading vulgarity,” “I am so annoyed, my morning is ruined,” “shame on you,” “you are pathetic,” “you are a disgrace,” “motherfucking disgraceful woman,” “stop posting videos for fucksake.” And yet, Baloch was not only marginalized for performing sexuality but also for hiding her real identity: “shame on you, you have spoiled the name of Balochs,” “I doubt your last name is Baloch please change your name,” “You're a fake Baloch, you deserve to die for deceiving the world.” In addition to showing their disappointment, some viewers also call her:

“whore,” “bitch,” “slut,” etc. And someone commented on the video where she is seen in bed with a man: “he is a pimp, and you are a prostitute.”

The irony of Baloch’s case is that the same society that marginalizes her sexuality highly values and idealizes the looks and traits of women who – not unlike

Baloch – strive to look beautiful (Maplesden 2015, 244). Butler (1990) and Magnet

(2007), for example, talk about the constant presence of the male gaze at the site of any bold sexual portrayal of females; thus the overwhelming majority of highly critical FB audiences and constant followers of Baloch’s page were men who thoroughly enjoyed her sexual escapades, and were also actively involved in

“bracketing her off as exotic and irremediably other,” (Magnet 2007, 590) which looks all the more treacherous as another commonly found theme in the comments left by male users on her posts is soliciting sex from her. Indeed, most of these users in their comments extremely inappropriate language, which cannot be shown in this research due to obvious reasons. Others take it to the next level by posting extremely vulgar pictures in the comments section. Here are some publishable comments, which

point to the nature of those that are not publishable: “why don’t you properly show what you really want to show,” “take off that dress so I can masturbate to your video,” “I know you want it, why don’t you lay on bed, and I can come on top of you,”

“this is my number, call me tonight, and I can show you good time,” “this is my d---k, take it.”

After Pakistan lost the match, many users persuaded Baloch to post the teaser for the striptease: “So finally Pakistan lost the match, when are you going to release the video?”, “Darling, you should dance and celebrate the loss of your team, show your country your striptease,” “Qandeel does not matter if Pakistan lost the match, you do what you promised.” However, once she posted the teaser, she turned “toxic” as a result of articulating her sexuality on FB and was attacked viciously by the same people who asked her to post the video, which was now furious with her content and bad behavior. Many people posted aggressive comments on her striptease video:

“God, please kill her,” “You strip dancing in front of the public is even a new low for you,” “Qandeel is another name of disgust,” “someone should kill her, she should die,” “throw acid on her.”

Her representation of sexuality was construed as a threat that destabilized the very core of cultural norms and social morals, prompting her entry into the “domain of risk” (Butler 1997, 29). The striptease teaser video was the tipping point, and

Pakistani FB users decided to report her page for nudity. The message went viral on

FB, which directed users to block her page in order to save Pakistan from the humiliation that she was supposedly inflicting on the nation. Snapshots of some of

these comments are shown in Image 32. They read: “Stop commenting on such bushtit slut posts ignore her, she wants fame and be part of discussion,” “stop sharing her posts, and stop talking about her,” “her page should be blocked,”

“everyone send request to block her page, we do not want to see her stupid posts.”

Image.32 Blocking of Qandeel Baloch’s FB Page7

As a result of a massive reporting, her FB page was blocked for violating community guidelines. According to FB policies, the first attempt at blocking a page serves as a warning to the owner to remove any objectionable content, and once this is done, the page is restored to its owner. Baloch’s FB page was reactivated for a little while after she most likely complied with the policy. However, despite the warnings and audience hostility, she continued to challenge the cultural norms by continuously trying to capitalize on her sexuality, which did not work out in her favor. She faced more humiliation and, hated and rejected by her online audiences; her page was reported again by even more people until her page was permanently blocked in March

2016.

7 Image on the extreme left: How to report Qandeel Baloch page: go to her page, click report page, select reason Second Image: message from FB – we reviewed your report and the FB page has been blocked for harassment and obscene content. Third Image: Congratulations everyone after our reports Qandeel Baloch page has been taken down. Image on extreme right: Sorry this content isn’t available at the moment 81

The commenting behavior of FB audiences on Baloch’s posts outlines the process of her marginalization – a risk all toxic micro-celebrities with a taste for portraying extreme sexuality face. She was represented as a deviant, as damaged, and a cause of national shame, which undoubtedly incited the public toward the discourse of needing to greater police the limits of acceptability and reinforce normative ways of being – especially regarding sexual self-expression. To this end, Gies (2011) contends that celebrities – micro and mainstream alike – whose behaviors are not aligned with these social and gender norms of femininity, are perceived as deviating and are intensely surveilled for wrongdoing.

In Baloch’s case, the online humiliation and belittling started very early on with the dub mash trend, followed by the posting of numerous abusive comments. It was not just the abuse or labelling that caused serious harm to Baloch’s life but also the consequences that came with this bullying and harassing. And although she never took her haters seriously and saw as a positive sign that people were at least talking about her, numerous reports petitioning the ban on her page led to it finally being permanently blocked. Her murder at her brother’s hands was described as an ‘honor killing.’

CHAPTER IV: Conclusion

This research explored how FB facilitated the transformation of micro- celebrities into embodiments of notoriety and examined the mechanism in which their newly acquired fame destroys them. The construction of the micro-celebrity model was then applied to the case study of Pakistani social media micro-celebrity Qandeel

Baloch. In addition to speculative techniques of celebrity practices, this thesis also examined the role of FB audiences in exacerbating the situation, particularly in cases where portrayals of open sexuality have enhanced the notoriety and toxicity of micro- celebrities, thus causing social media to backfire and bring dire real-life consequences. And finally, the thesis looked at the attempts of FB management to control the damage.

The study shows that with the intense use of FB, the rise of micro-celebrities has increased in the past few years and has almost completely transformed the meaning of what it means to be a celebrity. The process of becoming a celebrity is democratized in the sense that FB provides an equal opportunity for everyone to become anyone they wish to be, by affording the necessary tools for the transformation of ordinary persons into micro-celebrities. As has been evidenced by the case study of Baloch, FB has played a significant role in creating, promoting and then demoting her micro-stardom. Therefore, by using FB account creation and profile management affordances, the ordinary Fouzia Azeem succeeded in presenting herself on social media as the glamorous Qandeel Baloch.

As mentioned earlier in Chapter I, after leaving her home and family, Azeem transformed herself into Baloch (her desired self), this study reveals how important it was for Azeem not only to construe and perform her ideal self of Baloch on FB but to also consistently manage that identity if she were to be deemed authentic. She skillfully used the FB affordances for profile management to sustain her impression and behave in ways that were consistent with the attributes of her desired identity.

Even though this desired identity was controversial, a drama queen and an embodiment of notoriety who relied on self-sexualization – more particularly her camera skills, as well as good taste in clothing and set design, enhanced by her brief background in modelling and acting, to promote herself on FB. Baloch continued to manage her image until she successfully achieved her ultimate goal of becoming famous by being called bold and beautiful. She openly embraced her sexuality and notoriety since they were setting her aside from others.

In most of her FB videos, she is seen lying in bed, usually wearing revealing clothes, with luscious makeup on, and posing seductively for the camera. The subjects she chose to talk about were also consistently controversial, obviously selected with garnering attention in mind. Among her main tools for entertaining and scandalizing, her audiences were targeting famous people both as subjects of gossip, as well as of her widely publicized courtship. Yet if she was not bold enough – or reckless enough

– to do so, no one on FB might have been interested in watching her videos.

Baloch clearly recognized the importance of staying connected to her audiences and invested time and effort in maintaining a fan base by creating an

illusion of intimacy with them, and readily responded to their comments whether to requests from fans or messages from haters and did not shy away from sharing minuscule details of her life with everyone willing to hear.

Micro-celebrities in general, and Baloch in particular, have turned attention into a commodity, thus playing into FB’s inherent media specificity to encourage the self-presentation and promotion of carefully crafted make-belief appearances.

Regardless of how attention is measured – positive or negative, actual, perceived, or potential – what matters is that it drives more content production as it is a universally craved commodity. Since online audiences are the intended consumer and promoter of this commodity, it is understandable as to why micro-celebrities are ready to do whatever it takes to please them – often by dialling-up their notoriety for increasing visibility. Paradoxically, toxic micro-celebrities seem to enjoy even the negative attention they receive, and especially when it is unremittingly negative as it is most likely to be not only consumed personally and individually but to go ‘viral’ and spread like wildfire.

Baloch’s case study provides ample evidence of how an easy FB fame is being acquired through notoriety and toxicity – and not on any recognizable achievements or qualities – but also points to the hefty price that one must inevitably pay for it.

Given the constraints of the Pakistani social and cultural context, Baloch clearly did not abide by uploading more than a dozen videos featuring her half-naked on FB. It is complicated to comprehend as to why she thought she could get away with it.

On the other hand, FB audiences have demonstrated all along their insatiable appetite for Baloch’s content and made her the top-trending micro-celebrity, yet relentlessly belittled her for fun, provoked her to post more shallow and obscene sexual content, and finally ganged against her to have her FB page banned. As this study has revealed, Baloch’s downfall was not only caused by the demeaning content she posted on FB but above all by the role audiences played. And while FB audiences might be “incapable of distinguishing quality from bullshit” (Rowland 2008, 91), they are enjoying unprecedented power to create but also to destroy micro-celebrities.

FB management also played a part in Baloch’s demise by failing to enforce its own standards of what is acceptable to publish, and what is not. Baloch’s FB page was blocked on the grounds of FB Community Standards from 2016, stating “we restrict the display of nudity because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content” (Gillespie 2018, para.9). It further states that,

“we remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks. We also restrict some images of female breasts if they include the nipple”

(ibid, para.11). Clearly, Baloch did not violate any of these rules apart from showing skin in a manner that could be considered profane. Another interesting finding in the

FB Community Standards (2016) is its clear policy against hate speech and bullying:

We remove threats to public figures, as well as hate speech directed at them – we don’t tolerate bullying or harassment that identify and shame individuals. We remove images altered to degrade Individuals, photos, or videos posted to shame individuals. FB removes hate speech, which includes content that directly attacks people based on their: sex, gender (ibid, para.10).

Back in 2014, FB also launched a “no swearing” campaign, initiated by the

FB legal department (Facebook section 182, 34b). According to it,

as of March 20th, 2014, we at FB will be launching a no swearing campaign. Anyone caught using profanity will have his or her account blocked for further investigation. If a user continues to use profanity the account will be shut down and a permanent ban will be placed into effect immediately

(Christensen March 16th, 2017).

Evidently, this campaign was not effective in monitoring the swearing that was done on Baloch’s posts. Moreover, the audience’s comments, discussed in

Chapter III, clearly indicate open hate speech and threats aimed at Baloch, in violation of FB rules. She was openly and publicly bullied, humiliated, and her videos were profaned by pictures on her posts. Body shaming, name-calling, harassment, abuse, and provocation to post more obscene content and offering her sex were a common occurrence on Baloch’s posts. However, after blocking her page, FB’s action against the people who bullied her is yet to happen since it is of extreme importance for its reputation, and hopefully another researcher would take up this issue in the future. It is important to understand how FB is responsible by only taking action on reports made by FB users against Baloch’s page (even though she did not violate FB rules), while at the same time not monitoring the hate speech used by those who reported her page.

The discussion and examples in this thesis hopefully open avenues for further research in situations following a similar model. In my view, FB as a platform, created to promote healthy communication and make the world a smaller, more 87

connected and better place has done next to nothing to prevent it from turning into a very dangerous place, especially for those who are addicted to posting and sharing on its pages.

This thesis has analyzed in global terms the micro-celebrity phenomenon and its interrelatedness with audiences’ behaviors but has also delved into its cultural specificities and its relevance to Pakistani society, where Baloch – the subject of the case study – lived and tragically died. The following citation sums up the growing unacceptance of women becoming more liberal in their bodily expressions: “[sexual displays by women] have become normative…and have replaced innocence or virtue”

(Gill 2007a, 72). If this reflects the current state of affairs in Pakistan, one could only imagine what would have happened to Baloch a few decades ago for significantly smaller infractions of the strict moral code. To Baloch’s credit, my insider observations show that after her untimely death, it has become easier for women to display their bodies, as they are getting much more support from the public even though they still face harsh ridicule on behalf of more traditionalist-minded people. In this regard, it can be said that Baloch was an unwitting martyr for women’s rights to own their bodies, which is still a work in progress.

Moreover, by exploring the case study of Qandeel Baloch, I believe this thesis contributes to the academic debate on toxic micro-celebrities worldwide. By critically exploring the micro-celebrity phenomenon against the backdrop of a conservative patriarchal culture like Pakistan, this thesis brings to bear a female Pakistani micro- celebrity as an embodiment of notoriety. Borrowing terms and concepts from theatre,

film and media studies, as well as cultural and gender studies, and predicated on the shifts and changes in celebrity culture in general, the constructed micro-celebrity model reveals the mechanism for distributing fame to non-exceptional people. Using the exploratory case study of Qandeel Baloch as primary research method, and analyzing the collected data through the theoretical and conceptual grid of the constructed model, the principal findings of this thesis have demonstrated that

Baloch’s case could be seen as a textbook illustration of an infamous micro-celebrity who performed her desired identity as a controversial drama queen, becoming ultimately an embodiment of notoriety and toxicity. Yet the data analysis has also pointed to the vulnerability of a lonely and deluded young woman with a confused social identity, who was desperately looking for ways to attract attention.

Victimized by the FB audiences, who were instrumental in creating and sustaining her role as a notorious and toxic micro-celebrity, her content – initially viral – was consumed for entertainment, then marginalized, then viciously scorned, and ultimately discarded along with her, not without the help of FB which failed to enforce its own rules and protect her from bullying. Baloch’s tragic end in an honor killing at the hands of her brother was the ultimate betrayal she suffered.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize the ironic twist in Baloch’s posthumous image: she was considered an epitome of notoriety when she was alive, but now she is regarded as an example of a daring, rebellious woman who challenged the traditional cultural and religious norms of Pakistani society and brought to the forefront the image of a bold, fearless woman who was unapologetic and comfortable with public displays of her sexuality and openly expressed her fundamental human

right of freedom. This thesis therefore represents my contribution to the knowledge of this highly controversial, yet scantly researched area of Pakistani female micro- celebrities, who turn notorious because of their own volition, and end up destroyed because of the toxicity of their intolerant cultural environment.

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