An Examination of Ways That Three Self-Identified Feminists Feel Empowered Through Instagram
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
AN EXAMINATION OF WAYS THAT THREE SELF-IDENTIFIED FEMINISTS FEEL EMPOWERED THROUGH INSTAGRAM BY JOANNA REES DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art Education in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Elizabeth Delacruz, Chair Dr. Michael Parsons Associate Professor Patricia Gill Assistant Professor Laura Hetrick Abstract This dissertation is a case study on three females’ use of the InstagramTM photographic application. The study examines how three self-identified feminists use Instagram to reflect on their own history and daily life, for self-empowerment and engagement with a supportive community. The motivation for this study emerges from my own experiences documenting photographs of my own daily life and sharing my images on Instagram and other social networking platforms. In addition to conducting a self study of my own engagement in Instagram, I examine how two other women create and share images on Instagram and consider what are the implications of Instagram for art education. Keywords: photography, Instagram, social networking, female identity, art education, digital learning, pedagogy, curriculum. ii To My Mother Janice Rees iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………vii LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………...…...viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………...1 The Rise of Digital Imaging and Social Networking………………………..…….2 The Instagram Phenomenon………………………………………………………3 Problem Statement and Need for the Study……………………………………….6 Theoretical Framework………………………………………………………..…..6 Assumptions and Limitations……….………………………………………...…..8 Research Questions…………………………………………...……………..…...11 Methodology…………………………………...…………………….....………..11 Significance of the Study…………………………………………….…………..13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………...15 A Brief History of the Women’s Movement in the United States……………….15 Feminist Thought and Action in Art Education………………………………….19 Feminism and Innovation Culture in Digital Media………………………..……23 Digital Media in Art Education…………………………………………….…….31 Feminist Hashtags……………………………………………………………..…34 Lingering Thoughts………………………………………………………………35 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………….36 Study Design……………………………………………………………………..37 Research Questions……………………………………………..………………..37 iv Participants and Source Selection……………..…………………………………38 Research Design………………………………………………………………….39 Data Collection and Analysis………………………………..…………………...41 Collection of Participants’ Images, Texts, and Information about their Online Behaviors…………………………………………………………………...……41 Semi-Structured Interviews……………………………………………………...42 Collection of Data for Self-Study …………………………………………….…48 Researcher’s Field Notes and Observations……………………………………..48 Data Analysis………………………………………………………………...…..48 Analysis of Participants’ Images, Texts, and Online Social Behaviors…….……49 Themes in the Images……………………………………………………………56 Analysis of Interview Data and Fieldnotes………………………………………60 Analysis of My Self-Study Data……………………………………………...….61 Mixed Methods and Triangulation……………………………………………….63 Member Checking, Validity, and Persuasiveness of the Accounts Provided……64 Limitations……………………………………………………………………….65 Summary of Methods…………………………………………………...………..65 CHAPTER 4: CASE STUDY……………………………………………………………67 Carrie Case Study…………………………………………………..………….…68 Lauren Case Study……………………………………………………………….95 My Self Study…………………………………………..………….……………121 v CHAPTER5: CONCLUSSIONS……………………………………………………….142 Connecting the Literature Review to this Study………………………………..143 Reflections on Instagram and Self-Empowerment……………………………..147 Recommendations for Art Education…………………………...………………152 Teaching with Filters……………………………………………………………157 Teaching as Connection/Empowerment………………………………...………158 Personal Implications……………………………………………………………160 Concluding Thoughts……………………………………………………...…….161 REFERENCES.……………………………………………………………………....….163 APPENDIX A: IRB LETTER…………………………………………………..….……180 vii LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY Table 1……………………………………………………………………....53 Table 2………………………………………………………………...…….54 Table 3………………………………………………………………...…….63 vii LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY Figure 1………………………………………………………………………..55 Figure 2………………………………………………………………….…….62 CHAPTER 4: CASE STUDY Figure 3………………………………………………………………....……..71 Figure 4……………………………………………………………….…...…..73 Figure 5………………………………………………………………………..76 Figure 6………………………………………………………………………..77 Figure 7………………………………………………………………………..77 Figure 8……………………………………………………………...….……..78 Figure 9………………………………………………………………....……..80 Figure 10……………………………………………………………….….…..82 Figure 11……………………………………………………………….….…..84 Figure 12………………………………………………………….…….……..88 Figure 13……………………………………………………………….….…..91 Figure 14………………………………………………………...…….……..100 Figure 15……………………………………………………………....……..100 Figure 16……………………………………………………………………..103 Figure 17……………………………………………………………………..105 Figure 18……………………………………………………………………..106 Figure 19……………………………………………………………………..106 viii Figure 20………………………………………………………………..…..114 Figure 21……………………………………………………………..……..115 Figure 22……………………………………………………………...….…115 Figure 23……………………………………………………………..……..117 Figure 24……………………………………………………………..……..119 Figure 25………………………………………………………….….……..122 Figure 26……………………………………………………….…….……..123 Figure 27……………………………………………………… …….……..124 Figure 28……………………………………………………………..……..126 Figure 29………………………………………………………………..…..127 Figure 30……………………………………………………………..……..129 Figure 31………………………………………………………………..…..130 Figure 32……………………………………………………………..……..131 Figure 33……………………………………………………………..……..133 Figure 34……………………………………………………………………136 ix Chapter One INTRODUCTION Throughout my life, I have used photography to gain insight into people and events. I grew up in rural British Columbia, Canada. As I began my undergraduate studies in Ottawa, Ontario, and then went on to graduate school in Montreal, Quebec, I used photography to express myself creatively and to process transitions in my identity. In 2007 I moved to Taipei, Taiwan, to teach English and begin graduate studies in Art Education at the National Taiwan Normal University. Throughout these moves and transitions, photography has been the constant in my life, documenting my changing understanding of both self and reality. Social networking sites like Facebook®, Twitter®, and WordPress® became my digital online photo-sharing platforms, places where I posted photographs of my daily life and running community. I considered my online photography practices to be both a form of creative expression and personal affirmation. Since moving to the United States in 2010, Instagram® has further enhanced my photography practices and connections online to others. Instagram is a relatively new social media site and mobile photography application that allows users to create and modify images that can then be shared instantly through its own social network. In 2014 I moved to New York and began communicating with the running community through Instagram. For me, sharing images creates both a sense of personal empowerment and community with others. Through my participation in Instagram, I have similarly observed how this mobile application/social media network functions as a creative photographic medium for others as well as myself. For my dissertation research, I have studied these facets more systemically. 1 My photography has also been used as a tool to develop and express notions of personal empowerment through sharing portraits of myself and other women I am close to. My initial thought is that through my practices in photography and social media I have been able to create my own photographic imagery that draws on, yet is separate from, values and practices also found in contemporary media. My study is conceived through a feminist approach that has been informed by the thinking of Ann Balsamo (2011), Susan Faludi (2006), Lisa Nakamura (2008), and Sherry Turkle (2011). The work of Balsamo has enhanced my conception of the gendered perspective of technology, Faludi has informed my thinking on post-feminism, Nakamura has provided insight on online racial culture and Turkle has documented the social isolation individuals feel from texting and social networking. My research questions are written with the intent to probe participants’ use of Instagram to express their ideas and connect to others online. My motivation for writing the literature review is to gain an understanding on the history of the feminist movements in the USA and digital media scholars, both of which inform my perspectives as a woman and researcher. The Rise of Digital Imaging and Social Networking My own experiences with photography and Instagram are concomitant with the rise of digital imaging and social networking in our society. According to Boyd and Ellison (2007) a social network can be defined as a web-based service that allows individuals to construct public or semi-public profiles with others who share a similar connection within a networked system. In this line of thinking, an online networked system is like a public (or semi-public) gathering place where individuals meet to exchange ideas (Delacruz, 2013c). There are implications of this notion of a digital gathering place. In 2009, Delacruz described the rise of digital media and online virtual communities (2009a). She observed the shift from the traditional notion of the 2 gathering place or public sphere (town square, newspapers, etc.) to the Internet, and