CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

Watch the Queen Conquer: Intersectionality and the Interrogation of Power in Teen Vogue Social Media Coverage

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in Mass Communication

By Anastasia Crittenton

December 2018

The thesis of Anastasia Crittenton is approved:

______Dr. Elizabeth Blakey Date

______Dr. Jessica Retis-Rivas Date

______Dr. Stephanie Bluestein, Chair Date

California State University, Northridge

ii Acknowledgements

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Wall and my committee: Professors Bluestein, Blakey, and Retis-Rivas. This thesis would not have been possible without their encouragement and leadership. They pushed me to become a better scholar while writing this thesis, from its origins to the final dotted i’s and crossed t’s.

Three people in my life – my parents and my girlfriend, Philippa – were my rocks during this endeavor. They never gave up on me and helped me never give up on myself.

Their constant support, love, and guidance provided a light during times of darkness.

Finally, to those who knew I could do it from the start: Caitlin, Dana, Krystala,

Leah, Jo, Rachel, and my dog, Ajax.

iii Table of Contents Signature Page i Acknowledgements ii List of Figures v Abstract vii

Chapter 1: Introduction 1 History of Teen Vogue 2 State of the Teen Magazine 5 Responses to Teen Vogue 7 Overview 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review 11 Theoretical Framework 11 Feminism 19 Women Online 31 Chapter 3: Methodology 38 Research Methods 38 Data Collection 40 Data Analysis 43 Problems Encountered 44 Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis 46 Subjects 47 Language 52 Tone 63 Imagery 74 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion 82 Bibliography 85 Appendix A: Content Analysis Sheet 103 Appendix B: LGBTQ Term 105

iv List of Figures Figure 1.1 3 Figure 1.2 6 Figure 4.1 48 Figure 4.2 48 Figure 4.3 48 Figure 4.4 48 Figure 4.5 51 Figure 4.6 53 Figure 4.7 54 Figure 4.8 55 Figure 4.9 56 Figure 4.10 59 Figure 4.11 60 Figure 4.12 61 Figure 4.13 62 Figure 4.14 64 Figure 4.15 64 Figure 4.16 64 Figure 4.17 67 Figure 4.18 68 Figure 4.19 68 Figure 4.20 68 Figure 4.21 69 Figure 4.22 70 Figure 4.23 71 Figure 4.24 71 Figure 4.25 72 Figure 4.26 73

v Figure 4.27 74 Figure 4.28 75 Figure 4.29 75 Figure 4.30 76 Figure 4.31 77 Figure 4.32 77 Figure 4.33 78 Figure 4.34 79 Figure 4.35 80 Figure 4.36 80

vi Abstract

Watch the Queen Conquer: Intersectionality in Teen Vogue Social Media Coverage

By Anastasia Crittenton Master of Arts in Mass Communication

The research of this thesis analyzes social media coverage by the teen and female- oriented publication, Teen Vogue. It specifically looks at the coverage of two events in

June 2018: LGBTQ pride and the midterm elections. The core of the research is primary sources, including Twitter and Instagram posts pertaining to the two events. Upon analysis of these sources, it becomes evident how Teen Vogue focuses on two themes in its coverage: intersectionality and, subsequently, an interrogation of institutions of power posing a threat to the marginalized groups highlighted via intersectionality. A clear understanding of marginalized individuals and the hardships they face due to their identities reveals the importance of Teen Vogue’s choices in its coverage.

vii Chapter 1: Introduction On December 10, 2016, Lauren Duca wrote an article titled “Donald Trump Is

Gaslighting America” and it quickly went viral for its sheer audacity. It spread across

Twitter, where it earned over 30,000 re-tweets and shares from people like longtime journalist Dan Rather, as well as Facebook. It’s not difficult to understand why. In the piece, Duca argues that Donald Trump, then President-elect, won the election through the psychological manipulation technique of gaslighting. Taken from the 1938 play Gas

Light, the manipulation forces a person (or voters in a particular country, in this case) to doubt their own reality to the point of questioning their sanity. The article, however, isn’t the most surprising thing about this piece of journalism history. What’s most eye-opening is where the article was published – none other than Teen Vogue, the teen and younger women-oriented little sister to Vogue. Over the past few years, the magazine – now exclusively online – has become one of the most revolutionary, daring, and brazen publications in 21st century journalism.

This thesis seeks to explore how Teen Vogue has focused its coverage – intended for an audience of girls and young women – on themes of intersectionality regarding various topics and social issues, and subsequently an interrogation of institutions of power. Specifically, this thesis will analyze this phenomenon by looking at Teen Vogue’s communication with its audience via social media through the mediated events of

LGBTQ pride and the midterm elections over the month of June 2018. With the ever- changing landscape of journalism, the publication’s evolution and its ability to thrive in an unstable field provides a compelling look into the current state of journalism. The following introduction offers a basic history of Teen Vogue and its current place in the world of journalism, as well as an overview of the thesis.

1

History of Teen Vogue

Compared to some other teen magazines, Teen Vogue is relatively young. In fact, a week before its first issue, the New York Times wrote an article about its arrival, appropriately titled, “Coming Late, Fashionably, Teen Vogue Joins a Crowd” (Carr,

2003). Its publisher, Condé Nast, launched the publication in 2003 as a sister print to

Vogue (which began in 1892). Gina Sanders was the founding publisher of Teen Vogue while the Vogue editor-in-chief appointed Amy Astley as the magazine’s first editor

(Carr, 2003). The magazine started at $1.50 an issue, half the price of its competitor,

Seventeen, and from the start, it positioned itself as an outlier (Carr, 2003). Astley told

David Carr of the New York Times in 2003: “We are going to do what we do well, which is fashion, beauty and style. A lot of other teen magazines are focused on relationships, boys, sex, and embarrassing moments. That is not our equity.” It began with four test issues, eventually publishing a total of six in its first year. By 2004, the number increased to 10. From its inception, Teen Vogue made it about its audience. While the recognizable name Vogue was certainly a boon, the magazine wasn’t going to be a replication simply aimed at teenagers. “I don’t think it’s relevant to their lifestyle or budget for teens to be wearing Gucci or Prada,” Astley said. “Why would we try to compete with something as successful as Vogue? We want to show them looks and clothes they can afford” (Carr,

2003).

This is how Teen Vogue operated, even as magazine sales, especially for teen prints, continued to drop. Between 1997 to 2001, teen magazine circulation dropped from

9 million to 8.2 million (Carr, 2003). For over a decade, Teen Vogue successfully

2

continued its operation while surrounding teen magazines shuttered their doors. Finally, in 2016, they came to a point where management had to make changes.

The switch to digital

At the end of 2016, the publication decreased its print edition from 10 issues a year to just four, aiming to focus more on digital content (Kelly, 2016). The world of journalism in general began turning more towards digital, as that is where younger generations began congregating. The ubiquitous emergence of smartphones, laptops, and

tablets led to a new world of

communication and the

dissemination of information. In

many ways, this forced

publications across the board to

make changes. Several

publications that went exclusively

digital – like Complex and Nylon

– continued creating magazine

covers, only now shared on social

media (Abad, 2018). In the first

Figure 1.1 half of 2016, the single-copy sales of Teen Vogue dropped 50 percent, leading them to distribute 65,314 copies simply to meet a quota of 1 million copies (Kelly, 2016). On November 2, 2017, Condé Nast announced the end of Teen Vogue’s print edition, moving exclusively to its online venues. Even to the end of that chapter, however, it continued to take bold stances.

Hillary Clinton edited the very last print edition. 3

At the center of these changes – both in content and the exclusive move to digital

– was new leadership, with Elaine Welteroth replacing Astley as editor-in-chief in May

2016 (Wilson, 2016). Welteroth had served as the beauty and health director for the publication since 2012 (Wilson, 2016). She was 29 when she was appointed EIC, making her the youngest, as well as the second black EIC of a Condé Nast title (Wilson, 2016).

She worked closely with digital editorial director Philip Picardi and Marie Suter as creative director. Many people contribute Teen Vogue’s success and groundbreaking journalism for the past few years to this trio. When Welteroth was appointed, Wintour said in a statement: “Elaine, Marie and Phil are fearlessly at the forefront, inspiring young trendsetters with their sophisticated take on emerging fashion, beauty, and pop culture, and they will lead Teen Vogue to the next phase of its success” (as cited in

Wilson, 2016).

The numbers also speak for their triumphant run of the company. In a single year, the Teen Vogue website gained 5 million users. It counted 7.9 million users in January

2017, up from 2.9 million the year before (Fernandez, 2017). As of this writing, all three of these leaders have left Teen Vogue and Condé Nast. Welteroth left in January 2018

(Arnold, 2018), followed by Suter two months later (Bauck, 2018). Picardi was named chief content officer following Welteroth’s departure and then Samhita Mukhopadhyay joined as executive director in February (Bloomgarden-Smoke, 2018). Picardi also became the chief content officer of them, a more recent Condé Nast project

(Bloomgarden-Smoke). Launched in October 2017, them is a community platform, telling stories and dissecting news and pop culture through an LGBTQ lens. It is a separate publication from Teen Vogue, which is why it is not included in the analysis of

4

this thesis. The publications often interact with and promote one another, however, and that is why them is sometimes mentioned throughout.

On August 23, 2018, Picardi announced his departure from Condé Nast. He left the company to become the new editor-in-chief of Out, a magazine solely dedicated to

LGBTQ stories, news, and culture. “I am super honored to be taking the helm at Out, which is a legacy LGBTQ publication,” he told the Wall Street Journal (2018). “I’m looking forward to reimagining what Out looks like for the modern queer audience and preparing it for the future,” he continued, drawing comparisons to his role at Teen Vogue.

Condé Nast has yet to name a new CCO. Despite the shake-ups, the three made their mark and it continues to show in Teen Vogue’s content and its place in the larger world of teen magazines and journalism in general.

State of the teen magazine

Teen Vogue is one of the only remaining teen girl magazines still operating. In what was once a robust industry, there are now only a few staunch publications holding on to provide a space for younger readers. As stated previously, Teen Vogue was late to the scene, but in its short lifespan, it managed to do what several of its predecessors never accomplished. It is important to understand how Teen Vogue fits, alongside the world and industry it came into, and further how it managed to survive.

The first major teen magazine was YM, which began in 1932 (Lewis, 2014). It began as two separate titles, Compact and Calling All Girls. In the 1960s, they merged to form one publication that went through various title changes, including Young Miss, abbreviated to YM. In 2004, the magazine ceased publication and – in a serendipitous turn of events – Condé Nast purchased the assets. Subscribers of YM began receiving issues of 5

Teen Vogue in its place (Bandler, 2004). Most other major teen magazines went the way of YM, as seen in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Lifespans of teen magazines

Magazine Title First Publication Status

Seventeen 1944 Still in circulation

Teen 1954 Ended in 2009

Bop 1983 Ended in 2014

Sassy 1988 Ended in 1994

Teen People 1998 Ended in 2006

CosmoGIRL 1999 Ended in 2008

Elle Girl 2001 Ended in 2006

Several of the teen magazines had

commonality, such as being spin-offs of a more

established title and, of course, their target

audiences. They differentiated themselves in

specific content, such as Sassy’s article “The

Sassiest Boy in Communist China.” Despite some

publications pushing more boundaries than others,

they all showcased tried-and-true mainstays of teen

magazines, including dating, fashion, and beauty

(Evans, Rutberg, Sather, & Turner, 1991, p. 105). As the table shows, however, none of the titles were able to outlast an increasingly digital world and falling sales, except Figure 1.2 Seventeen and Teen Vogue. Another magazine, J- 6

14, which began in 1998, is also still in print but its content is almost exclusively celebrity news and culture, which keeps it out of the same conversations as Teen Vogue and Seventeen.

Even when Teen Vogue had a considerably larger pool to contend with, it still found success early. In 2005, while publishing 10 issues a year, it managed to overtake

Elle Girl and CosmoGIRL with 1,000 ad pages and $77.6 million in revenue for the

Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) (Folio, 2006). Now, however, the mere fact that nearly every teen magazine has shuttered its doors gives a bleak, but honest, look at the state of the industry. How Teen Vogue has managed to not only stay afloat but make a bold, unforgettable impression on readers is the crux of this thesis.

Responses to Teen Vogue

The larger journalism world took notice of Teen Vogue’s evolution and its ability to not only outlast, but thrive in a world that’s constantly battling an ever-changing technological society. In an analysis of Teen Vogue and its political transformation,

Sophie Gilbert wrote for The Atlantic in 2016: “The genius of the current iteration of Teen Vogue is that it’s caught on to its current readers’ enthusiasm for topical issues in a timely enough fashion to actually engage them.”

Many responses to Teen Vogue in recent years focus on, and praise, the journalism the publication is putting out for their core audience: young women. As

Gilbert explains, Teen Vogue picks up on trends and interests, incorporating them into its content, and politics is becoming an increasingly popular trend. The magazine is “giving young women valuable information about issues they care about,” writes Gilbert, “not to mention taking them – and their manifold interests – seriously.” What they did is tap into 7

a broader range of issues women care about. As Duca told Fox anchor Tucker Carlson in

December 2016: “A woman can love Ariana Grande and her thigh high boots and still discuss politics” (as cited in Keller, 2018). Not long after, Duca got her own column in

Teen Vogue titled Thigh-High Politics (Teen Vogue, 2018).

Readers and stats present a clearer image of Teen Vogue’s reputation. Although

2013 was before the major transition, readers then still considered themselves loyal and impressed with the magazine’s output. At this time, Susannah Davies, a 17-year-old high school student told the New York Times: “Teen Vogue really hits the spot of what teenagers are concerned about. I look to be inspired.” The impressed readers also extend to adults and fellow journalists. Following Duca’s article on Trump gaslighting, businessman Rahul Sood tweeted (2016): “Great article @laurenduca. Who would have guessed @TeenVogue might be the future of political news. Unreal coverage of the election.” Despite an influx of political news attracting people’s attention, Teen Vogue hasn’t abandoned its foundation. In 2016, these were the five most-read stories:

1. Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America

2. How to Apply Glitter Nail Polish the Right Way

3. Netflix Arrivals October 2016: See the Full List

4. Mike Pence’s Record on Reproductive and LGBTQ Rights Is Seriously

Concerning

5. Dark Marks and Acne Scars: Your Complete Guide (Gilbert, 2016)

Women are, in fact, interested in the stereotypical things society assumes of them.

However, that’s is not all they’re interested in, and that is what Teen Vogue has harnessed so well. As Picardi stated (as cited in Gilbert, 2016): “I think young people, and perhaps

8

particularly young women, are so wildly underestimated by the world at large, and I want us to be a platform that challenges that idea.”

Still, the publication is not immune to criticism. Writer Adedoyin Adeniji lobbed a harsh assessment of Teen Vogue in Bitch Media for putting a price on activism.

“Activism is altruistic,” Adeniji wrote in 2017. “making it impossible for brands to earn profit without compromising the needs of the marginalized people that many activists are fighting for.” Adeniji then gives the example of Dior selling a shirt reading “We Should

All Be Feminists” for $710 and the “cognitive dissonance” of encouraging everyone to adopt feminism, “while ignoring the fact that the majority can’t afford to buy a $710 t- shirt.” She concludes by writing that numerous outlets, including Teen Vogue, “must do the extra work of checking themselves and the systems they perpetuate as prettying activism up and selling it harms marginalized people and puppets their issues for revenue.”

Overview

This thesis is primarily a content analysis of Teen Vogue, as seen through a narrow lens of its social media. The second chapter is the literature review, giving a theoretical, historical, and contextual foundation for the research done in this thesis. The main topics assessed in the literature review are the theory of publics and counterpublics, feminism, and women online. The third chapter is the methodology, detailing the process behind this thesis, including how content was chosen and evaluated. The primary research of the thesis follows in the fourth chapter, looking at social media coverage, via

Twitter and Instagram, of two mediated events in June 2018: Pride and the midterm elections. By narrowing the content to study, this thesis aims to be a microcosm of 9

understanding Teen Vogue in a larger context, offering insight and understanding of the publication and how it sets itself apart. Finally, the fifth chapter concludes the thesis with an assessment of Teen Vogue and its place in contemporary society and culture, both in the world of journalism and at large. It also recommends further research on this topic.

10

Chapter 2: Literature Review

The purpose of this literature review is to provide a theoretical framework for an analysis of the publication Teen Vogue. The theories analyzed are the ideas of the public sphere and feminism. Using the work of Jürgen Habermas (1962), Michael Warner

(2002), and Sonia Livingstone (2002), I explain what a public and counterpublic is and how they apply to Teen Vogue. With feminism, I will explain the evolution of the waves of feminism, beginning with the first wave and concluding with the current wave, the fourth, the one in which Teen Vogue operates. As a publication, it is often described, and praised, as a feminist outlet. Therefore, it is important to understand the history and context of feminism. The final element of the literature review is discussing and examining the place of women in the online world.

Theoretical Framework

Publics and Counterpublics

One of the most important elements of communication is an understanding of the two or more parties involved. In this case of this thesis, it is Teen Vogue as communicator and its audience on the receiving end. As a communicator, Teen Vogue has changed what it means to be the audience of a female-oriented publication and, conversely, what an audience reading a publication like Teen Vogue is interested in. For this discussion, we turn to the idea of publics, counterpublics, and communication as political will. I will discuss three theorists’ work in this field of mass communication: Jürgen Habermas,

Michael Warner, and Sonia Livingstone. While Habermas developed the early and

11

foundational concepts for a public, Warner extended these concepts with a focus on counterpublics, which is the primary focus of Teen Vogue. Before understanding what a counterpublic is, though, it is vital to start with the basics.

What is a public?

Habermas, a German philosopher and sociologist, first coined the term and developed the theory in his book, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.

Habermas discusses the evolution of a public sphere in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In defining what a public sphere is, Habermas notes it is different than the simple idea of something public; that is, a public space or building. Rather, for

Habermas’ purpose, “publicity is the public as carrier of public opinion; its function as a critical judge is precisely what makes the public character of proceedings – in court, for instance – meaningful” (1962, p. 2). It is important to understand, however, that

Habermas’ exploration of the public sphere “is the historically specific phenomenon of the bourgeois public sphere created out of the relations between capitalism and the state in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries” (Calhoun, 1992, p. 5). Several ideas, however, can be extrapolated and applied to a more contemporary setting.

In the second chapter of Habermas’ foundational book, he outlines what a public sphere is in a straight-forward manner:

The bourgeois public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private

people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated

from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate

over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly

relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor. The medium of this

12

political confrontation was peculiar and without historical precedent: people's

public use of their reason. (p. 27)

Using this understanding, therefore, it becomes clear the relationship between

Teen Vogue and its readership is accomplished in the public sphere. People read and comment on Teen Vogue articles, discussing them with anyone from the author, to friends, or strangers online. This discourse is not unlike that of Habermas’ bourgeois public. Habermas’ public spheres were French salons, shaped by women, and London coffehouses, which “made access to the relevant circles less formal and easier” and

“embraced the wider strata of the middle class, including craftsmen and shopkeepers” (p.

33). This development, extending conversation beyond simply white men of the aristocracy, is an important part of public spheres, and understanding how this concept evolves as time goes on.

Though Habermas was the one to coin the term public sphere, he acknowledges the work of prior philosophers and their attributions to the evolving understanding of a public. Immanuel Kant, for example, in his work on publicity and philosophy, determined the “critical process that private people engaged in rational-critical public debate brought to bear on absolutist rule, interpreted itself as unpolitical: public opinion aimed at rationalizing politics in the name of morality” (p. 102). Or Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Hegel’s work on public opinion, deeming an “empirical universal” in which the

“thoughts and opinions of the Many are particulars” (p. 117).

Habermas also acknowledges the way the press changed the nature of the public.

As he explains, “the press developed from a business in pure news reporting to one involving ideologies and viewpoints” (p. 182). This turned papers suddenly into “carriers

13

and leaders of public opinion,” as it created a new function “inserted between the gathering and the publication of news: the editorial function” (p. 182). This is where

Teen Vogue exists, becoming, in the last several years, a revolutionary carrier and leader of ideology, delivered to its public. But is its public merely the public? Or do the readers of Teen Vogue fit somewhere else?

Criticism of Habermas

Habermas’ theory of the public sphere is not without critics. Nancy Fraser explains revisionist scholars like Joan Landes, Mary Ryan, and Geoff Eley “contend that

Habermas’s account idealizes the public sphere” (1992, p. 113). All three of these scholars take issue with Habermas’ work and its exclusionary nature. Landes, in particular, laments Habermas’ exclusion of gender. In her work, she takes up the issue of the aforementioned French salons and “argues that the ethos of the new republican public sphere in France was constructed in deliberate opposition to that of a more woman- friendly salon culture” (p. 113). Eley takes this argument one step further, positing that

“gender exclusions were linked to other exclusions rooted in processes of class formation” and that this network of spaces “was anything but accessible to everyone” (p.

114).

Finally, for Ryan, the issue was more with the idea of multiple publics, rather than one simple public. As her study reveals, around the same time of Habermas’ bourgeois public, “there arose a host of competing counterpublics, including nationalist publics, popular peasant publics, elite women’s publics, and working-class publics” (p. 116).

Fraser takes these ideas and concludes, in direct contrast to Habermas’ ideas,

“arrangements that accommodate contestation amount a plurality of competing publics better promote the ideal of participatory parity than does a single, comprehensive, 14

overarching public” (p. 122). In summary, the public sphere is varied and multiple, according to recent thought, rather than singular or monolithic. The natural stratification of our society leads to numerous publics, grown organically rather than manufactured.

Teen Vogue operates within these so-called counterpublics, instead of with the singular entity described by Habermas.

The emergence of counterpublics

One of the foremost scholars on counterpublics is Michael Warner. His definition of publics – "a space of discourse organized by nothing other than discourse itself," which requires "at least minimal participation... rather than a permanent state of being”

(p. 413-5) – can easily be applied to the audience of Teen Vogue. This audience, however, exists beyond the straight, white, primarily male-dominated spaces in which

Habermas’ bourgeois publics existed. Teen Vogue’s audience, the one it addresses and writes for, exists entirely online (as of 2017) and is the antithesis of wealthy, straight, white men.

By rooting itself in feminism, and now expanding and committing itself to intersectional feminism, its audience has broadened to disenfranchised groups like people of color and the LGBTQ community. It occupies its own space and discourse and therefore also occupies multiple publics – that is, the public at large but, more specifically, various counterpublics. This type of public, as defined by Warner, is one that

"maintains at some level, conscious or not, an awareness of its subordinate status" by marking itself a “conflictual relation to the dominant publics” (p. 423-4). What further differentiates a counterpublic from other publics is the nature of the discourse around them by the people in power, which can be perceived as hostile and lacking decorum.

Furthermore, text and discourse on a counterpublic is not as accessible to the masses and 15

it is also assumed that the masses would have less interest in public speech, be it a magazine, a newscast, or something else, on the subject of a counterpublic to which they do not belong (p. 424).

As this thesis will discuss, Teen Vogue embracing these counterpublics is revolutionary. Not simply because it embraced them – plenty of media outlets before it have done the same – but because of the space the publication occupied in the larger public’s mind as focusing on inane teen girl interests.

How counterpublics speak

It is not simply enough to acknowledge these counterpublics. A key component of any public is the communication that makes up its discourse and how said communication manifests. Warner describes public discourse as “poetic” by which he means, any discourse “addressed to a public must characterize the world in which it attempts to circulate, and it must attempt to realize that world through address” (p. 422).

He further argues that discourse not only acknowledges the existence of a public, but says: “Let it [the public] have this character, speak this way, see the world in this way”

(p. 422). This is one of the most crucial concepts to understand for the purpose of this thesis. Teen Vogue consciously and adamantly puts forth a specific worldview, and it addresses its public or readership within this worldview, as the main analysis will show.

This poetic discourse is even more specific when it comes to counterpublics.

Warner uses the example of queer discourse:

Within a gay or queer counterpublic, for example, no one is in the closet: the

presumptive heterosexuality that constitutes the closet for individuals in ordinary

speech is suspended. But this circulatory space, freed from heteronormative

speech protocols, is itself marked by that very suspension: speech that addresses 16

any participant as queer will circulate up to a point, at which it is certain to meet

intense resistance. It might therefore circulate in special, protected venues, in

limited publications. (p. 424)

He further goes on to say with this example that a queer frontier will keep moving and “seek more and more places to circulate where people will recognize themselves in its address” (p. 424). Teen Vogue has become such a circulated publication, aiming to reflect back its counterpublic audience.

Bringing publics into the modern world

With an understanding of publics and counterpublics, it is important to understand, specifically for the purpose of this thesis and its subject, how such audiences are organized and operate in the digital age. The 21st Century brought with it a mass, globalized form of communication that was previously unknown on such a scale with advancing technology. It formed a different world than the one in which Habermas first developed his theory on mass communication (print) creating the public sphere, and therefore such communication between publics evolved and expressed itself in new ways.

Teen Vogue exists in this new world and so, too, does the social media examined in this thesis. Sonia Livingstone is one of the foremost contemporary scholars on the topic of audiences and publics in the ever-changing landscape of media.

As Livingstone (2005) writes in her book Audiences and Publics: When Cultural

Engagement Matters for the Public Sphere, “an alternative view sees the changing media environment as signaling that actual or imminent collapse of such a distinction” (p. 21) between the concepts of audience and public, which is the position this thesis takes. She continues, citing Corner, by adopting the assertion that “activities of audiences… cannot usefully be separated from the activities of publics” (p. 21). Prior views of audiences and 17

publics distinguished the former as passive and the latter as active, though that line is increasingly becoming blurred.

This evolving media landscape has created new research of audiences and the role they play in creating shared meanings and interpretations of messages, and how they interact with cultural shifts via communication, namely through either passivity or activity. Livingstone (2015) argues that “communication researchers appear as ready as ever to take them for granted as an invisible and indivisible mass” and are only implied

“behind a host of homogenizing nouns… and nominalized verbs… that mask their agency, diversity, life contexts, and interests at stake” (p. 440). There is much to suggest, however, including Teen Vogue’s own very targeted audience and public, that media audiences are from an indivisible mass. “Indeed,” Livingstone writes, “The more contradictory the claims about citizens versus consumers, individuals versus crowds, participants versus couch potatoes, the more interesting the task to explain how they can, as they must, all be part of the same population — ordinary people, the general public, albeit now living in a heavily mediated world” (p. 441). As she astutely observes, changing media and audience research is creating a challenge to the “authority of elite textual analysts to conjure up visions of model or implied, imagined or inscribed readers without thinking to check whether actual readers are obediently falling into line” (p. 441).

Publics and a globalized media shape and affect each other in turn. While media must respond to an active and diverse group of consumers, publics, too, must grapple with the operations of mass media today. Now, media is seen as a be-all, end-all of what is or is not public. Livingstone (2005) contends an issue or topic must be represented in the media if it is to be public. If the media weren’t to cover a specific topic, that would amount to its symbolic annihilation. In this way, publics are now reliant on media in a 18

way they weren’t before. “One cannot now imagine,” Livingstone continues. “how the public can be constituted, can express itself, can be seen to participate, can have an effect, without the mediation of various forms of mass communication.” It is a different world and just as the media have evolved, so too must theories and understandings of audiences.

Feminism

While Teen Vogue addresses various counterpublics – including women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community – it began, and remains, a platform with a primary focus on women and feminism. The publication, now strictly online, occupies the space of fourth-wave feminism, according to the findings of this thesis. This resurgence of feminism began around 2012 and is mainly associated with its online presence. It’s important to first understand the evolution of feminism and what feminism is. The definition of feminism is straightforward: the belief in and advocacy for equality of the sexes in all areas of life, including society, economics, politics, and culture. An imperative aspect of feminism is the way it intersects with other areas of society (see

Intersectional Feminism, p. 27). Below is a brief overview of the first three waves of feminism.

First-Wave Feminism

The inception of the first feminist movement in the United States traces its roots to July 1848 and the Seneca Falls Convention in New York. Alexander Keyssar (2000) describes the convention as the moment which gave “rise to the nation’s largest mass movement for suffrage” (p. 172-3). At this convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined the grievances women felt at the hands of society and the U.S. government. It declared the equality of the sexes and combatted the 19

denial to women “this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation’ and ‘oppressed on all sides’” (as cited in

Keyssar, p. 174). It took decades, but finally, in 1920, 36 states voted for the Nineteenth

Amendment, paving the way for ratification and giving women the right to vote (p. 218).

Though the right to vote was the major victory of this first wave, it was not the only issue women debated. The first wave put in motion the anger and frustration felt by women, previously bubbling beneath the surface, still felt today and seen within the pages of Teen Vogue. In feminist scholar Rory C. Dicker’s 2008 book on the broad history of feminism in the United States, she explains the yearly conferences held between 1850 and 1860 “had multifaceted agendas, promoting suffrage along with a host of other reforms, including property rights and greater access to education and employment for women” (p. 30).

Second-Wave Feminism

The second wave began in the 1960s and extended through the 1980s. Even with the right to vote, women were still seen as individuals exclusively in the domestic sphere.

Their roles began as wives and ended as mothers. After World War II, domesticity gripped the nation, placing women back in the home (Dicker, p. 65). Then came Betty

Friedan’s 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique. This text became a catalyst for stay-at- home wives and mothers. It put the frustrations of their disillusioned lives into words, particularly after finding satisfaction working during WWII (Dicker, p. 64), and a new wave began.

Much was accomplished during these decades. In 1963, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act (p. 68). One year later, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) helped protect women in the 20

workplace (p. 69). In 1966, a group of women formed the National Organization for

Women (NOW) to address gender inequality on a broad scale. There was also a sexual liberation for women during this time (p. 71). In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v.

Wade that women’s right to privacy included abortion. As Dicker clarifies, the decision

“represented conditional support for abortion. It did not legalize ‘abortion on demand’ as feminists had wanted and instead placed limits on abortion based on the fetus’s viability outside the womb” (p. 86). This also coincided with the inception of an organized

LGBTQ movement, beginning in 1969 with the Stonewall Riots, led by trans women of color.

Third-Wave Feminism

The third wave emerged in the 1990s, embracing diversity and individuality. It traces its roots to the Riot grrrl feminist punk scene and Clarence Thomas’ confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court in the face of Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations against him (p. 103;119). In 1992, Rebecca Walker wrote an article in Ms. Magazine titled “Becoming the Third Wave”:

So I write this as a plea to all women, especially women of my generation: Let

Thomas’ confirmation serve to remind you, as it did me, that the fight is far from

over. Let this dismissal of a woman's experience move you to anger. Turn that

outrage into political power. Do not vote for them unless they work for us. Do not

have sex with them, do not break bread with them, do not nurture them if they

don't prioritize our freedom to control our bodies and our lives. I am not a post-

feminism feminist. I am the Third Wave.

Following the second wave, there was a backlash to feminism and then a splintering. “Because the world third wavers have grown up in and inhabit is so different 21

from the one second wavers rebelled against,” Dicker writes (p. 126). “One of the main things uniting the third wave, then, is its commitment to multiplicity, its belief that a wide range of concerns can be considered feminist.” One of those aspects was the Riot grrrl movement, infusing righteous fury into their music. There was also “girlie feminism.”

This faction wanted to take back femininity and show it wasn’t inherently anti-feminist.

In their book Manifesta, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards affirm these girly feminists’ goals: “In holding tight to that which once symbolized their oppression,

Girlies’ motivations are along the lines of gay men in Chelsea calling each other ‘queer’ or black men and women using the term ‘nigga’” (as cited in Dicker, p. 122-3).

Overall, the women of the third wave, starting with Walker, “challenged the idea that women of the so-called ‘postfeminist generation’ were apolitical and uninterested in furthering the gains made by the second wave of the women’s movement” (Dicker, p.

118).

Interlude: Post-feminism

Following the first three waves of feminism, and gaining popularity in the 1990s, came post-feminism. Often confused with fourth-wave feminism, this term can either mean the death of feminism or a broader continuation of previous feminist waves.

The first definition is the more obvious conclusion, as the prefix “post” indicates a world after feminism. As Elaine Hall and Marnie Rodriguez (2003) detail, there are various claims to this idea. Some of these include the irrelevancy of feminism, women still believing in feminist ideals but rejecting the label, and more. Hall and Rodriguez ultimately conclude this idea of post-feminism is a myth and rather, “support for the women’s movement has increased and/or remained stable over time” while “women continue to support feminism and find it relevant in their lives” (p. 898-9). 22

Patricia Lewis (2014) offers insight to the second definition. Instead of viewing the “post” as a beyond, it represents “change and ongoing transformation within feminism itself” in which an emphasis is placed on “its pluralistic and anti-foundational tendencies, encapsulated in the challenge to and rejection of the universal category

‘woman’” (p. 1849). She explains that instead of being anchored to a historical event, post-feminism exists as a “cultural discourse that shapes our thinking, attitudes and behaviour towards feminism and women’s changing position in contemporary society” where things like femininity co-exist with feminism, instead of standing in opposition (p.

1850-1).

Regardless of which definition is more accepted, post-feminism occupied a specific timeframe before the emergence of fourth-wave feminism.

Fourth-Wave Feminism

Many scholars agree the major development to signal the start of the most recent and current wave was Laura Bates’ website Everyday Sexism, which launched in 2011.

The main goal of the site is to document examples of sexism in everyday life from every corner of the world. Here’s a recent entry, dated April 18, 2018, from Minnie: “I was walking home from work, minding my own business, modesty [sic] dressed, when two men shouted ‘whore’ at me as they walked by.”

An aspect of the sexism and misogyny inherent within a patriarchal society is rape culture, which includes sexual harassment and assault, rape, and the phenomenon of victim blaming. It highlights both the struggle women face against sexual violence, and the conversation about how to turn society away from this and empower women against it. It is a problem deeply embedded in society, Jill Filipovic argues, one that, at its core, is about mainstream America treating sex strictly along gendered lines. Women as sexual 23

beings exist within two narratives: the passive woman, whose pleasure does not matter and is only there to serve the man, and the tempting woman, who uses her body to lure – both are myths (2008, p. 18). The feminist agenda is about challenging these narratives and putting forth a reality that instead says women have agency over their own bodies and desires. “Women are not empty vessels to be fucked or not fucked,” Filipovic writes.

“We’re sexual actors who should absolutely have the ability to say when we want it, just like men, and should feel safe saying no – even if we’ve been drinking, even if we’ve slept with you before, even if we’re wearing tight jeans, even if we’re naked in bed with you” (p. 21).

The concept of victim blaming is a critical aspect of rape culture and a chief idea the current wave of feminists is fighting against. First coined by second-wave feminists in the 1970s (Smith, 2004, p. 174), rape culture came out of a desire to educate the

American public about the pervasiveness of rape and sexual assault. In its simplest terms, rape culture is “a set of values and beliefs that provide an environment conducive to rape” (as cited in Pennington & Birthisel, 2015). This mostly stems from various myths about rape, such as statistics being far lower than they are. In fact, an American is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds and 1 out of every 6 women is the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (RAINN). There are also dangerous attitudes about rape and sexual assault that contribute to rape culture. These include victim- blaming (believing a victim “asked for it” by their behavior or clothing, as referenced in

Filipovic’s quote), slut-shaming, not believing victims (which is part of why most rapes go unreported (RAINN)), and more.

A recent and major event regarding sexual harassment and rape culture within the fourth wave is the #MeToo movement. This movement is a campaign against sexual 24

harassment and rape, especially in the workplace. Social activist Tarana Burke originated the term in 2006 on MySpace, specifically to evoke empathy for women of color

(Ohlheiser, 2017). Actress Alyssa Milano then popularized the hashtag with a 2017 tweet, leading to the movement we see now. The movement led to Time’s Up, a new initiative founded, led, and run by women to combat this reality (Rhimes, 2018).

Perhaps the most important element of this fourth wave is its presence on the internet, as that’s exclusively where Teen Vogue operates. It addresses many important facets of life for women – including harassment and sexual violence, body image, misogyny, and more – but how it gets these messages out is what sets the fourth wave apart. Ealasaid Munro (2013) says some scholars disagree on whether internet usage can

“delineate a new era,” but it’s impossible not to acknowledge its impact (p. 23).

Especially in a wave focused on misogyny and sexual harassment, the internet has created “a ‘call-out’ culture,” as Munro describes it, “in which sexism and misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged” (p. 23). It’s also a completely new world in which to fight for feminism, which presents problems in and of itself. In Amy Shields Dobson’s book Postfeminist Digital Cultures: Femininity, Social Media, and Self-Representation, she outlines that there are “both new possibilities and new pressures for girls and young women engaging with digital media and communicating in networked publics” (2015, p.

50).

For better or for worse, one of the key elements of the internet is that it has provided a platform for everyone’s voice. In this limitless digital world, people who previously lived mute lives – usually due to gender, race, sexuality, or being able-bodied aka not being a straight white man capable of achieving success almost automatically – found they could finally speak their truths. For women, specifically, as Dobson posits, 25

there are possibilities previously unattainable. Dobson discusses the idea of “identity performance” in the digital world and how it differs from daily life in the “real world”.

She writes: “Via media, one is required to use text and images to symbolize the self, and I suggest that this is generally assumed by viewers to require a higher degree of consciousness and reflectivity about the self than conventionally required in face-to-face presentation” (p. 9). Once again, this is the mediated communication that Teen Vogue operates in, and why it’s important to understand what it is and what makes it so specific.

This also gives women a new sense of empowerment, according to various scholars. “That girls and young women are now media producers themselves has meant we seriously need to reconsider research approaches and agendas that position girls as cultural dupes, or victims of negative media influence” (Dobson, p. 4). This also works in tandem with the attitudes of the fourth wave and its emphasis on things like confidence and individuality. Dobson positions that cultural discourse now “addresses girls and young women as strong, confident, and capable… in contrast to understandings of femininity as weak and submissive” (p. 32). It is also important to note the terms girls and young women, specifically, as this is also the main audience of Teen Vogue. Society is still in this wave and people see the focus on empowerment daily.

The internet, on the other hand, also offers downfalls and shortcomings. While social media makes it easier to have a platform for one’s voice, it also promotes armchair activism aka slacktivism. As Alex Guardado (2015) puts forth for the University of

California, Irvine’s school paper, New University: “It leaves the action to the few who actually have the wherewithal to put time and energy into a grassroots campaign. The other people, who feel as if they don’t have time to volunteer or be an integral part of the movement, continue on with their day, liking other posts or retweeting.” He further 26

argues these “slacktivists wait for others to make the change we so desperately need.”

Munro double-downs on this idea, writing that “feel-good” campaigns online “garner plenty of public support – such as a petition circulated on Facebook” but don’t necessarily “address pressing issues” (p. 24). In other words, social media has inspired a sense of complacency and laziness, even though its power can only go so far without tangible action working alongside it. It has also certainly invigorated a new energy into the feminist movement, but scholars debate the depth of its tangible transformative abilities.

Intersectional Feminism

The work of women’s rights does not exist in a vacuum. They are inextricably linked to other civil right movements, such as black rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, and more. It has been this way since the start. Given that institutions of power naturally privilege people with certain characteristics, white women, though they have been fighting for their own rights for centuries, begin in better positions than do women or color, LGBTQ women, and beyond. As Keyssar explains in his book on the history of voting rights, and specifically women’s suffrage:

It always ran alongside and frequently intersected with other currents… Black

suffrage and women’s suffrage were closely linked issues everywhere in the

1860s and in the South well into the twentieth century; similarly, the voting rights

of immigrants and the poor pressed repeatedly against the claims of women in the

North and West. … Women, after all, were not a socially segregated group; they

were black and white, rich and poor, foreign-born and native. (p. 173)

Yet despite how these movements have been linked and fought for side-by-side since their beginnings, there has not always been cooperation or inclusion. Many feminist 27

scholars acknowledge the shortcomings of certain facets of feminist waves. Dicker, for example, notes in her book that the Riot Grrrl community faced criticism for primarily focusing on white women (p. 121). And, of course, black women in a post-Civil War world, during the first wave of feminism, knew a very different reality than white women, and struggles white women could not imagine. Therefore, it makes senses that it was women of color who began the focus on intersectionality. Susan Archer Mann writes in her book Doing Feminist Theory: From Modernity to Postmodernity, women of color in the United States developed this because they “felt their concerns were not being adequately addressed by existing feminisms” (2012, p. 160). They found themselves to be “on the lowest rungs of the social stratification ladder in the United States and repeatedly being asked to bridge the gulf between their own lives and those of their oppressors and their political allies” (p. 160). In fact, Mann says it’s because of their

“unique contributions,” women of color were the first to use the term “third wave.”

bell hooks is one of the foremost scholars on intersectionality and the experience for black women, reinforcing in her writings the idea that gender is not the only factor affecting women’s lives. When she gave a speech at Tufts University in 1987 to black women, she recalls being “surprised when these women suggested that sexism was not a political issue of concern to black women, that the serious issue was racism” (2007, p.

45). hooks further explains that she never expected she would need to prove “over and over that sexism means that many black females will be exploited and victimized,” as well as understanding feminism’s fundamental failure “to develop a politics that addresses black women” (p. 45). One of the biggest conflicts between black women and the feminist movement are the white women who dominate feminism, and a black female rage “rooted in the historical servant-served relationship where white women have used 28

power to dominate, exploit, and oppress” (p. 47). For hooks, the way forward is to separate the “resistance to white female domination” from a “black female refusal to bond with white women engaged in feminist struggle” (p. 47).

In more modern times, and within the fourth wave of feminism, this is seen particularly well in the Black Lives Matter movement. Created by three women, Alicia

Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the movement is not about the idea that black lives are inherently more important than other lives. Rather, as Garza explains, the movement is about remaining “in active solidarity with all oppressed people who are fighting for their liberation, and we know that our destinies are intertwined” (2016, p.

26). By its sheer definition and existence, then, it is about propping up intersectionality and explaining its impact. Though the movement is founded, led, and organized by black people, it highlights the importance of all lives – while rejecting the counter-argument of

“All Lives Matter” as an erasure of the black experience. Intersectionality is not about propping one group of people above another. Instead, “movements in the United States have made some unfortunate errors when they push for unity at the expense of really understanding the concrete differences in context, experience, and oppression” (p. 26).

The same goes for feminism and its relation to LGBTQ rights. As Mimi

Marinucci explains in her book Feminism is Queer, the link goes beyond the idea that feminism is about recognizing all women, heterosexual and cisgender or otherwise, and instead, is “born of a deep understanding that the oppression of women and the suppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender existence are deeply intertwined”

(2010, p. 102). Yet like other fields of intersectionality, the inherent biases in particular movements make them deeply flawed in respecting, understanding, or working with other movements. Marinucci explains there is a history of racism, classism, and bias against 29

LGBTQ people within feminism and, alternatively, that queer theory also possesses racism and classism (p. 106-7). Therefore, it is important to “filter ideas through multiple disciplinary and personal screens” so society can catch and remove “as much of the residual debris of unintentional bias as possible” (p. 107).

Both people of color and LGBTQ individuals suffer from a lack of representation.

GLAAD’s most recent Where We Are on TV Report, assessing LGBTQ representation in the 2017-18 television season on broadcast, cable, and streaming, revealed cisgender, white gay men are still the most represented of the community (2018). Women made up

43% of series regular characters on broadcast scripted programs, though women make up

51% of the population in the United States (2018). Racial diversity is also lacking: on broadcast, 62% of LGBTQ characters were white, on cable 64% were white, and on streaming 77% were white ( 2018).

Motion pictures are equally disappointing. GLAAD assessed the major studios for

LGBTQ representation. In 2017, they tallied 109 films from major studios and only 14 had LGBTQ characters (2018). Of these films’ characters, 71% were men, thus outnumbering female characters by more than two to one, with no counted transgender or non-binary characters (2018). Racial diversity of LGBTQ characters in film, fortunately, saw an increase from years past. Of all the characters, 43% were white, and 57% were people of color, which is an increase from 20% in 2016 and 25.5% in 2015 (2018).

When queer youth and young people of color cannot see themselves represented in the media they consume, there are consequences. In 1976, George Gerbner and Larry

Gross coined the term “symbolic annihilation,” defining it thusly: “Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic annihilation” (as cited in Boboltz & Yam, 2017). If media are supposed to reflect our world, and women, queer 30

characters, and characters of color are seen less, they appear less important. Diverse representation is also a way for people not belonging to marginalized communities to understand and know these communities. Michael Morgan, a former professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, stated: “Stories affect how we live our lives, how we see other people, how we think about ourselves” (as cited in Boboltz &

Yam, 2017).

Ultimately, there is positivity and support to be found in intersectionalism. Mann writes: “Rather than viewing separate oppressions as distinct categories, ‘intersectionality describes a more fluid, mutually constructive process’ whereby every social act is imbricated by gender, race, class, and sexuality. Moreover, because of their simultaneity, intersectionality theorists do not rank oppressions by arguing that one is more important or fundamental than the other” (p. 178).

Criticisms of the Waves

Despite the ubiquitous nature of the wave structure, it is nonetheless one that is not wholly agreed upon. As Prudence Chamberlain writes in her book, The Feminist

Fourth Wave: Affective Temporality (2017), difficulties surrounding the wave structure arise because of feminist discourse itself – “more specifically, the structures on which the social movement relies in order to tell stories” (p. 5). The danger here is that some voices may be left out of such a narrative tool. Chamberlain posits that it is the wave narrative establishing itself as a “master narrative that makes it difficult to adapt to and work with

… that all of feminism might be understood in relation to moments of intense activism, more often than not selected and defined by the media, seems to undermine the ongoing efforts of continually working activists” (p. 7). Regardless, this structure is prolific 31

enough that it remains the most common way to study and analyze the history of feminism and its evolution.

Women Online

With an understanding of the audiences Teen Vogue communicates with, as well as their historical and cultural places within society, it is important to recognize the world in which Teen Vogue exists – the internet – and how its main audience, women, operates in this world. As many scholars acknowledge, in the 1990s, when the internet was first becoming a prominent aspect of society, it was mostly a space for white males in the

Western world (Consalvo & Paasonen, 2002, p. 6; Paasonen, 2005, p. 122). In her research, Susanna Paasonen illustrates how the internet is a gendered space through an exploration of historical gender dynamics.

As she writes in her book, Figures of Fantasy, many sites about women and for women continue to be “defined through cliché denominators of femininity as domestic, decorating, and nurturing and represented through figures of young, predominantly white, and apparently middle-class women” (2005, p. 128-9). This also, once again, addresses the need for intersectional feminism. She uses the example of sanitary brand sites, like

Tampax or Always, which design their sites in pastel colors and various shades of blue and where they “rely on a very specific alignment of gender, body, and desire: being a woman or girl is presented as a biological and anatomical fact, defined by menstruation, puberty, pregnancy, and menopause” (p. 130-1).

The internet, though reinforcing gender norms, also gave women a new kind of freedom to break those molds. In an essay on performing character and identity on the internet, Paasonen discusses this type of mobility women could now employ. Using the 32

work of Teresa de Lauretis, Paasonen doubles down on the idea that “media usage can be defined as a constant (re)production of identity and desired through identification and dis- identification with different representations of subject positions” (2002, p. 34). In this way, women have the ability to construct identities for themselves that give them more freedom and protection to both explore their own ideas and voices, as well as new platforms, in addition to shielding themselves. As Paasonen explains further, women on the internet can take up male handles or gender-neutral handles to avoid intimidation or harassment (p. 37). It does not solve the power imbalance that continues to exist – with straight, white, middle-class men lording power over women, people of color, and

LGBTQ individuals – however, it gives women a space and platform they never had before. As internet usage goes on to prove, as in the case of Teen Vogue and other prominent female voices online, this becomes a powerful development.

In other words, the internet can be a radical tool for women. Gillian Youngs writes in Women@Internet that while virtual space “needs to be considered in terms of its distinctions, it should also be related to well-established women’s and feminist emphasis on the radical potential of communication” (p. 63). Youngs also insists that this communication, and any acts of self-expression done on the internet or elsewhere, are both “understood as intrinsic elements of liberation in feminist practice” (p. 62).

Therefore, while the internet is still a relatively new thing in the grand scheme of humanity, it also “builds on what has already been achieved by women in overcoming their social segregation to share and talk to one another and to work individually and collectively for social change” (p. 64). The sheer depth and scope of the internet is unlike anything before it for women’s communication. There is a potential for reach that is global and shattering. Moving past outdated gender reinforcements, while creating 33

identities and platforms for themselves in this web-based world, means that cyberfeminisms, according to Youngs, could result in “utilizing the potential of virtual space to work towards real change” (p. 68).

As the internet continued to expand, there came more and more spaces for communication. From blogs to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to a rise in different types of communication, such as video blogging (or vlogging) on YouTube, everyone, including women, discovered nearly endless means to communicate.

Unfortunately, though perhaps not surprisingly, it still began as a male-dominated space.

Or at least, the elite space of the internet was male dominated. In 2004, Pew found that

61% of women used the internet (compared to 66% of men) and 43% had blogs

(compared to 57% of men), meaning there was comparable equity in these spaces (as cited in Harp and Tremayne, 2006, p. 247). When analyzing political blogs over the course of the year, however, Harp and Tremayne (2006) found only 10% (via rankings of how many links a blog receives from another site) of the top bloggers were women (p.

252-3). They then addressed several reasons for this reality.

Women and the Political World

Are women simply not interested in politics? The simple answer is no. Harp and

Tremayne (2006) explained that each time this argument was used, “bloggers (mostly women) offered up numerous examples of political blogs authored by women” with a recent list including 466 names (p. 254). Still, the gendered notion exists, mainly kept alive by the insistence that women’s interests lie in the private sphere. Harp and

Tremayne (2006) pushed back on the idea that women’s blogs lack quality. The argument is that women often mix up politics and personal matters, to the detriment of the blog.

This, however, is undercut by the assertion that “when male bloggers do link to female- 34

authored blogs the topic is of a sexual nature” (p. 256). Therefore, it is a bad thing if women intertwine a personal and sex-based focus with a discussion of politics, but male bloggers also won’t link to them unless that exists. That, in and of itself, is another problem: male bloggers consciously choosing not to link to or read women’s blogs. Trish

Wilson (2005) wrote: “They wonder where we are. As we have said the last three or four times this discussion has come up, we’re out there. You just have to take the time and energy you take to read the primarily middle- and upper-class, white, male bloggers and find us. Guys, you have no excuses” (as cited in Harp and Tremayne, p. 256).

Some studies have found that in states where women have been elected to visible political seats, women in these states are more likely to be politically informed and engaged, but the women candidates “must be both competitive and visible to affect women’s political efficacy, discussion, and knowledge” (Kittilson, 2016, p. 12). In the

United States, however, women are severely underrepresented in political office. In the

Washington Post’s analysis of women in office, they found for every women in a political seat, there are three men (Cameron & Soffen, 2018).

Jennifer Lawless, a Brookings senior fellow and director of the Women and

Politics Institute at American University, believes women are underrepresented due to them not running for public office, but this is not for the cliché and gendered reasons of women being mothers and wives, but once again because of perception. “Women are very likely to believe that when they run for office, they don’t do as well as men,” she told the Huffington Post (2014). She added, however, “no empirical evidence” supports that notion and that, in fact, women “perform just as well on Election Day,” but they simply “don’t know that and don’t think that” (2014).

35

Women’s interests in engaging with politics is seen in Teen Vogue’s increasingly popularity and the inherent way these groups use the Internet. This desire combined with the Internet’s new means of communication, Anita Harris (2012) contends, means that young women’s “cultural and political action may take new forms, and emerge in liminal spaces between the public and private” (p. 214). The aforementioned practices of blogging and virtual community engagement, for example, become “examples of a broader range of practices that young women engage in to create new kinds of politics and new meanings of participation” (p. 214). This can also be seen in spaces like Twitter, which has become a platform of discourse itself, both regarding individual and personal thought, as well as the discussion of journalists’ work.

Finding Their Place

Women had to carve out the spaces for themselves as they were not readily available at the start, however. Therefore, according to Harris (2012), their activity online, especially in the beginning, were “important practices of ‘counter-public’ construction in that they are forums for debate and exchange of politically and socially engaged ideas by those who are marginalised with in mainstream political debate” (p.

215). Furthermore, the internet provided new ways to participate in communication and debate, in a space construed both as public and private. Rather than the more stilted and rigid spaces of actual public forums, there is an endless opportunity on the internet for women to find avenues to communicate that are safer and more in line with their own

“preferred modes of interactions” (p. 220). Harris (2012) acknowledges the criticisms of young women online, and that they are the “stars of a postmodern contemporary culture obsessed with omnipresence of identity, image and celebrity” rather than having interest in creating “political subjectivities”, but that, in fact, is what the vastness of the internet 36

and sites like Teen Vogue are disproving by showing these ideas are not mutually exclusive (p. 220).

Still, despite the new possibilities, many areas of discourse and feminism, even online, continue to struggle with adopting intersectionality. Black Twitter is a specific, and oft-cited subset of the Twittersphere, with communities in and of itself, such as Black

Feminist Twitter. With this new mode of communication, “black feminists and others tweeting alongside them have used online spaces to challenge the adherence to a one- size-fits-all approach” and call out the inherent whiteness of mainstream feminist organizations and white feminists’ inability to deal with race and white privilege (Park &

Leonard, 2016, p. 210). Many black feminists online, such as Jessie-Lane Metz have been assured feminism is different now, but it’s not apparent: “I am still waiting for the evidence on this one, the proof that mainstream feminism is becoming a safer space for me as a Black woman” (p. 209). Park and Leonard (2016) argue this comment

“encapsulates the nature of feminism” by focusing on mainstream white feminists failing to “deal with race, white privilege, and intersectionality” rather than placing the blame on black women for “fostering division by no focusing on ‘commonalities and shared experiences’” (p. 209).

Like most public spaces, women were forced to find their own place on the

Internet – and in the case of marginalized women, such as black women and queer women, they still are in many ways. Still, the internet continues to offer brand new ways to use their voices on a variety of new platforms, and speak to the multitude of their own interests.

37

Chapter 3: Methodology

The purpose of this chapter is to outline the methodological approach to this thesis. As a whole chapter, it explains why and how the methods used answer the research questions this thesis poses: How does Teen Vogue show themes of intersectionality through its social media coverage of numerous mediated events, and how does Teen Vogue employ this use of intersectionality as an interrogation of institutions of power?

To start, this methodology addresses the research method used to undertake this project. It also summarizes the theoretical concept behind the method in order to understand what it means and why it is purposeful. Then, the chapter discusses how data was sampled and collected for this thesis. Finally, the methodology concludes with understanding data analysis as well as setbacks experienced during the process of data collection and beyond.

Research Methods

Content Analysis

This thesis employs content analysis as its primary methodological approach.

Content analysis is a form of textual analysis and studying a set (or sets) of data, which includes comparing, contrasting, and categorizing. As Klaus Krippendorff (2010) defines in SAGE’s Encyclopedia of Research Design, content analysis is technique used by researchers “for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the context of their use” (p. 234). It is a research method that was utilized long

38

before Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Bernard Berelson first defined the term in 1948 (p. 234).

Since the inception of communication and texts (from cave drawings and beyond), humans have always consumed and interpreted various texts for meanings. It is how we communicate and, further, how we understand.

Krippendorff (2010) states there are two fixed elements of content analysis. The first is that, as with any research technique, the findings should be reliable and therefore replicable. Other researchers should be able to take the same data and research method, and come to the same conclusions as another. The second element of this method is validity, in which the findings remain true “in the face of independently available evidence of what they claim” (p. 234).

Using content analysis in research begins with either one or both of these steps: obtaining text which poses research questions or creating research questions in which the researcher then obtains text to answer the research questions. Research questions in content analysis “need to go outside the physicality of text into the world of others” as the answers sought by this method “cannot be found by direct observation” (p. 236).

Krippendorff (2010) explains this is because texts can be read in a variety of ways, and therefore provide empirical validity as well as room for alternative answers.

There are several steps necessary in using content analysis:

1. Obtaining text and/or creating research questions.

2. Categorizing and tagging the chosen text, which divides the text into

numerous groups based on a variety of factors.

3. Coding the categories of text uniformly numerous times in order to assure

the text is reliable.

39

4. Performing analysis of the text and its various categories and codes in

order to find answers to the previously decided-upon research questions.

5. Making conclusions based on the analysis and giving final answers to the

research questions. (p. 236-8)

Data Collection

This thesis’ sampling of social media is used to make larger conclusions about the publication as a whole. The data assessed in this theory comes from two of Teen Vogue’s social media platforms, Twitter and Instagram, and the differences and similarities in its coverage of two mediated events, LGBTQ pride and the 2018 midterm elections. To create a clear and concise sample, I collected data only during the month of June, from the 1st to the 30th. The primary reason this month was chosen was because two political and identity-based events take place during it: Pride and Juneteenth. As discussed below,

Juneteenth was substituted for the midterms, which was an ongoing event over the course of the year.

To collect this data, I examined Teen Vogue’s Twitter and Instagram accounts every day during the month of June 2018. Whenever there was a post relating to Pride or the midterms, I took a screenshot of the post, making sure to include the date, and saved them to a folder on my computer. I included original tweets, repeat tweets, and re-tweets in my gathering.

Social Media

Since its earlier inception in the 1990s, social media has become a platform of communication, ideas, and discovery unto itself. It is a widely used subset of the internet that has created its own linguistic habits (emojis, acronyms, hashtags, and more). It is 40

almost impossible to operate a widely-read publication without social media. Editors not only look at circulation or web user numbers, now it is valuable information to know social media impressions and engagements. Stories go viral if they do well enough on social media, thereby spurring conversation and becoming as valuable as the article itself.

I chose Twitter because it is one of the most critical platforms for journalism in its ability to quickly share and circulate stories, as well as prompt discussion. Twitter, created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, is a platform primarily focused on conversation in real time (Carlson, 2011). Users share their thoughts, opinions, and ideas in “tweets.” Originally limited to 140 characters, as of

November 2017, tweets can now be as long as 280 characters (in all languages except

Japanese, Chinese, and Korean). Users can also include both images and videos in their tweets. Other users can interact with tweets in a variety of ways. They can reply to them, thus sparking conversation; they can “like” them, which archives the liked tweet on the profile of the user who liked it; they can retweet them, sharing the tweet as-is on their own profile; or they can retweet with comment, sharing the original tweet on their profile with any added commentary. Tweets can also include links to outside webpages, as well as polls for other users to vote in. As of this writing, Teen Vogue’s Twitter account has

3.36 million followers.

For the second platform studied in this thesis, I chose Instagram because it operates in a different way than Twitter and Facebook. While there are comments and a

“like” button, similar to Twitter and Facebook, Instagram is primarily a visual-based space, with photos and videos as the primary content. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger created the platform in October 2010 (Lagoria-Chafkin, 2012). It is now owned by another social media company – Facebook, which bought Instagram in 2012 for $715 41

million (Luckerson, 2016). Similar to Twitter, users can interact with Instagram posts in a variety of ways. They can like and comment on posts, they can re-share posts using third- party apps (or share them to their Stories, a user’s sequential feed that lasts only 24- hours), they can bookmark them for later, and they can send posts via private messaging on the app. It is also a platform where, per the unspoken rules of social media, an account is expected to post less than somewhere like Twitter. Therefore, Teen Vogue does not share everything on Instagram, and it is useful then to notice what they do share on such a platform. On Instagram, Teen Vogue has 2.4 million followers.

Elements the two platforms share are that accounts can be public or private, and so can conversations. They are also in constant change. As social media is a platform intended for interaction, as long as a post remains live and public, users can interact with it, whether through liking it or commenting on it, even months later its initial posting date.

Social media posts act as texts themselves, similar to anything like articles, movies, or paintings that can be studied using textual analysis with the grounded theory method. Their different components infuse them with meaning and extrapolations speaking to larger themes and ideas.

Pride and the Midterms

Pride is a month-long celebration for the LGBTQ community, so chosen because of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, which took place at the end of June (Encyclopaedia

Britannica). Numerous events, such as parades, take place across the country over the course of the month to recognize the community. Both presidents Bill Clinton and Barack

Obama declared June as LGBT Pride Month over numerous, separate years throughout their presidencies (White House, 2000 and 2016). I chose Pride as one of my mediated 42

events for two reasons: first, my personal identity as a queer woman, and second, because it encapsulates Teen Vogue’s commitment to intersectionality. As intersectional feminism dictates, other identity markers, especially those that face disproportionate marginalization in society – such as sexual orientation and gender identity – must be acknowledged and supported in the fight for equality. As a female-oriented publication,

Teen Vogue’s efforts as an ally to the LGBTQ community reveal its belief in numerous issues and topics being relevant to feminism and their audience.

The midterm elections in the United States are a sprawling set of general elections held in November every four years. Coming near the midpoint of a president’s four-year term, the midterms elect seats in both chambers of Congress, the Senate and House, as well as various state-held seats such as governor and beyond. Midterms typically see lower voter turnout than presidential elections and can be interpreted as a reflection on the President and their political party (DeSilver, 2014). The midterms were chosen as the second event for this thesis because Teen Vogue’s coverage of them shows, first and foremost, its turn towards political reporting, which was one of the first notable changes in its content over the past several years. This reporting, in and of itself, challenges a patriarchal society’s view of women and their interests. Further, the political topics Teen

Vogue chooses to write about are another indication of its emphasis on intersectionality, such as female candidates and candidates of colors, or voting rights, which disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

Data Analysis

To conduct analysis for the sampled social media posts, I employed the method of creating and using a coding sheet. The final coding sheet can be seen in Appendix A (p. 43

103) and were developed using chosen themes and categories pertaining to the thesis’ research questions. Once these were created, the sampled posts were analyzed multiple times, with a coding sheet filled out for each post to note the presence of any aforementioned themes. From these coding sheets emerged patterns and trends that could then be taken to answer the research question using textual evidence.

In conjunction with the coding sheets, I also used the computer program

ATLAS.ti to help analyze and understand the data. The main purpose of this program is to take large quantities of unstructured data and discover the hidden phenomena within them to reveal larger truths and repeated themes. With ATLAS.ti, I was able to use a variety of tools to do numerous things with my data, including finding repeated words and phrasing, annotate my findings, and visualize the relationships and links between every piece of data collected.

The second part of the analysis is a synthesis of the information presented, and extrapolating conclusions that answer the research question. All the social media posts are used as evidence for discussing the intersectionality and revolutionized journalism of

Teen Vogue.

Problems Encountered

Throughout the creation of this thesis, there were unforeseen complications and limitations. Explaining them transparently offers a more honest understanding of the following analysis.

The first problem I encountered was choosing the topics to analyze. My first two events were LGBTQ pride and Juneteenth, which is an annual holiday observed on June

19. It commemorates the abolition of slavery in the state of Texas on June 19, 1865 and is 44

recognized as an official holiday in 45 states (Encyclopaedia Britannica). People observe the holiday mainly though local celebrations, including parades and the readings of great

African-American writers. Unfortunately, Teen Vogue had very minimal social media coverage of Juneteenth (a couple of tweets and no Instagram posts). Then I had to pick another topic, which is when I chose the midterm elections. Given Teen Vogue’s rampant political coverage, and people taking notice of it, the midterm elections were a natural back-up choice as the breadth of topics within the midterms left a significant amount of room for Teen Vogue to focus on various issues.

The research findings in this thesis are inherently limited by the narrow scope of data assessed. Teen Vogue covered more topics than LGBTQ pride and the midterm elections in June 2018. A broader ranger of topics would have provided a more thorough examination of the publication’s focus on intersectionality. Finally, the findings in this research can be applied only to Teen Vogue, and not to feminist and female-oriented publications at large because Teen Vogue is the only publication analyzed in the thesis.

45

Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis

This chapter presents the data findings of the thesis. As the previous chapter explained, both the data and its analysis were accomplished via content analysis. The analysis uses an understanding of internet language, tone, audience and publics, and intersectional feminism to address the research questions of this thesis and help answer how Teen Vogue commits to and show themes of intersectionality. This chapter is divided into four sections based on the categories and subcategories which emerged from the content analysis – subjects, language, tone, and imagery. First, I examine the data from a social media standpoint, before finishing the analysis with an overview of both events and how Teen Vogue similarly chose to cover them – or not – and how their coverage speaks to their success.

The table below reveals the distribution of the data I collected for this analysis:

Table 4.1: Overall data collected Twitter Posts Instagram Posts

LGBTQ pride 119 11

Midterms 15 3

Total 124 14

The analysis of this data revealed numerous answers to the research questions posed by this thesis. In its social media coverage of LGBTQ pride and the midterm elections, Teen Vogue consciously chose to showcase intersectional subjects, via both articles shared on its platforms as well as imagery. In their LGBTQ pride coverage, specifically, a majority of its social media posts focused on marginalized identities within the larger LGBTQ community, as the following table shows:

46

Table 4.2: Subjects of Teen Vogue LGBTQ pride social media posts Instagram Twitter

Women 2 15

People of Color (POC) 2 18

Trans/Non-binary/ 3 35 Genderqueer/Intersex Bisexual/Pansexual/ 0 3 Queer Total number of posts in 11 119 data Percentage dedicated to 63.6% 59.6% intersectional subjects

Teen Vogue’s approach to covering these intersectional subjects, both with

LGBTQ pride and midterm coverage, revealed a deeper and related theme: the interrogation of institutions of power. Through language and tone, Teen Vogue both uplifted marginalized subjects in its coverage, and criticized the institutions of power which harm them.

Subjects

Before looking at individual elements of a social media post, and how, together, they contribute to a larger message and theme, it is necessary to first observe the subjects

Teen Vogue chose to highlight in its LGBTQ pride and midterm election coverage. This provides the overall focus of the outlet and what they deem important for their own mission and voice, as well what is important for their readers to consume. As this thesis’ focus is on intersectionality within Teen Vogue’s coverage, this section will show how the publication, within the limitations of the thesis’ study, consciously chose to focus their stories and pick subjects based on this idea. 47

This is seen in nearly all the data collected for this thesis. In looking at the coverage of the midterms first, primary elections were taking place across the country in

June 2018, when this data was collected. These primary elections determined the final candidates for the general election on November 6, 2018. Teen Vogue covered several of these primaries, and from its coverage a pattern emerged.

Figures 4.1 – 4.4 While not its only tweets about the midterms during the month of June, the focus on women running for public office is clear. Its support of female candidates continues so far that the Teen Vogue Twitter account shared an article from a different publication

48

(and not even another Condé Nast one): Vox, with a story about Democratic women running for office and overperforming (Fig. 4.3). The caption of Teen Vogue’s tweet,

“Now, THIS is the change we want to see,” is equally deliberate. Vox’s story is not about all women running for office, but Democratic women. By writing “THIS” in all-caps, the tweet implies it is not any women’s change that is desired, but women belonging to a specific political ideology. By writing this caption, Teen Vogue reveals a tacit, if not blatant, endorsement of Democratic candidates. Further, three of the four tweets are about specific candidates, all of whom are women of color. Debra Haaland, a First Nation woman, ran as a Democratic nominee for the House of Representatives in New Mexico;

Stacey Abram’s was the Democratic party’s gubernatorial nominee in Georgia, and the first black woman to receive a gubernatorial nomination from a major party; and finally,

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina woman, defeated a long-time Democratic incumbent to win the party’s nomination for a district in New York and go on to become one of the youngest members of the House of Representatives.

These tweets, in one regard, reflect the reality of the 2018 midterm elections. For these elections, 234 women won major party nominations for the House, breaking the previous record of 167 women in 2016, and Democrats also hit a record high (Terkel,

2018). For the Senate, the record-breaking trend was similar. A total of 22 women secured major party nominations, with both the Democrats and Republicans setting rsecord for female Senate nominees, and beating the overall record of 18 in 2012 (Terkel,

2018). These impressive numbers are also supported by diverse women. In a report released by the Victory Fund, a political action committee dedicated to electing more

LGBTQ politicians, they revealed the number of openly LGBTQ nominees who

49

identified as women in 2018 (13 of them in total) was up 160% from 2016, which held the previous record (Imse, 2018).

It is not only the reality of numbers Teen Vogue reflects with these tweets and their tone, but the reality of women being interested in politics, and rejecting the idea of what a women’s magazine can cover. The election of Donald Trump changed that, and it is something Teen Vogue has tapped into, helping explain their new focus on politics.

Pew Research conducted a poll last year and found women’s interest in politics drastically increased since Trump’s election. A majority of women (58%) reported they are paying more attention to politics than before, and of those who have attended political events since the election (15%), a majority of them, 67%, attended events in opposition of Trump (2018).

Teen Vogue, however, is not abandoning the staple of teen girl magazines, with a focus on “more traditional” feminine interests, in favor of its political coverage. Instead, its reporting takes the stance that politics and other interests are not mutually exclusive, nor can women only be interested in one thing at a time and not contain multitudes. One of its tweets from June 2018 is an example of this multi-layered feminism. The tweet is a link to a Teen Vogue article about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s lipstick, which she revealed in a June 17 tweet after receiving numerous questions about it. In the caption, the tweet reads: “Because she’s what? SICKENING!” The word sickening here is used to describe someone looking so good they make you sick – it is used mostly by the LGBTQ community and meant completely in admiration. Both the language and tone of this caption reveal numerous things about the tweet and Teen Vogue’s direction of it. It shows both the magazine’s opinion of Ocasio-Cortez (very positive), and which audience they’re addressing (younger and more slang-savvy). 50

Most importantly, a tweet about

Ocasio-Cortez’s lipstick, with

makeup seen as a traditionally

feminine product and practice,

does not in any way devalue

Teen Vogue’s other tweets about

her, nor her political aspirations,

from within a perspective that

champions both fashion and

politics. This tweet highlights

Figure 4.5 the intersectionality and cross- sections of the magazine, seen not only in the people they cover, but general topics as well.

The coverage of Pride further reveals Teen Vogue’s commitment to intersectionality, by highlighting stories about people in the community other than cisgender, white gay men. On both platforms, a majority of Teen Vogue’s posts during

LGBTQ pride centered around marginalized people within the community (as previously seen in Table 4.2). This alone showcases Teen Vogue’s commitment to highlighting voices and stories which are normally silenced or oppressed within society. The emphasis on transgender and non-binary subjects is also particularly telling. Of people within the

LGBTQ community, transgender and non-binary individuals face disproportionate amounts of discrimination, violence, and suicide ideation compared to their peers

(Toomey, Syvertsen, Shramko, 2018). Positive representations in media, both fiction and non-fiction, help act as reinforcements for these people. It is not simply enough that Teen 51

Vogue focuses on them in its coverage, but that it does so in a positive manner, celebrating the very existence of marginalized individuals, as seen throughout the remainder of this chapter.

Language

Teen Vogue’s social media accounts reveal an important and telling aspect of one of the publication’s overall tenets: bias, a prejudicial favor towards something, and disposition, the inherent qualities of something or someone. The bias of Teen Vogue is apparent in its leanings towards liberal ideologies, while its disposition is seen in how it communicates, employing both images and words, with its audience. This section reveals how Teen Vogue uses language to present its biases and dispositions in its social media coverage.

Objectivity has long been considered a pillar of journalism, with opinion sections the only safe spaces for taking a stance. Teen Vogue, however, approaches this idea differently. It does not shy away from falling on one side of an issue or another. It makes it clear that as an entire publication, it both has a political identity and a set of beliefs by which it abides. The important element of this observation is that Teen Vogue is acting as an official publication, an entity of its larger parent company Condé Nast. On social media, especially Twitter, it is not uncommon for individual users who work for a larger company to differentiate their own opinions from their company’s. Many users write in their bios either “views are my own” or “RT are not endorsements.” Essentially, this is a public relations move, saving their company from being implicated in any of an individual’s personal opinions and beliefs. Anything they tweet or retweet is not endorsed by their company, nor does their company necessarily hold the same view. 52

In the case of Teen Vogue, however, it adds commentary to its social media posts

– and not simply on opinion articles, but nearly every article it posts, or post it retweets, has a message with a clear slant. It is more common in a publication like Teen Vogue, as opposed to one like the Washington Post, as Teen Vogue from its outset created content for a certain audience from a specific point of view. Still, it remains a significant and revealing part of its identity.

Take, for example, this tweet from Lucy Diavolo, the news and political editor at

Teen Vogue:

Figure 4.6 The tweet reads: “Civility is clearly a portmanteau of cis and villainy so are we surprised that it’s used to make space for fascists among us???” Nowhere on Teen

Vogue’s Twitter profile does it say that retweets do not equal endorsements. Therefore, retweeting messages so they appear on Teen Vogue’s main profile page is an explicit way of supporting said messages as a whole organization. This particular tweet may be tongue-in-cheek, but its language is conscious and precise, and it is telling the main Teen

Vogue account chose to retweet this specific tweet of Diavolo’s.

The tweet, albeit jokingly, links villainy with a cisgender identity as a way to manipulate space in society for “fascists.” Diavolo focused on the word “civility,” a term bandied around during times of political turbulence, and criticized as something villainous (and tied to cisgender individuals), which allows for the presence of dangerous

53

people in society as civility demands politeness and courtesy. In the tweet, Diavolo implies fascists should not be welcomed, civility be damned. More recently, fascist has become a term used to describe people on the alt-right – a loosely categorized group of white supremacists and nationalists, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and other members of fringe hate groups – by people on the left of the political spectrum. Conversely, those further on the radical left scale are referred to as “antifa,” or anti-fascists. Using the term

“fascists,” then, in this time, and in a negative connotation, sends a pointed message and

Teen Vogue’s retweet of such a message clearly identifies its politics and moral beliefs.

In the data collected, Teen Vogue retweeted a total of 36 tweets (including this one) from other accounts. Some were retweets of an author sharing their own articles, or articles from fellow Condé Nast publication them. Others, however, similarly made points like Figure 4.6. Another tweet from Diavolo shows this well:

Figure 4.7

The tweet refers to the U.S. Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v.

Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in which a majority of the justices found in favor of a baker in Colorado who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple on religious grounds (Supreme Court, 2018). In the tweet, Diavolo wishes a happy Pride to

“everyone except the 7 Supreme Court justices who think refusing to bake a cake for people because they’re gay is somehow an expression OF freedom, and not a limitation

54

of it.” The language of this tweet stems from a meme. A meme is a shared idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. On the internet, memes often taken the forms of jokes. In this meme, internet users wish a “good morning” (or other time of day or event) to everyone except a person, group of people, or anything they’d like. This, essentially, lets users reveal who or what they don’t agree with or like. Based on Diavolo’s tweet, wishing a happy Pride to everyone except the seven justices who made up the majority in the case’s decision, shows Diavolo’s disagreement with the decision. By retweeting it, Teen Vogue reveals its own opinion of the case as well.

Other tweets, sent from the

Teen Vogue account itself,

offer simpler examples of

biased language, but no less

pointed.

This tweet from the

outlet is about Vice

President Mike Pence being

greeted by specific forms of

protest – in this case, a

“queer dance party.” In this

Figure 4.8 context, a “queer dance party” refers to a gathering of people opposed to Pence’s policies, specifically in regards to the LGBTQ community. When Pence visits a city, these protesters gather and have a dance party, with explicit queer themes, to greet him and clearly state their opposition.

The caption is direct and to the point: “It’s what he deserves!” By openly supporting the 55

protest against Pence, Teen Vogue itself takes a stance against Pence’s politics.

Throughout his political career, Pence has supported numerous anti-LGBTQ measures, including supporting a law while he was governor of Indiana giving businesses a “license to discriminate” against LGBTQ people, as well as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (Human Rights

Campaign, 2018, p. 6 & 14). By using the word “deserve,” Teen Vogue states Pence’s anti-LGBTQ politics are worth of protest and a public calling-out.

Another linguistic tactic Teen Vogue employs is the use of slang. When using slang – a more informal type of speech, and typically associated with a certain context or group of people – Teen Vogue shows an awareness both for audience and intention. In this tweet from Teen Vogue writer Gabe Bergado, which Teen Vogue retweeted, Bergado wrote: “Recently got to kiki with @sasha_velour and she had some great advice for young people wanting to learn more about queer history.”

Teen Vogue offers no

clarifying comment

to the retweet, nor do

they explain who

Sasha Velour is or

what “kiki” means in

their own tweet about

the article. Sasha

Velour is a prominent

drag queen, who Figure 4.9 competed on and won Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The term “kiki” meanwhile derives itself from black and Latinx LGBTQ culture. It refers to a group of friends 56

gathering for the purpose of gossiping and chatting, and became more widely known when it was featured in the 2012 Scissor Sisters song “Let’s Have a Kiki.” For Teen

Vogue, these tweets speak for themselves, reaching out to an audience – queer readers – they are aware of, and want to engage. Bergado, a Latinx and Filipinx member of the

LGBTQ community, engages with his own culture in his tweet, while also speaking to his larger Twitter audience. Teen Vogue and its writers, with the use of words like “kiki” and highlighting a prominent member of the LGBTQ community like Sasha Velour, makes it appear knowledgeable and in-touch with the audience of the subject it is covering. It is also telling that Bergado is a member of the community from which the word originates, adding authenticity to Teen Vogue’s coverage of such a topic and engagement with specific language.

Emojis

Emojis, pictures, or ideograms used in text-based communication, have become a crucial element of internet language. Originally created in 1999 on Japanese mobile phones, the images – which range from facial expressions to food to buildings and more – became a worldwide phenomenon about a decade later when it was introduced on more operating systems (Apple, Samsung, etc.). In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries even named the

Face with Tears of Joy emoji –  – as their Word of the Year. In explaining its choice of the emoji, Oxford Dictionaries stated this particular emoji made up 20% and 17% of all emojis used in 2015 in the UK and US, respectively (2015). Emojis, in the words of

Oxford Dictionaries, “have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers” and used as “a shorthand method of communicating our thoughts, emotions, and responses” (2015). Emojis have become inescapable in internet communication and several journalism outlets have begun using them to 57

communicate in relevant ways. The table below shows Teen Vogue’s emoji usage among the data collected:

Table 4.3: Emojis in Teen Vogue social media posts Pride Pride Midterms Midterms (Twitter) (Instagram) (Twitter) (Instagram) Posts Using Emojis 35 11 4 3 (including retweets) Total # of Posts 119 11 15 3 (including retweets) % of Posts Using Emojis 29.4% 100% 26.6% 100% (including retweets)

While a relatively modern creation, emojis did not invent a new form of communication – non-verbal and non-textual dialogue cues have always existed. Emojis, essentially, replace facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language that exist in face-to-face communication. Someone can wink in an online conversation, show they’re sick, or even express a specific attitude. As Vyvyan Evans writes in his book, The Emoji

Code (2017), an emoji’s primary function “is not to usurp language, but to provide the non-verbal cues essential to effective communication that are otherwise missing from textspeak,” and he further compares emojis to kinesics and paralanguage in spoken language (p. 129). Its ubiquity and necessary presence in this section, furthermore, cannot be overstated and as will be shown. Over 90% of internet users worldwide use emojis on social media platforms, while over 80% of people with smartphones regularly use emojis in their text messages (p. 29).

58

In the data collected from Teen Vogue’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, there are multiple uses of emojis, all which contribute to its overall message. In some cases, particularly on Instagram, the use of emojis is primarily a visual component, which adds depth and an eye-catching element to the post’s caption (especially as Instagram already is a visually-forward platform). According to some estimates, 90% of external information going into the brain is visual and visuals are processed 60,000 times more quickly than text, and while there may be some hyperbole to these numbers, as Evans posits, “nevertheless a significant proportion of the human brain is most definitely dedicated to visual processing” (p. 174).

In this post, marking

the start of Pride

Month, Teen Vogue

employs the use of

emojis to both provide

a visual and send a

message. The five

colored hearts are in Figure 4.10 the order of the pride flag and add another visual aspect to the post. The emoji of the camera, meanwhile, is simply a popular way to credit the photographer in a social media post. Not every use of emojis is as innocuous as this post, however. Like the camera emoji, some social media posts use emojis as a substitute for any text whatsoever – and they convey messages more complicated, or at least more elaborate, than a photo credit.

Evans explains the foundation of an emoji taking the place of text.

59

The reason why an emoji can

substitute for text is because an

individual emoji amounts to a

visual gestalt. The term gestalt,

which derives from the

German, refers to perceiving

the whole. An emoji is a gestalt

in the sense that it encapsulates

an often complex set of

experiences in a single,

intuitively accessible glyph. (p.

Figure 4.11 130)

The following two tweets from Teen Vogue show examples of emojis acting as gestalts and further conveying specific messages. In this tweet (Figure 4.11) about the FX series Pose – which focuses on ball culture of 1980s New York City, and includes a cast of five transgender women of color – Teen Vogue opted for no text in its copy. Instead, the message accompanying the link is comprised of three identical emojis: brown hands clapping. The reason for the applause is obvious, as the headline reads in part “making television history,” and it is the skin color of the emojis which makes the biggest statement. Emojis became more diverse in 2015, when Apple rolled them out on its operating systems (Warren, 2015). Following that, the Unicode Consortium, the governing board which oversees emojis, released a statement about diversity: “People all over the world want to have emoji that reflect more human diversity, especially for skin tone” (2015). They used the Fitzpatrick scale, “a recognized standard for dermatology,” 60

and introduced five different skin tones (2015). For the first time, people of color saw themselves reflected in this popular form of communication. Such emojis also allowed

Teen Vogue to celebrate the women of color in Pose in an inclusive way.

Another tweet using only emojis in lieu of text conveyed a more nuanced message. On June 22, Teen Vogue tweeted an essay about law enforcement not being welcome at Pride events. The copy of the tweet once more shows three identical emojis: a hand waving (in the generic/non-human yellow skin tone, as this message is not about race in any way). The hand-waving supports the headline of the article, waving police goodbye from Pride events. There is also an implied lack of remorse, with the emojis seeming almost smug to wave them away. Without even clicking on the link to read the full article (and discover the “good reason”), this tweet sends a clear message. In today’s social media-heavy world, publications need to construct their social media posts in a

precise and conscious way. A

study from Columbia

University and the French

National Institute revealed 59

percent of all links shared on

social media have never

actually been clicked (Dewey,

2016). This means journalists

have to create social media

posts which accurately reflect

their articles under the Figure 4.12 assumption that 6 in 10 people 61

will not actually click through to read the article. With this tweet, the headline promises more information in an effort to get more people reading and satisfy their curiosity, but it still sends a clear message on its own.

Another function emojis serve is acting as metacomments. As Evans explains, when an emoji follows text, it provides guidance for “the interpretation of the text”

(2017, p. 133). A more specific example of emojis acting as complements to text is when they provide “expression of emotional attitude” (p. 133). According to Evans, when a sender uses an emoji as a metacomment on their own message, they are providing a “non- verbal cue as to their attitude towards what they are saying and, hence, how to interpret their message” (p. 134). This next tweet (Figure 4.13) provides a good example of this

concept: During the midterm election

primaries, Democratic candidate

Richard Madaleno ran an ad for his

campaign in which he kissed his

husband. According to the sub-

heading of the link attached to the

tweet, it aired “during [President

Donald] Trump’s favorite TV show.”

Teen Vogue wrote a simple caption for

the tweet: “Take that, Trump.” The Figure 4.13 tweet finished with a single emoji of a winking face blowing a kiss. Based on Teen

Vogue’s text, it supports Madaleno’s decision to effectively mock Trump by sharing a same-sex kiss on a program Trump is known to watch. “Take that, Trump” is a smug statement, full of righteous pride at the idea of landing a blow on the Commander in 62

Chief. By adding the emoji at the end, it provides a metacomment guiding readers to interpret the tweet as boastful and cheeky. As President, Trump has built an extensive administration implementing numerous anti-LGBTI policies, as seen in the Human

Rights Campaign’s project, Trump’s Timeline of Hate (2017). This evidence, combined with Teen Vogue’s own liberal and pro-LGBTQ stances, the tweet is easily read as both mocking and challenging Trump on his own reputation as President.

Tone

Teen Vogue’s language use is revealing, but what adds another layer to interpreting their text are the tones in which they express their linguistic choices. Multiple tones emerged from the data collected for this thesis, some more surprising than others.

This section explores three tones which emerged consistently in the social media coverage of LGBTQ pride and the midterm elections.

An expected tone from the data was celebration, or creating social media posts empowering the publication’s subjects. The two unexpected and insightful tones employed in Teen Vogue’s are educational and critical tones. An educational tone, as used by Teen Vogue, introduces concepts relating to its topic – such as an identity label, or safe sex – and helps explain the concepts to its audience. Its critical tone is more negative than the celebratory and educational tones, with the negativity aimed at particular people or organizations in an effort to call out hypocrisy or immoral behaviors.

Both tones work by instating specific points of view and adding depth to the messages

Teen Vogue sends via their social media accounts.

63

Critical tone

The following tweets all share a common theme – the criticism is aimed at institutions of power, which offers an examination of how power affects marginalized communities and intersectionality within society.

Figures 4.14 – 4.16

64

It also telling that all these tweets are about LGBTQ pride. As Shannon B.

Dermer, Shannon D. Smith, and Korenna K. Barton (2010) explain:

Individuals who belong to dominant groups are those within a society who by

birth or by attainment are members of groups that are seen as normal or have the

ability to influence the definition of normal. Those with dominant group

memberships gain cultural power, which is a privileged status based merely on

one's cultural identity. … Lesbians, gay men, and other sexual minorities must

deal with oppression based on their sexual minority status and the consequences

of heterosexual privilege. (p. 326)

In our current society, those with the most privilege and power are white, heterosexual, cisgender men. They fall into the categories society as we understand it has deemed the most acceptable and normal. This is seen in various ways throughout the

United States, from the prevalence of these men in politics to the disproportionate violence transgender women of color face, as discussed in the section on Subjects.

Institutions of power are what shape life for marginalized communities like the LGBTQ community, which is why Teen Vogue’s narrowly-tailored criticism of them – and their failure to achieve or embrace intersectionality – speaks volume in their coverage during

Pride month, a time meant for celebrating the LGBTQ community.

The two institutions of power Teen Vogue’s targets in these tweets are the White

House (and federal government at large) and more local organizations, such as law enforcement and banks. All of these institutions have historical precedents of affecting the lives of LGBTQ individuals. Laws affecting LGBTQ people in the United States typically vary from state to state, with the federal government only weighing in on certain matters over time. In more recent years, the only issue Congress and the Supreme Court 65

have determined is that of same-sex marriage. In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of

Marriage Act (DOMA), which Marc Stein describes in his encyclopedia of LGBT history in America as “the most anti-LGBT federal statute in American history” by allowing states to “refuse recognition to valid same-sex marriages” (p. 380). Almost two decades later, in 2015, the Supreme Court struck down DOMA and legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges.

It is understandable, then, why Teen Vogue’s tweet criticizes the White House for not acknowledging Pride month. When an institution of power – in this case, the White

House and highest federal office in the executive branch – repeatedly shows a lack of support for a marginalized community, it makes itself vulnerable to attack. In the tweet,

Teen Vogue takes on a critical stance, as well as one of judgment and exasperation, by pointing out the White House acknowledged something as inane as National

Homeownership Month, while ignoring an entire portion of the country’s population

(White House, 2018).

Similarly, the police and LGBTQ community have a complicated and fractured relationship, as Teen Vogue points out in the other two tweets. The most famous LGBT event in America’s history, and the reason for Pride being in June, the Stonewall Riots of

1969, “was precipitated by a confrontation between police and LGBT people” (Stein, p.

393). In more recent years, the LGBTQ community has become less policed, as Stein points out, with the decline of raids on bars, sexual psychopath laws being overturned, and sodomy laws being declared unconstitutional. (p. 393). Regardless, policing does remain, as “cultural authorities continue to police transgressive and normative sexualities and genders, changing tactics and strategies but still attempting to impose order on the most disorderly of human desires” (p. 393). 66

Educational tone

A critical tone is only one tone that

Teen Vogue adopts in its social

media practices. Another one that

emerged from the data was an

educational tone. This appeared in

both the coverage of Pride and the

midterm elections. Topics of

education within Pride coverage

varied greatly. In some cases, the

education was as simple as

documentaries (as seen in Figure Figure 4.17 4.19), which allow both the celebration of and learning about the community.

Other educational tweets and article centered around the event of Pride itself, and how to make the most out of the month. In one example, Teen Vogue retweeted a guide from them about attending Pride for the first time and what to expect, how to behave and dress, and more. Another tweet from Teen Vogue itself is about merchandise during Pride month, with numerous businesses offering rainbow-covered clothing, and accessories to celebrate the month with – although perhaps not acting as true allies to the community otherwise. Both the tweet and the article it links to offer readers information about brands and companies that “regularly support” the LGBTQ community or are owned by queer people, thereby allowing true and tangible support.

67

Figures 4.18 – 4.19 Teen Vogue also addresses members of the community directly about specific topics. In another retweet from them, a video featuring a panel of experts addresses the realities of safer sex and offers a how-to for those who are sexually active (Figure 4.22).

This is a critical resource for

young readers as LGBTQ-

inclusive sex education in

schools is lacking. A report

from the Gay, Lesbian &

Straight Education Network

(GLSEN) revealed only 12%

of Millennial students in 2015

said their sex education

classes included information

Figure 4.20 about same-sex couples, although 85% of parents support inclusive sex education in high school, and 78% support 68

it in middle school (GLSEN). Another survey from 2013 revealed fewer than five percent of LGBT students said their health classes included positive representations of LGBT topics (GLSEN). In some locations, positive representation of LGBTQ topics in sexual health classes is strictly prohibited. Known as “no promo homo” laws, seven states

(Alabama, Texas, Arizona, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi) take this stance and enforce it through legislation (Brammer, 2018).

Another educational guide addresses people who do not identify as neither male nor female, or anyone who wants to educate themselves about non-binary people (Figure

4.21). The caption defines non-

binary, while the headline of the

article, also seen in the tweet, offers

readers a more in-depth

understanding of non-binary as an

identity should they click through.

Information on how many people

identify as non-binary in the United

States is limited. Recent surveys,

however, reveal that more and more Figure 4.21 young people within the country are identifying themselves in nontraditional ways. A study in the journal Pediatrics presented data that nearly 3% of teenagers in Minnesota do not identify as strictly “boy” or “girl” (as cited in Leguizamon & Griggs, 2018). This is a considerable increase from a UCLA study done in 2017, estimating 0.7% of teenagers identify as transgender or non-binary (as cited in Leguizamon & Griggs). This

69

increase, which will likely continue as fluidity becomes more normalized, shows the need for resources from widely read publications outside of academic journals.

Teen Vogue’s information about the LGBTQ community is not limited solely to people belonging to the community. This tweet promotes an article that’s a clear how-to

guide: “How to Talk to Your Siblings

About Their Sexual Identity.” The

caption of the tweet already includes

one piece of advice – don’t make it

about you. Not everyone who reads

Teen Vogue is a member of the

community, but the outlet believes

everyone should understand how to

respect those who are in the

Figure 4.22 community, and how to speak with them. The number of adults who identify as LGBTQ in the United States is on the rise.

Gallup began tracking LGBTQ adults in the U.S. in 2012 and last year, the numbers hit a record high, with 4.5% of all adults in the U.S. surveyed identifying as LGBTQ

(Newport, 2018). It is becoming more common to know someone who is LGBTQ and therefore understandable why a guide like this from Teen Vogue is necessary.

Social media posts striking an educational tone for Teen Vogue’s midterm election coverage primarily have to do with voting. Both on Twitter and Instagram, Teen

Vogue published how-to guides for people voting for the first time, or simply for those in need of a refresher. The posts promote an all-encompassing, step-by-step guide for

70

people voting in the midterm elections, covering things such as registration and absentee voting.

Figures 4.23 – 4.24 Just as the critical social media posts serve a larger purpose, holding institutions of power accountable, so do posts with an educational slant achieve something greater. In the most obvious way, they fulfill an important tenet of journalism: informing the public.

Posts like these from Teen Vogue provide readers access to information they might not otherwise know how to obtain, or are prevented from obtaining due to bureaucratic red tape. Further, the audience Teen Vogue is addressing, those who are young, queer, and diverse, are the ones most in need of affirming information such as these posts.

Regarding voting, specifically, young people are notorious for boasting low voter turnouts. A recent survey from Harvard revealed more young people than ever plan to vote in the 2018 midterm elections, but this is not the norm. Conducted in October 2018, the poll’s results revealed 40% of people aged 18-29 indicated a likelihood to vote on

November 6, with 54% of Democrats taking the lead ahead of 43% of Republicans 71

(Harvard Kennedy School, 2018). Midterm voter turnout among young Americans has surpassed 20% only two times before 2018, once in 1986 and then in 1994, with turnout reaching 21% for each election (Harvard Kennedy School). Teen Vogue is aware of its audience and seeks to empower them with information, both for the purposes of resistance as well as knowledge.

Celebratory

It is not enough for Teen Vogue simply to speak out in tones of active resistance.

For posts that strike a more celebratory tone, their choice of subject – once more intersectional identities – spreads a message of empowering those who are disproportionately marginalized and oppressed.

This Instagram post about Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s primary win in New York, for example, literally uses the word “celebratory” to begin the caption. As Teen Vogue

continues, the publication points

out her age, political leanings,

and her major accomplishment

of defeating a Democratic

incumbent in her first ever

political campaign. The caption

ends with a decidedly slanted Figure 4.25 and enthusiastic message: “Here’s to more women and changemakers in office!” In this post, Teen Vogue not only openly cheers on a woman of color’s political win (showing her eating celebratory cake with an excited expression on her face), but shares its hopes for more female politicians, thereby directly appealing to their core audience and championing the success of women. 72

Another example, this

time from the outlet’s Pride

coverage, aims to normalize

the existence of non-binary

and transgender identities.

Based on both the headline of

the article and the tweet’s

caption, the story is a personal

account of someone who

identifies as non-binary and

transgender and their

experience at a massive, public event (the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York).

“Gov Ball helped me reclaim a piece of my autonomy, and I hope it can do something similar for others,” the tweet reads. This quote chosen for the tweet represents both success (finding one’s own independence, especially as a marginalized person) and a message of hope and encouragement to other people who identify outside of the gender binary.

Pansexuality is the attraction to all people, regardless of gender identity. It is a

term often unknown to people Figure 4.26 outside of the community (and sometimes even in the community), as well as often confused with bisexuality (the attraction to both men and women). This tweet is not only about a pansexual person, but explicitly says to the audience their “journey of self- discovery” is valid. Not fitting into what society deems as “normal” can be alienating and 73

difficult for people, especially

younger individuals in the process of

figuring out their own identities.

When it seems like the world may

not accept you for who you are,

messages as simple as “you are OK”

and that your journey is worth it,

especially from a prominent voice

like Teen Vogue, can be powerful.

This tweet, and the article it links to,

both presents an LGBTQ identity

Figure 4.27 that is not ubiquitous or well-known, as well as states, in no uncertain terms, the validity of such an identity.

Imagery

A final component of social media posts is imagery. As discussed in the section on emojis, human brains process visual imagery more quickly than text. While scrolling through social media feeds, carefully chosen images, meant to capture attention, is a key strategy of accounts drawing attention to themselves and winning the eyes of users. As seen in this section, Teen Vogue continues its dedication to intersectionality, and highlighting the lives and voices of those heard from less in society. They do this in numerous ways with the imagery chosen for their social media posts.

Instagram, as previously explained, is a social media platform based on visuals first and foremost. For Pride, Teen Vogue made general celebratory posts for the month 74

on their Instagram account. The people featured in these posts fit the mold of intersectionality or rather, they break the mold of normalcy. For the month of June, the

Figure 4.28

Teen Vogue Instagram declared it would be sharing its followers’ photos – “the ones that inspire us most” – for Pride. This intro post features two people of color, smiling in the sun, and evokes feelings of beauty, warmth, and acceptance.

Another post for Pride, featuring a couple, this time two women celebrating their first Pride, continues the outlet’s theme of breaking away from white, gay men as the face

of the LGBTQ movement. One

of the women is a woman of

color, donning a Pride fanny-

pack and a t-shirt reading “Love

Wins.” As the first post did, this

post inspires more positive

Figure 4.29

75

feelings, like confidence, authenticity, and happiness.

A tweet about what Pride means to queer youth shows an array of diversity: The importance of youth seeing themselves represented – in magazines, media, and more –

cannot be overstated. As

explained in the literature review,

there is a lack of LGBTQ

representation, least of all

positive representation, in media.

This is why the imagery

in Teen Vogue’s social media

posts matters – it is a way for

youth who see themselves less on

screen to see themselves

represented elsewhere in

meaningful ways. For Teen Figure 4.30 Vogue’s general Pride posts, anyone in the LGBTQ community can be chosen as the faces of the posts, which is why highlighting people of color and women makes a powerful statement.

Finally, Teen Vogue made two posts – one on Twitter and the other on Instagram

– about all the best looks from Pride 2018. Their choice of imagery for both posts is telling. In both posts, a single figure is highlighted – a child, or someone appearing significantly younger, participating in Pride. In the tweet, the person dons a pastel rainbow outfit while waving a rainbow flag. In the Instagram post, meanwhile, the young

76

person is photographed in a crown and shimmery gold boots, draped in a rainbow flag, and carrying a smaller rainbow flag in their hand.

By focusing these broad posts on

younger individuals, Teen Vogue

sends a message of being both aware

it is a youth-oriented publication, as

well as that both the LGBTQ

community and Pride are not only for

adults. A study in JAMA Pediatrics

found that 1% of 9-10 year-old

children in the United States identify,

or might identify as, gay, bisexual, or Figure 4.31 transgender (Hudson, 2018). The affirmation of children in the community is crucial.

In August 2018, a 9-year-old gay boy took his own life and according to his mother, Leia Pierce, it had do with bullying at his school (Rose, 2018). “He went to

school and said he was

gonna tell people he’s gay

because he’s proud of

himself,” she recalled

(2018). “Four days is all it

took at school. I could just

imagine what they said to

Figure 4.32 him. My son told my oldest daughter the kids at school told him to kill himself. I’m just sad he didn’t come to 77

me.” As previously discussed, rates of suicide ideation among LGBTQ youth are high, which is why it is significant that Teen Vogue chose to prominently highlight children at

Pride, showing they exist, they are valid, and they are worthy of being celebrated.

Another way Teen Vogue employs eye-

catching imagery is not with photos at all,

but drawings. Photos of Althea Garrison –

the first openly transgender elected

official – exist, but the Teen Vogue tweet

instead shows a larger-than-life drawing

of Garrison. The image is colorful and

vibrant, and shows, rather than tells, that

Garrison was furthermore a transgender

woman of color. The article in question Figure 4.33 does not link to a Teen Vogue article, but instead one on the website Lenny Letter, which often uses art for its main header image, rather than a photo. The image choice, therefore, belongs to Lenny Letter but it was Teen Vogue’s decision to both share the article and keep the same image.

Another example of Teen Vogue using an image other than a photo is its voting guide, which was posted both to Instagram and Twitter. For this tweet, Teen Vogue could have easily chosen a photo of people actually voting, a polling booth, or an activist carrying a sign about voting. Human faces add more layers of emotion and connection in stories. Any of those images, however, would distract from the message Teen Vogue is trying to send with this tweet. The lack of young voters, when combined with the fact they make up the crux of Teen Vogue’s readership, makes this tweet a pointed message. 78

Anything that draws attention

away from the message is not

helpful – instead, the large, bold,

red lettering welcomes the eye

just as an image of a person

might. It makes the text pop and

the simplicity of the message on

the image gets the point across,

even if someone doesn’t read the

caption.

Figure 4.34

A final subset of social media imagery is the imagery attached to stories and posts

about specific people. When a story

is about an individual, or a specific

group of people, it limits what Teen

Vogue can use for imagery to the

subject in question. There is still,

however, a question about what

image of the subject to use in a

post.

This tweet is about

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Figure 4.35 primary win, so the image accompanying the tweet and article will feature her. It does, 79

but it also tells a larger story. Only women are seen in the photo, including one woman wearing a headscarf and cutting into a cake with Ocasio-Cortez. An air of celebration permeates the chosen photo – all the women have smiles on their faces, as they dig into a dessert, and it perfectly captures the tone of the headline and what the tweet is about. In her primary, Ocasio-Cortez was the underdog, preaching ideals of progressivism, and she defeated a longtime incumbent Democrat. Her win signaled changing minds and attitudes

– and a further crack in the glass ceiling for women to burst through – and the image chosen by Teen Vogue beckons this reading.

For one of its Pride stories about an individual, Teen Vogue featured queer singer

Merlot. From the image chosen, however, music is not apparent, and that’s because the feature on Merlot is not about music. Instead, as the caption reads: Merlot spoke about

fashion, pride, and gender with

the publication. Those things,

unlike Merlot’s music career,

are visible in the post’s image.

Merlot is photographed

wearing a red sequin wrap,

makeup, and jewelry, all of

which present unique ideas Figure 4.36 about gender, presentation, and nonconformity. The Instagram post also uses they/them pronouns for Merlot, further revealing information about their gender nonconforming identity. As an image, Merlot’s appearance challenges what mass society deems

“normal” and refuses the gender binary, showing how fashion and a single photo can express numerous ideas, which are then support by the post’s caption. The choice for this 80

photo shows an understanding of the idea Teen Vogue is trying to get across, while also featuring a queer person of color in a bold and exciting way.

81

Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion

Journalism is an industry of choices. It is about choosing what or whose story is important enough to tell, and how to tell it. It is about the investigation of power and truth, and, subsequently, choosing to share such information with the mass public, aware of the array of consequences that may follow. Journalism, like all other areas of society, is also a reflection. When a group of people have dominated institutions of power for centuries, their decisions and actions trickle down, shaping said society, as well as people’s views of it. What happens, then, when that status quo is challenged? What happens when other communities’ stories are told, and the previous dominant narrative is rejected?

This thesis examined Teen Vogue’s social media coverage as a series of choices.

Every post is constructed through several parts – subjects, language, tone, imagery – which come together to form a whole. Choices go into each part, until, when taken all together, themes emerged showcasing an invigorating empowerment of marginalized communities and intersectionality, and the evisceration of harmful institutions of power.

Pride and midterms are only two events covered by Teen Vogue, in a much broader array of subjects highlighted by the publication. The confident and specific points of view allotted to each event, however, reveals a larger understanding of how

Teen Vogue operates. These are two broad topics with endless ways to cover them, just as many other Teen Vogue subjects are, such as fashion, celebrities, and entertainment. For a publication like Teen Vogue, that is intended for a specific audience with a honed voice, it is important to cover such broad subjects in a manner that offers more than just a reporting of the facts. The data analyzed in this thesis makes clear Teen Vogue has a distinct voice and is committed to saying something it deems valuable. 82

As shown in this these, Teen Vogue’s voice is dedicated to covering broad topics appealing to their audience, and in their newfound wheelhouses of politics, activism, and beyond, through the eyes of people in marginalized and historically silenced communities. Their blatant liberal bias allows them to take a stand for matters like civil rights, transgender rights, and political candidates in which they believe. For broad topics, like Pride and the midterms, they don’t highlight stories making national news for the sake of it – they give a platform to voices within these subjects who might not otherwise have a place to speak, such as women (and especially women of color), and transgender and non-binary people.

Teen Vogue made a choice. It looked at the status quo and said, “No, this is not what we believe in.” They took a stand and committed themselves to a vision and a cause of intersectionality, viewing feminism through a lens of diversity and empowerment. It refused to be defined by the powers that be and so it defined itself. With a platform, and a voice, comes responsibility and Teen Vogue harnessed that responsibility, telling us not only to vote, but how to vote, and why it is important to have pride.

This thesis’ narrow scope, analyzing one publication and only two social media platforms and topics, inherently limits the study. Teen Vogue covered numerous topics during the month of June 2018 and looking at them all would have provided a broader analysis of the publication’s themes. Future research into this topic can extend the analysis to more topics, social media platforms, and different themes of intersectionality

(beyond sexuality, race, and gender, which are the main social stratification traits assessed in this thesis). Further, impending research can also compare and contrast Teen

Vogue with other teen- and female-oriented publications in an effort to answers different questions about Teen Vogue and this genre of journalism in general. 83

Other scholars’ research can also extend the analysis of social media. The discussion of emojis extends to the larger study of semiotics, or signs and sign processes.

Symbols as language goes back to ancient civilizations and modern humans, as seen in cave art, and continue to exist today in the digital world. There are other modern aspects of communication briefly referenced in this thesis, such as slang and memes, which can be further explored in general and their specific uses within journalism. Instagram and

Twitter can be compared more as well, such as examining why Teen Vogue’s Instagram posts in this thesis received thousands more likes than the tweets (which may be attributed to more younger people using Instagram than Twitter (Pew, 2018)). Other social media platforms can also be brought into the analysis.

This thesis showed how a narrow analysis can extrapolate larger truths, but there are many more topics to study within social media and publications like Teen Vogue.

84

Bibliography Abad, M. (2018, January 11). Digital-only magazine covers are bringing media brands into

the digital age. Fashionista. Retrieved from https://fashionista.com/2018/01/

digital-only-magazine-covers-trend

Adeniji, A. (2017, December 1). The price of activism, according to Teen Vogue.

Bitch Media. Retrieved from https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/teen- vogue-puts-

pricetag-on-wokeness

Arnold, A. (2018, January 11). Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Elaine Welteroth is leaving

Condé Nast. New York Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.thecut.com/2018/

01/teen-vogue-eic-elaine-welteroth-is-leaving-cond-nast.html

Bandler, J. (2004, October 7). Condé Nast acquires teen magazine YM. Wall Street

Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1097089445267 38188

Bauck, W. (2018, March 6). Marie Suter leaves Condé Nast for Glossier. Fashionista.

Retrieved from https://fashionista.com/2018/03/marie-suter-glossier-creative-

director-conde-nast

Bergado, G. [gabebergado]. (2018, June 27). recently got to kiki with @sasha_velour and

she had some great advice for young people wanting to learn more about queer

history. [Tweet]. Retrieved https://twitter.com/gabebergado/status/101207281956

6497792

Bloomgarden-Smoke, K. (2018, February 5). Teen Vogue taps Samhita Mukhopadhyay as

executive editor. WWD. Retrieved from https://wwd.com/business-news/media/

teen-vogue-taps-samhita-mukhopadhyay-as-executive-editor-11136694/

Boboltz, S. & Yam, K. (2017, February 24). Why on-screen representation actually

85

matters. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.

com/entry/why-on-screen-representation-matters_us_58aeae96e4b0140

6012fe49d

Brammer, J.P. (2018, February 9). “No promo homo” laws affect millions of

students across US. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.

com/feature/nbc-out/no-promo-homo-laws-affect-millions-students-across-u-s-

n845136

Bryant, A., Charmaz, K., Kelle, U., & Lempert, L.B. (2010). The SAGE handbook of

grounded theory. A. Bryant & K. Charmaz (Eds.). London: SAGE Publications

Ltd.

Calhoun, C.J. (1992). Habermas and the public sphere. Cambridge, MA: The MIT

Press.

Carlson, N. (2011, April 13). The real history of Twitter. Business Insider. Retrieved

from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-twitter-was-founded-2011-4

Carr, D. (2003, January 13). Coming late, fashionably, Teen Vogue joins a crowd.

The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/

13/business/media-coming-late-fashionably-teen-vogue-joins-a-crowd. html

Chamberlain, P. (2017). The feminist fourth wave: Affective temporality. London:

Royal Holloway, University of London.

Consalvo, M. & Paasonen, S. (2002). Introduction. In M. Consalvo & S. Paasonen

(Eds.), Women and everyday uses of the internet: Agency and identity (p. 1-15).

New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Dermer, S.B., Smith, S.D., & Barto, K.K. (2010). Identifying and correctly labeling

86

sexual prejudice, discrimination, and oppression. Journal of Counseling &

Development, 88(3), 325-331. Retrieved from http://libproxy.csun.edu/

login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=524

25743&site=ehost-live

DeSilver, D. (2014, July 24). Voter turnout always drops off for midterm elections,

but why? Pew Research. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-

tank/2014/07/24/voter-turnout-always-drops-off-for-midterm-elections-but-why/

Dewey, C. (2016, June 16). 6 in 10 of you will share this link without reading it, a

new, depressing study says. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://

washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/06/16/six-in-10-of-you-will-

share-this-link-without-reading-it-according-to-a-new-and-depressing-study/

Diavolo, L. [satansjacuzzi]. (2018, June 4). Happy #Pride to everyone except the 7

Supreme Court justices who think refusing to bake a cake for people because

they're gay is somehow an expression OF freedom, and not a limitation on it.

[Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/SatansJacuzzi/status/10036490477590

73280

Diavolo, L. [satansjacuzzi]. (2018, June 25). Civility is clearly a portmanteau of cis and

villainy so are we surprised that it's used to make space for fascists among us???

[Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/SatansJacuzzi/status/10114350227825

17248

Diavolo, L. [satansjacuzzi]. (2018, June 25). If you hate banks and politicians and cops

at pride as much as I do, you should really check out this piece I wrote for

@TeenVogue last year about people trying to change that. [Tweet]. Retrieved

from https://twitter.com/SatansJacuzzi/status/1011372969900290049 87

Dicker, R.C. (2008). A history of U.S. feminisms. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.

Dobson, A.S. (2015). Postfeminist digital cultures: Femininity, social media, and

self-representation. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Duca, L. (2016, December 10). Donald Trump is gaslighting America. Teen Vogue.

Retrieved from https://www.teenvogue.com/story/donald-trump-is- gaslighting-

America

Evans, E., Rutberg, J., Sather, C., & Turner, C. (1991). Content analysis of contemporary

teen magazines for adolescent females. Youth & Society, 23(1), 99-120. Retrieved

from https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X91023001005

Evans, V. (2016). The emoji code: The linguistics behind smiley faces and scaredy cats.

New York, NY: Picador.

Fang, M. (2014, July 22). Women are underrepresented in politics, but it’s not for

the reason you think. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.

huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/22/women-in-politics_n_5607061.html

Fernandez, C. (2017, March 3). Teen Vogue digital editorial director Philip Picardi

to also oversee Allure digital. Business of Fashion. Retrieved from https://

www.businessoffashion.com/articles/bof-exclusive/teen-vogue-digital-director-

phillip-picardi-to-also-oversee-allure-digital

Filipovic, J. (2008). Offensive feminism: The conservative gender norms that

perpetuate rape culture, and how feminists can fight back. In J. Friedman & J.

Valenti (Eds.), Yes means yes!: Visions of female sexual power and a world without

rape. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.

Folio Staff. (2006, March 29). Anna Wintour: Editor-in-chief, Vogue. Folio Mag.

Retrieved from http://www.foliomag.com/anna-wintour-editor-chief-vogue/ 88

Fraser, N. (1992). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of

actually existing democracy. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the public sphere

(p. 109-142). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Garza, A. (2016). A herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In J. Hobson

(Ed.), Are all the women still white?: Rethinking race, expanding feminisms (p.

205-225). Albany, New: State University of New York Press.

Gilbert, S. (2016, December 12). Teen Vogue’s political coverage isn’t surprising.

The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/

archive/2016/12/teen-vogue-politics/510374/

GLAAD. (2018). Studio Responsibility Index. Retrieved from https://www.glaad.

org/files/2018%20GLAAD%20Studio%20Responsibility%20Index.pdf

GLAAD. (2018). Where we are on TV ’17 – ’18. Retrieved from http://glaad.org/

files/WWAT_GLAAD_2017-2018.pdf

GLSEN. (n.d.) A call to action: LGBTQ youth need inclusive sex education.

Retrieved from https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/A%20Call%20to

%20Action%20LGBTQ%20Youth%20Need%20Inclusive%20Sex%20Education

%20FINAL.pdf

Guardado, A. (2015, March 3). Hashtag activism: The benefits and limitations of

#activism. New University. Retrieved from https://www.newuniversity.org

/2015/03/03/hashtag-activism-the-benefits-and-limitations-of-activism/

Habermas, J. (1991). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An

inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. (T. Burger & F. Lawrence, Trans.).

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 1962)

Hall, E. & Rodriguez, M. The myth of postfeminism. Gender & Society, 17(6), p. 89

878-902. https://doi-org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.1177/0891243203257639

Harp, D. & Tremayne, M. (2006). The gendered blogosphere: Examining

inequality using network and feminist theory. Journalism & Mass Communication

Quarterly, 83(2), p. 247-264. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 107769900608300202

Harris, A. (2012). Online cultures and future girl citizens. In E. Zobl & R. Drüeke

(Eds.), Feminist media: Participatory spaces, networks and cultural citizenship.

Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript-Verlag.

Harvard Kennedy School. (2018). Survey of Young Americans’ Attitudes toward

Politics and Public Service. Retrieved from http://iop.harvard.edu/

sites/default/files/content/Harvard-IOP-Fall-2018-poll-toplines.pdf

Haughney, C. (2013, February 3). Teen Vogue, a survivor at 10 years. The New

York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/

business/media/teen-vogue-a-survivor-at-10-years.html hooks, B. (2007). Black women and feminism. In B. Arrighii (Ed.), Understanding

inequality: The intersection of race/ethnicity, class, and gender. Lanham, MD:

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Hudson, D. (2018, September 14). Gay Star News. Retrieved from https://www.gaystar

news.com/article/one-percent-kids-gay-trans/

Human Rights Campaign. (2017). Trump’s timeline of hate. Retrieved from

https://www.hrc.org/timelines/trump

Human Rights Campaign. (2017). Violence against the transgender community in

2017. Retrieved from https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-

transgender-community-in-2017

Human Rights Campaign. (2018). The real Mike Pence: A lifetime of attacks on 90

the LGBTQ community. Retrieved from https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets

/resources/RealMikePence-2018-FinalReport.pdf

Human Rights Campaign. (2018). Violence against the transgender community

in 2018. Retrieved from https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-

the-transgender-community-in-2018

Imse, E. (2018, September 24). 2018 rainbow wave by the numbers: Historic

number of gubernatorial, Congressional nominees. Retrieved from

https://36b1in21z14j14tflf374sjh-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wpcontent/

uploads/sites/2/2017/01/ResearchBrief_RainbowWaveByTheNumbers_091918.p

df

Ingold, D. & McCartney, A. (2018, September 13). Here’s how women did in

Congressional primaries. Bloomberg. Retrieved from https://www.bloom

berg.com/graphics/2018-women-congress-tracker/

James, S.E., Herman, J.L., Rankin, S., Keisling, M., Mottet, L., & Anafi, M. (2016).

2015 U.S. transgender survey: Executive summary. Retrieved from

https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS-Executive-Summary-

Dec17.pdf

Juneteenth. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Juneteenth

Keller, J. (2018, January 30). Being woke is profitable: Teen Vogue made waves

this year. Publishing Executive. Retrieved from http://pubexec.com/ article/woke-

profitable-teen-vogue-made-waves-year/

Kelly, K.J. (2016, November 7). Teen Vogue cuts circulation, focuses on digital. NY

91

Post. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2016/11/07/teen-vogue-cuts-circulation-

focuses-on-digital/

Keyssar, A. (2000). The right to vote: The contested history of democracy in the

United States. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Kittilson, M.C. (2016). Gender and political behavior. In Oxford Research

Encyclopedias. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.71

Krippendorff, K. (2010). Content analysis. In Salkind, N.J. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of

Research Design (p. 234-238). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Lagoria-Chafkin, C. (2012, April 9). Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, founders of

Instagram. Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/30under30/2011/ profile-

kevin-systrom-mike-krieger-founders-instagram.html

Leguizamon, M. & Griggs, B. (2018, October 3). More US teens are rejecting “boy”

or “girl” gender identity, a study finds. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.

cnn.com/2018/02/06/health/teens-gender-nonconforming-study-trnd/ index.html.

Lewis, C. (2014, August 1). The tragic history of fallen teen magazines. The

Hairpin. Retrieved from https://www.thehairpin.com/2014/08/the- tragic-history-

of-fallen-teen-magazines/

Lewis, P. (2014). Postfeminism, femininities and organization studies: Exploring

a new agenda. Organization Studies, 35(12), p. 1845-1866. https://doi-org.

libproxy.csun.edu/10.1177/0170840614539315

Livingstone, S. (2015). Active audiences? The debate progresses but is far from

resolved. Communication Theory, 25(4), p. 439-446. doi:10.1111/comt.120 78

Livingstone, S. (2005). Audiences and publics: When cultural engagement

matters for the pubic sphere. (Vol. 2). Bristol, UK: Intellect Books. 92

Luckerson, V. (2016, April 19). Here’s proof that Instagram was one of the smartest

acquisitions ever. Time. Retrieved from: http://time.com/4299297/ instagram-

facebook-revenue/

Mann, S.A. (2012). Doing feminist theory: From modernity to postmodernity.

New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Marinucci, M. (2010). Feminism is queer: The intimate connection between queer

and feminist theory. New York, NY: Zed Books.

Minnie. (2018, April 18). The everyday sexism project. Message posted to https://

everydaysexism.com/everyday-sexism/182153

Mullin, B. (2018, August 23). Phillip Picardi, head of Teen Vogue, exits Condé Nast.

The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/ phillip-

picardi-head-of-teen-vogue-exits-conde-nast-1535062121

Munro, E. (2013). Feminism: A fourth wave? Political Insight, 4(2), p. 22-25.

https://doi-org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.1111/2041-9066.12021

Milano, A. [Alyssa_Milano]. (2017, October 15). If you’ve been sexually harassed or

assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. [Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/alyssa_milano/status/919659438700670976

Newport, F. (2018, May 22). In U.S., estimate of LGBT population rises to 4.5%.

Gallup News. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/234863/ estimate-lgbt-

population-rises.aspx

Noyes, A. [anoyes]. (2017, November 2). Never read @TeenVogue until 2016 election;

quickly, unexpectedly became a fan. Their work must continue digitally.

[Tweet]. Retrieved https://twitter.com/anoyes/status/926102510493822977

Obar, J.A. & Wildman, S. (2015). Social media definition and the governance 93

challenge: An introduction to the special issue. Telecommunications Policy, 39(9),

745-750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2015.07.014

Ohlheiser, A. (2017, October 19). The woman behind ‘Me Too’ knew the power of the

phrase when she created it – 10 years ago. Washington Post. Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/10/19/the-woman-

behind-me-too-knew-the-power-of-the-phrase-when-she-created-it-10-years-

ago/?utm_term=.1df975dc85f8

Paasonen, S. (2002). Gender, identity, and (the limits of) play on the internet. In

M. Consalvo & S. Paasonen (Eds.), Women and everyday uses of the internet:

Agency and identity (p. 21-39). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Paasonen, S. (2005). Figures of fantasy: Internet, women, and cyberdiscourse.

New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Park, S. & Leonard, D. (2016). Toxic or intersectional?: Challenges to (white)

feminist hegemony online. In J. Hobson (Ed.), Are all the women still white?:

Rethinking race, expanding feminisms (p. 205-225). Albany, New: State University

of New York Press.

Pennington, R. & Birthisel, J. (2015). When new media makes news: Framing

technology and sexual assault in the Steubenville rape case. New Media &

Society, 18(11), 2435-2451. https://doi-org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.1177/1461

444815612407

Pew Research Center. (2017). Since Trump’s election, increased attention to

politics – especially among women. Retrieved from http://www.people-

press.org/2017/07/20/since-trumps-election-increased-attention-to-

politics-especially-among-women/ 94

Pew Research Center. (2018, March 1). Social media use in 2018. Retrieved from

http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/

RAINN. (2017). The criminal justice system: Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.rainn.

org/statistics/criminal-justice-system

RAINN. (2017). Victims of sexual violence: Statistics. Retrieved from https://

www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence

Rhimes, S. [shondarhimes]. (2018, January 1). Time’s up on silence. Time’s up on waiting.

Time’s up on tolerating discrimination, harassment and abuse. #TimesUp Sign the

solidarity letter & donate to the @TIMESUPNW Legal Defense Fund:

timesupnow.com [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/shondarhimes/status/

947847271542132736

Rose, A. (2018, August 26). Mom says Denver boy killed himself after being bullied at

school. Fox 31. Retrieved from https://kdvr.com/2018/08/26/mom-says-denver-

boy-killed-himself-after-being-bullied-at-school/

Ruggiero, D. & Park, M. (2017, July 27). DOJ files amicus brief that says Title VII

does not protect sexual orientation. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.

com/2017/07/26/politics/doj-amicus-brief-title-vii-sexual-orientation/

index.html

Smith, M.D. (2004). Encyclopedia of rape. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Sood, R. [rahulsood]. (2016, December 10). Great article @laurenduca. Who would

have guessed @TeenVogue might be the future of political news. Unreal coverage

of the election [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/

rahulsood/status/807652525306363904

Statisa. (2018). Number of monthly active Twitter users worldwide from 1st 95

quarter 2010 to 2nd quarter 2018 (in millions). Retrieved from https://

www.statisa.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/

Stein, M. (2004). LGBT: Encyclopedia of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender

history in America. New York, NY: Gale.

Stonewall riots. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/event/Stonewall-riots

Supreme Court of the United States. (2015). Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, Director,

Ohio Department of Health, et al. Retrieved from http://www.supreme court.gov/

opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf

Supreme Court of the United States. (2018). Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd., et al., v.

Colorado Civil Rights Commission et al. Retrieved from https://www.supreme

court.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-111_j4el.pdf

Tarm, M. (2017, April 4). Court: Civil Rights law prohibits discrimination of LGBT.

AP News. Retrieved from https://www.apnews.com/1fe7c55acba44b4094d

ode338d b9b8be

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 1). Happy #Pride Month! [Instagram post].

Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BjfOrS9BUVN/

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 3). They did, however, acknowledge June as

National Homeownership Month. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/

TeenVogue/status/1003382593549750272

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 5). "Gov Ball helped me reclaim a piece of my

autonomy, and I hope it can do something similar for others." [Tweet]. Retrieved

from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1004150951630995457

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 5). The best way to make real change: get to the 96

polls and VOTE! If you live in CA, IA, MS, MT, NJ, NM or SD, make sure you

use your voice and vote in your state's primary elections happening TODAY!

[Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BjpuA7IBfgH/

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 5). The best way to make real change: get to the

polls and VOTE! If you live in CA, IA, MS, MT, NJ, NM or SD, make sure you

use your voice and vote in your state's primary elections happening TODAY!

[Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/100406035164901

3762

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 5). These films tell the true stories not just of the

struggles faced by LGBTQ people over the years, but of the pioneers and

provocateurs who prove that being who you are and loving who you love can be

revolutionary acts. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/

status/1004016255026782208

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 6). Now, THIS is the change we want to see. (via

@voxdotcom) [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/

1004325552310845440

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 6). TFW @Deb4CongressNM wins the New

Mexico primary [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/

status/1004367333685645312

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 7). Everything you need to know about voting,

from registration to placing an absentee ballot to what you need to be prepared

with when you head to your polling place: [Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1004686683210747904

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 7). IT'S PRIDE! We're celebrating (along with our 97

friends at @them) by putting YOU on our Instagram. Share a photo, a selfie, or an

illustration of how you're showing your #pride this month using the

hashtag #TheFutureIsQueer and tag @teenvogue & @them. We'll be sharing the

ones that inspire us most all Pride Month long! [Instagram post]. Retrieved from

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjvMRqSA26n/

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 14). Take that, Trump. [Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1005116003448250369

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 12). Better policy will be passed if someone

“reclaims America’s — and Georgia’s — future for one of optimism,

inclusivity, and equality.” [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Teen

Vogue/status/1006642325299265536

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 13). It’s what he deserves! [Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1007004726620246021

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 14). Clapping hands emojis. [Tweet]. Retrieved

from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1007242517723611141

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 14). For starters, don’t make it about you. [Tweet].

Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1007480350845689856

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 17). All the head-turning looks from Pride 2018

http://tnvge.co/WKRO9Zb [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Teen

Vogue/status/1008468856879419393

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 18). Ariana and Hannah from @theangelinos_

celebrated their first #Pride together last week at #LAPride! Share a photo or

illustration of how you’re showing your pride this month using the

hashtag #TheFutureIsQueer and tag @teenvogue and @them for a chance to be 98

featured right here! [Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://instagram.com/

p/BkLiwK1Hnxh/

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 21). Waving hands emojis. [Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1010266239996977152

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 22). "Fashion is a form of play, and through it, I can

express different integral parts of my personality and gender. I’m continually

experimenting with and exploring my identity through personal style.”

— @yung.merlot speaks with @adameli about what fashion and pride means to

them. [Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://instagram.com/ p/BkLiwK1Hnxh/

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 22). The forgotten history of Althea Garrison, the

first trans lawmaker in the U.S. (via @LennyLetter) [Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1009941809726918656

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 22). Happy #Pride to all of our LGBTQ friends and

family. We celebrate you today, and every day! Show us how you’re celebrating

today using the hashtag #TheFutureIsQueer for a chance to be featured right

here. [Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BkbOdSJH

9z4/

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 24). Instead, you can shop at these 5 queer-owned

vendors! #Pride [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/

1010960270041153544

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 24). "Police cannot peacock as allies for one day

a year and not expect to be held accountable to their actions the rest of the time."

— @kittystryker [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/

status/1010930076014333952 99

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 25). "Questioning years of attraction toward one

gender and questioning if you can be attracted to other genders is 100% OK, and

definitely worth the journey of self-discovery." [Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1011192297021681665

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 25). Non-binary gender is any gender that isn’t

exclusively male or female. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/

TeenVogue/status/1011222492952883201

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 27). Because she’s what? SICKENING! [Tweet].

Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1012100781653266432

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 27). Celebratory cake is in order for Alexandria

Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year old Bronx native and Democratic Socialist who unseated

leading House Democrat Rep. Joe Crowley in New York's 14th Congressional

District in her FIRST run for political office — meaning she’ll likely be the

youngest person in Congress in 2019. Here’s to more women and changemakers in

office! [Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BkiCLTX

n2px/

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 27). Extremely shoutout to @Ocasio2018 [Tweet].

Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1011979985727389696

Teen Vogue. [teenvogue]. (2018, June 28). “Pride to me means safety. I can just be

myself and not worry about what anyone else thinks of me.” 9 queer teens share

what #PRIDE means to them— http://tnvge.co/Jm6VGwd [Tweet]. Retrieved

from https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1012485842068176898

Terkel, A. (2018, September 13). Women shatter records in 2018 primary elections.

100

Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ women-

politics-records_us_5b9a667ce4b041978dc0a969 them. [them]. (2018, June 6). Baby’s first #Pride? Here’s your cheat sheet. [Tweet].

Retrieved https://twitter.com/them/status/1004427798138810368 them. [them]. (2018, June 15). How To Have Safer Sex This Pride Season https://bit.ly/

2t1trHj [Tweet]. Retrieved https://twitter.com/them/status/1007642645433380864

Thigh High Politics. (2018). Teen Vogue. Retrieved from https://www.teenvogue.com/

tag/thigh-high%20politics

Toomey, R.B., Syvertsen, A.K., & Shramko, M. (2018). Transgender adolescent

suicide behavior. American Academy of Pediatrics. Retrieved from http://

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/09/07/peds.2017-4218

Walker, R. (1992). Becoming the third wave. Ms. magazine. Retrieved from http://

www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/BecomingThirdWaveRebeccaWalker.pdf

Warner, M. (2002). Publics and counterpublics (abbreviated version). Quarterly

Journal of Speech, 88(4), 413-425. Retrieved from http://jarrettfuller.com/

tech/downloads/Michael-Warner-Publics-Short.pdf

Warren, C. (2015, February 26). How the new Apple emojis got their skin tones:

It’s not what you think. Mashable. Retrieved from https://mashable.com/

2015/02/26/ diverse-emoji-explainer/#YaBmb21I7Oqg

White House. (2000, June 2). Clinton declares June 2000 gay & lesbian Pride

month. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20170206050022/

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/blgaylesproc.htm

White House. (2016, May 31). Presidential proclamation – LGBT Pride month,

101

2016. Retrieved from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-

office/2016/05/31/presidential-proclamation-lgbt-pride-month-2016

White House. (2018, May 31). President Donald J. Trump proclaims June 2018 as

National Homeownership Month. Retrieved from https://www.white

house.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims- june-2018-

national-homeownership-month/

Wilson, J. (2016, May 19). Elaine Welteroth named new editor-in-chief of Teen

Vogue, and we all rejoice. Essence. Retrieved from https://www.essence.

com/2016/05/19/elaine-welteroth-teen-vogue-editor-in-chief

Word of the Year. (n.d.). In Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved from https://en.oxford

dictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2015

Youngs, G. (1999). Virtual voices: Real lives. In W. Harcourt (Ed.),

Women@Internet: Creating new cultures in cyberspace (p. 55-68). New York, NY:

Zed Books

102

Appendix A – Content Analysis Sheet

1. What kind of social media post is it? a. Twitter b. Instagram

2. Who is the author of the post? a. Teen Vogue b. Re-tweet of someone else If a RT, who? i. them ii. Article author iii. Activist iv. Organization v. Other

3. Is the post about or does it contain marginalized groups? a. No b. Yes If yes, what groups? i. Women ii. People of color iii. LGBTQ Community iv. Disabled people v. Multiple

4. What is your impression of the tone of the post? a. Celebratory b. Critical c. Educational d. Other (specify)

5. What is your impression of the seriousness of the post? a. 5 = Very serious b. 4 = Somewhat serious c. 3 = Neutral d. 2 = Somewhat fun/Not very serious e. 1 = Fun/Not serious at all

103

6. How many times was the post shared? a. Once b. Twice c. Three or more times

7. Does the post use emojis? a. Yes b. No

104

Appendix B – LGBTQ Terms

Ally: a person who is not part of the LGBTQ community, but supports the community Bisexual: a person who is attracted – romantically or sexually – to both genders/sexes Cisgender: a person whose gender identity matches their sex at birth Drag Queen: a person, typically men, who dress in feminine clothing and act in exaggerated feminine ways; alternatively, a drag king is a woman donning male clothing and male mannerisms Gay: a person (especially a male) who is homosexual; can also be used as a slur Heteronormatvity/Cisnormativity: the assumption that being heterosexual or cisgender is the default option for people; reinforced in society by media and discourse Heterosexual: a person who is attracted – romantically or sexually – to people of the opposite gender/sex Homosexual: a person who is attracted – romantically or sexually – to people of their own gender/sex Intersex: a person born with variations in their sexual characteristics, including chromosomes, genitalia, sex hormones, or gonads Lesbian: a woman who is gay/homosexual Non-binary (or genderqueer): an umbrella term for people who do not identify as strictly male or female; they exist outside the gender binary and cisnormativity Pansexual: a person who is attracted – romantically or sexually – to people regardless of gender/sex Polyamorous: the practice of or desire for multiple intimate partners, with everyone consenting Queer: an umbrella term for people who do not identify as heterosexual or cisgender; the word became a slur in the 20th century before being reclaimed by activists and academics in the 1970s and ‘80s Transgender: a person whose gender identity does not match their sex at birth

105