Instapoetry and its Online Transnational Activism
MA Thesis: Literature Today
Mayra Lynn Assink
5636841
Supervisor: dr. Anna Poletti
Second Reader: dr. Mia You
British English
14564 words including quotes and footnotes
25 June 2019
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Contents
Plagiarism Statement 3
Introduction 4-7
Chapter 1: Poetry, Instagram and Instapoetry 8-15
Chapter 2: Relatability and Shareability 16-31
Chapter 3: Community Building and Activism 32-45
Conclusion and Analysis 46-50
Works Cited 51-55
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Introduction
Instapoets have been deemed by many journalists and critics writing for, for example, The
Guardian, The Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, to revolutionise the poetry genre and the way readers experience and value poetry (Crown; Mzezewa; Szkutak). Because of the revolutionising aspects of Instapoetry, such as the use of Instagram, Instapoets have attracted criticism from fellow poets, literary critics and readers. Even though critique on a new form of poetry is expected, the essence of the literary criticism on Instapoetry is often based on sexism and/or racism. Instapoets Rupi Kaur and Nikita Gill fight gender inequality in the world and the literary field through their poetry by giving the anger, pain and sorrow of marginalised persons recognition and a community in which they can let their voices be heard. Both Kaur and Gill are of Indian descent, causing them to be part of a minority group within the Western literary field and Western world. Although they are both successful
Instapoets, they have both been marginalised because of their gender, this will be further explained in the third chapter. In this thesis, gender inequality is defined as the silencing, oppressing, violating, and objectifying of women in the world and literary field (Dobson 29).
Rupi Kaur is the most popular Instapoet thus far, with over 3.5 million followers and two published bestseller poetry collections. Nikita Gill is less popular, when measured in online followers, with 500,000 followers on Instagram and 280,000 on Twitter, but she has published three poetry collections and one collection of short stories and poetry. The following of both Gill and Kaur consists mainly of young women between 14 and 35 of age
(Byager; Miller), causing critics to disregard their poetry as naïve and not serious since their works are the product of an online personality rather than a poet (Watts). This dismissal of the work made by Instapoets such as Kaur and Gill will be further analysed in the third chapter. Assink 5
Poetry is often defined by its aesthetic value; meaning is not only significant in the interpretation of a poem, but the visual art such as typography or drawings that are part of the poem are also important. This interaction between words and visual arts is what distinguishes
Instapoetry from other forms of literature and other forms of poetry (Alghadeer 87). The appeal of poetry is often defined through its concision and the ability of the author to convey much meaning in the limited space of the poem (Hughes 1). Moreover, reading poetry is a subjective experience. The question of what a poem aims to convey and what the impact of that meaning is in relation to one’s daily life is vital to coming to an interpretation of the poem (Alghadeer 87). Moreover, according to Hughes, any poem requires an attention span or state of concentration to which most people are unaccustomed to due to their “hectic lives”
(1). Instagram does not seem to be designed for complex works of poetry that require attentive reflection. In fact, many users may glance at a post for only a fraction of a second before they continue to glance at the next post on their feed (Larach). The Instagram feed is a never ending, vertical stream of photos with a username, caption and comments (Larach). On average 95 million photos are shared each day with over 800 million global users (Cohen et al). Instagram went online in 2010 and since then, it is an increasingly popular platform that plays “a dominant role in influencing perceived social norms” (Cohen et al 2). A social network such as Instagram, where content is user-generated, provides new opportunities for social interactions and self-representation. Instapoets are rising in fame and followers; the hashtag #Instapoetry counts over 2.3 million hits to this date and Instapoets such as Rupi
Kaur and Nikita Gill have millions of followers. Previous research on activism among users of Instagram has focused on the so-called selfie culture and the forming of communities as a critical part of online activism (Holowka 183). Other researchers focused on the fading boundaries between subculture and mainstream youth culture, causing activism to exist within popular culture (McRobbie 156). The pressure to conform to the ideal female body Assink 6 image, self-objectification and body positivity trends on Instagram have been researched
(Cohen et al; Fardouly et al). These studies focused on the relationship between female body image and Instagram use and found that because Instagram’s content is user-generated, normally marginalised voices are able to have a voice on the free space of Instagram. There is no academic research yet on the popularity of poetry on Instagram and how activism against gender inequality can be seen as a factor of that popularity. But Instapoets Kaur and Gill can be seen as examples of marginalised voices that use Instagram to share their stories and art.
Gill and Kaur are able to combine visual art and poetry in such a manner that they attract the attention of the fast-scrolling Instagram users. Besides this, arguably, aesthetic appreciation of Instapoetry, the manner in which Gill and Kaur are able to create online communities and address controversial issues such as gender inequality is significant in the way they are part of online activism. Following these statements, the following research question arises: what is the role of poetry on Instagram in the construction of (online) communities and transnational online activism against gender inequality?
Through close reading of reviews and opinion pieces about Instapoetry, the Instagram profiles of Rupi Kaur and Nikita Gill, poems on those accounts, and through the reading of scholarly articles on online/digital activism, feminist social media theory, the male glance and poetry, an answer to the thesis question will be formulated. In the first chapter, the genre of poetry will be analysed, the social media platform Instagram will be examined, and the combination of poetry and Instagram will be investigated. The second chapter will examine the aesthetic appreciation, the relatability and shareability of Instapoetry. This will be done through the close reading of two poems: one by Kaur and one by Gill. Relatability is defined as how users can relate to and recognise themselves in a poem, this will be further discussed in chapter two. Shareability is understood as the ways in which poems are distributed on
Instagram, this will also be further discussed in chapter two. The third chapter will focus on Assink 7 the emergence of online communities on Instagram around Instapoetry, the transnational activism that seems to simultaneously arise alongside those communities and the critique on
Instapoetry. The last chapter will conclude and provide an analysis on the role of Instapoetry in the construction of (online) communities and transnational online activism against gender inequality.
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Chapter 1: Poetry, Instagram and Instapoetry
This chapter will give an analysis of the genre of poetry, an overview of the social media platform Instagram and an analysis of the combination between poetry and Instagram, called
Instapoetry. This will be done to examine the role of poetry on Instagram and ultimately to answer the research question: what is the role of poetry on Instagram in the construction of
(online) communities and transnational online activism against gender inequality?
Poetry
Poetry is defined by its aesthetic value and its appeal lies in its concision and ability to convey much meaning. Because of the focus on the aesthetic, not only the meaning is significant in the interpretation of a poem, but the visual art such as typography, line spacing, or drawings are also important. This combination between words and visual is what distinguishes Instapoetry from other forms of literature (Alghadeer 87). In addition, poetry is the genre in which the expression of emotions is intensified by the use of a distinctive style.
Poetry is typically evocative and provokes some intense emotion or experience of revelation and/or understanding of the world (Flanagan). These emotions, experiences and understandings of the world are not the same for every reader, this makes reading poetry a subjective experience. The question of what a poem is able to convey and what the impact of that meaning is in relation to one’s daily life is vital to coming to an interpretation of the poem (Alghadeer 87). The individuality of interpreting poetry leads to the absence of a clear, all-compassing definition of the genre (Nemerov 2). In general, readers are familiar with poetry and their attempt to define poetry comes from uncertainty due to seeming exceptions of the genre; it is not the case that they do not have an idea what poetry is, but rather doubt their own judgement to distinguish poetry from prose (Nemerov 2). Due to the focus on the aesthetic value of poetry, the genre is subjected to new forms of medium and styles. This makes it an ever-evolving genre, including all kinds of sub-genres that are not hierarchically Assink 9 ordered. Yet, some genres are deemed more prestigious than others, for example the
Shakespearean sonnet has long been the standard within the British poetry genre (Nemerov
13). Pierre Bourdieu argues in “The Field of Cultural Production” that the literary field can be understood as a system of distribution of economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital and that every position or any form of capital is relative to another position (30). This means that every position, even the dominant ones, exists on its own and simultaneously relative to other positions making the literary field a constantly changing field of power relations. The literary field is thus a field of forces and a change in the field is a change in the power relations that establishes the distribution of positions in the field (30-2). This system is not an objective consensus but rather “the product and prize of permanent conflict” (34). The participation in this conflict, which can be indicated by for example praise or rejection by peers, establishes the criterion that determines if the work can be accepted as belonging to the literary field (34-5). The poetry genre is part of the literary field as well as having the same power struggles within the poetry genre, due to its ever-evolving new sub-genres, as the literary field has, meaning that every poetry sub-genre exists on its own and relative to other sub-genres within the genre of poetry. Every new sub-genre has to endure the conflict of praise and/or rejection in order to earn an established position within the genre.
In this thesis, poetry is understood as an ever-evolving genre in which new sub-genres appear regularly since the ways in which the words, style and visual art of a poem intensify the emotive expression of a poem are unlimited. This is relevant because Instapoetry is one of the latest new poetry sub-genres which is still enduring the conflict of finding its place within the genre of poetry and also within the literary field.
Instagram went online in 2010 and it has become an increasingly popular platform that plays “a dominant rule in influencing perceived social norms” (Cohen et al.; Baker and Assink 10
Walsh). The content is user-generated and provides new opportunities for social interactions and self-representation. Many users keep public Instagram profiles, meaning that followers can view, like and comment on their pictures without knowing them personally or having to follow them back (Lup et al. 248). Private accounts are only visible for followers, yet the owners of the private accounts can freely roam Instagram. Instagram is focused on sharing photos, often enhanced by filters (Waterloo et al. 1817). It has become a space for visual communication where users can edit and experiment with their online public personas (Baker and Walsh 4553-4). According to some journalists, this focus on the visual alongside the possibilities to express oneself leads users to share positive and self-promotional content
(Waterloo et al. 1817; Lup et al. 248). On the other hand, browsing through enhanced photos of celebrities and other strangers may trigger the assumption “that these photos are indicative of how the people actually live” (Lup et al. 248). Conclusions like this might make Instagram users more vulnerable to judge themselves based on the assumed, often unrealistic, lives of strangers and celebrities of whom they see photos on their feed (Lup et al. 248). Accounts that counter these comparisons and fight enhanced photos and body objectification are increasing in numbers (Cohen et al. 3). Several researchers have examined their affect and influence on the online world in terms of social relations and the real world in terms of mental health and concluded that the public space of Instagram allows users to explore self- identification, activism, body-positivity more freely than in their offline lives (Cohen et al.;
Holowka; Lup et al.; Waterloo et al.). Waterloo et al. found that positive emotions and self- promotion are more often shared on Instagram than on other social media platforms, possibly due to the focus on the visual of Instagram (1826). Lup et al. concluded that following strangers leads to negativity concerning self-image due to comparisons to the seemingly successful lives of Instagram users (251). Cohen et al. judge these comparisons more positively and states that exposure to body-positive content leads to a more positive self- Assink 11 image and an improved mood (16). Holowka argues that the forming of communities is a critical part in online activism and exploration of identity (183). She states that users can come in contact with each other without even realising that they are part of a community or collective (183). Hashtags are an important aspect of these online communities since they are able to connect users with the same interests as all posts with the same hashtag appear when searched for, regardless of the privacy settings of the searcher. These studies prove the niche of Instapoetry and studies thereof but also the novelty of researching Instagram since these studies have all been published in the last four years. Moreover, these studies set up the theoretical framework of a new field within the combination of literary and new media studies such as the current research and for the current research question. Thus, following these previous studies, for the current study, Instagram is defined as a public platform on which photos tend to be enhanced aesthetically which facilitates users to connect with each other through hashtags and compare oneself to someone else and to share and/or see often positive and self-promotional content on their feed. This definition of Instagram still does not explain how poetry fits on Instagram, yet it does give a simplified explanation of the platform and the manner which people make use of the platform. This is needed to further explain the combination of Instagram and poetry in the next section.
Instapoetry
Since poetry is a genre that is influenced by new inventions and new styles due to its focus on aesthetics and since Instagram is a public platform that emphasises the visual, it is not completely unexpected that poets turned to Instagram. Instapoetry is a new sub-genre within the field of poetry and is defined as short, as few words as possible, fitting within the standard Instagram format of a picture, and with fonts of the words and drawings alongside the words carefully selected to be an aesthetic extension of the poem. Three factors can be distinguished in the appeal of Instapoetry, namely the relatability, the visual character and the Assink 12 shareability of the poems. Themes such as (self)love, loss, feminism, empowerment and identity exploration are not new within the poetry genre as these themes elicit emotions
(Mzezewa; Nemerov 4). Instapoets achieve their relatability by writing about recognisable and accessible themes and thereby opening up issues that are normally not talked about on
Instagram such as gender inequality, self-harm and rape (Mzewewa). These issues are countered by writing about, and thereby opening up, the relatable themes as selflove, feminism, empowerment and identity exploration. Judith Palmer argues that Instapoetry “is not really about complex language” but “more about gaining instant understanding from readers” (qtd. in Byager). Palmer continues by stating that this understanding is reached by turning “easily translatable universal emotions” into poetry (qtd. in Byager). The seemingly simplistic style of the poetry emphasises this, since the poems are so short and use little words to convey their meaning. Yet on the other hand, it poses a challenge since the message has to come across in as little words as possible to fit within the border of the standard format of a picture on Instagram. Moreover, the poem has to convey its meaning in that little amount of words without being too complex as that could lead to Instagram users not making an effort to understand the meaning of the poem due to the visual character of Instagram and limited attention span of users (Larach).
Instapoets succeed in making painful or difficult situations accessible with their poetry (McElwee). Moreover, they give attention and a voice to feelings and experiences that most young people cannot articulate themselves yet (Byager). The readership of Instapoetry consists mostly of adolescent females: between the ages of 14-24 (Byager; Miller). These women are still navigating and exploring themselves and their lives, and Instapoetry can help them in that process of identity exploration. This ties in with the shareability of Instapoetry as poems are shared between users to encourage and remind people that they are allowed to speak up even when they have the feeling that they should remain silent or simply do not Assink 13 know how to articulate their feelings. Instapoetry facilitates an open space through addressing relatable topics for young women in which they can share those emotions and find others who struggle with the same experiences. The visual art of Instapoetry is another factor of its popularity and appeal next to the relatable meaning of the poems. Instagram is a platform that is focused on the visual so to gain the attention of a fast-scrolling user, a text has to stand out between selfies, landscapes and other photographs. Most Instapoets have their own way of combining their poems with visual art to stand out. Nikita Gill varies her style, either her standard format: a simple, pink background with a black, traditional font or her drawings, made by fans, alongside her poems (see fig. 1 and fig. 2). Rupi Kaur draws minimalistic art which depicts parts or themes of the poem to strengthen the meaning of her poetry (see fig.
3).
Fig. 1 Example of Nikita Gill’s standard poem format posted on her Instagram account on 8 August 2018. Assink 14
Fig. 2 Example of fan art made by @a.c.sparks posted on Nikita Gill’s Instagram account on 23 September 2018.
Fig. 3 Example of Rupi Kaur’s poetry and her art, posted on her Instagram account on 28 January 2019. The art, the relatability and shareability of Instapoetry makes the poetry more accessible and thus leading to the poetry genre to seem less intimidating, elitist or remote. The aesthetics of
Instapoetry are one factor in why the poems are successful on Instagram; the art of the poetry fits with the other photographs on the platform and simultaneously stands out because of the text and message. Due to the aesthetics, the poems are shareable. Similarly, the relatability of Assink 15 the themes discussed in the poems cause the shareability of the poetry to increase since users find support in the poetry and other readers of the poetry. The analysis of the combination of poetry and Instagram, namely Instapoetry, has led to this understanding of Instapoetry which is needed to analyse the relatability and shareability of Instapoetry and ultimately, answer the research question.
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Chapter 2: Relatability and Shareability
This chapter will analyse the aesthetic appreciation, the shareability and relatability of
Instapoetry through close reading two poems; one of Rupi Kaur and one of Nikita Gill. This will be done to analyse the activism of and community forming around Instapoetry in the next chapter.. This chapter will thus ask the question: what is the relatability and shareability of Instapoetry? The reasons to use the writings of Kaur and Gill will be justified by giving an overview of the writing careers and popularity of these two women, partly because there has been written much about them lately in mainstream media, partly because of their success and partly because they are outspoken feminists which makes them activists. This chapter will be solely focused on the two case-studies and their aesthetics, shareability, and relatability. First, the terms relatability and shareability will be defined, then Rupi Kaur’s career will be analysed before a close reading of one of her poems. The same will be done for
Nikita Gill; first a career analysis and then a close reading of one of her poems. To conclude this chapter, the popularity of Gill and Kaur will be examined through the relatability and shareability of their poetry. The affect and influence of Instapoetry in online and offline contexts, namely activism, reception and community forming will be discussed in chapter three.
Relatability
In academic literary and media studies the term “identification” is used for relatability, yet on Instagram and other social media platforms the terms “relatable” and
“relatability” are more often used (Ask and Abidin 836). The terms could be used as synonyms; however the term “identification” emphasises the user’s connection to a post and
“relatability” emphasises the post’s ability to connect with an user. Moreover, the term
“relatability” stresses the multiple interpretations of a post, where “identification” connotes a single interpretation for a single user. Therefore, in this thesis the term “relatability” is Assink 17 preferred. Relatability, as defined in this paper, derives from meme culture, in which social media users express their sentiments of relating to a post by sharing it with their followers or commenting underneath it with words such as “same,” or “that’s me” (qtd. in Ask and Abidin
838). As stated in the earlier chapter, poetry is a genre in which the expression of emotions is emphasised by the use of a unique, individual style. In addition, poetry is often provoking intense emotions or experiences of revelation and/or understanding of the world for both reader and often writer (Flanagan). What these emotions or experiences exactly are or mean cannot be generalised as reading poetry is a subjective experience. The subjectivity of reading poetry as relatability can be clarified through Rita Felski’s “Uses of Literature” and
Edward Saïd’s “worldliness.” According to Felski, reading in general relies on a complex web of “presuppositions, expectations, and unconscious pre-judgements” (3). Reading is not a one-way street since the reader cannot help but bring their own experiences and interpretations to a text, while texts simultaneously expose circumstances in the world of the writer (3). Similarly, the uniqueness of a text cannot be highlighted without overlooking the pertinent qualities of its connectedness with the world (5). Edward Saïd described this phenomenon as “worldliness” meaning that texts do not come out of nothing, but are objects produced by specific moments by specific people with specific interests (4). Texts are always affected by circumstance, time, place and society (4). The writers, readers and critics of these texts are thus not only describers of the world, but also respondents (18-9). Because texts exist in the world while simultaneously reporting on that world and originating from that world, readers respond while also being affected by circumstances in the text as well as the world. The worldliness of texts allows for innumerable interpretations of texts without claiming the existence of one correct interpretation. Texts and writers are thus not only responding to the world in which they are produced or producing but also describing and representing those circumstances. The relatability of poetry can then be understood as a Assink 18 consequence of worldliness since poems are mirrors or reflections of the world in which they are made.
Poets examine the world in which they are situated and turn their interpretation of that world into poetry. Readers of said poetry might “feel [themselves] addressed, summoned, called to account: [they] cannot help seeing traces of [themselves] in the pages [they are] reading” (Felski 23). Yet, this form of recognition is not a repetition since “something that may have been sensed in a vague, diffuse, or semi-conscious way now takes on a distinct shape, is amplified, heightened or made newly visible” (25). Readers thus see themselves reflected in or identify with (parts of themes of) a poem and thus relate to the poem. Felski defines this phenomenon as recognition: “the widespread belief that we learn something about ourselves in the act of reading” (12). Walter Benjamin described this type of reader’s response as a consequence of a reader’s encounter with themselves within the narrative (qtd. in Stiles 498). This is based on the phenomenon of readers who attempt to understand texts by placing them into their own personal narrative in order to make sense of the texts and their own lives (Stiles 498-9). This approach to reading is often frowned upon in literary studies, since it emphasises emotions in the reader’s response (Stiles 494-5). Stiles argues that the term relatability focuses on the workings and affect of a text, rather than the more academic view of what a text is or is able to represent (494-5). Whether or not these feelings of relating to a text are legitimate is part of a much larger philosophical debate and that goes beyond the analysis of the relatability of poetry on Instagram. In this thesis, the term relatability is understood as reader’s emotional identification with (parts or themes of) worldly poems caused by the ability of the poet to describe experiences from the world and portray them as a shared experience in their poetry. This ability of the poet and the relatability of the poem is one factor of the popularity of Instapoetry and will also prove to be a factor in not only the community building around Instapoetry but also the activism of Instapoetry. A close reading Assink 19 of one poem of Kaur and one of Gill will be done with extensive emphasis on their relatability.
Shareability
The open, public space of Instagram allows individuals to easily share their thoughts and feelings with others (Waterloo et al 1813). Relatability is one factor in the shareability of
Instapoetry since users share poems that they feel emotionally connected with in order to share their thoughts and feelings with their followers (Baker and Walsh 4559; Waterloo et al
1814). The seemingly simplistic style of Instapoetry is another factor, as the short lines of verse that need little interpretation lead to the poetry to be read in a glance (McElwee).
Another factor in the shareability of Instapoetry is the visual art. As stated earlier, Instagram is a social media platform that is focused on the visual and on aesthetics (Baker and Walsh
4553-4; Waterloo et al 1817). Instapoets use distinct typography, drawings and design of their images to create their own identifiable style which leads to more accessibility and popularity as users become more acquainted with the poet. This acquaintance with the poet leads to familiarity and thus relatability.
Shareability of Instapoetry depends on the manner of communication of Instagram between users. Users of Instagram communicate with each other through images that they post on their own account, but they can also send images privately to their followers or post them on their story, which their followers or all users (depending on the privacy settings of the account) are able to see for 24 hours. Users often tag these images with hashtags to reach even more users and categorise the post with similar content (Baker and Walsh 4558). The function of hashtags is to categorise content, make it discoverable and share it to a public audience. This can lead to more visibility and popularity of not only the image but also of the user. Since the users can connect with others through the use of hashtags, they can consequently gain more followers or accounts to follow who are also interested in the Assink 20 hashtags used; this form of connecting with others leads ultimately to the building of communities of like-minded persons on Instagram. This community building is a significant aspect of the activism of Instapoetry and will be further discussed in chapter three. Hashtags increase shareability of a post because they lead to more people interesting in said hashtags seeing the post and possibly sharing the post themselves. Users of Instagram express their feelings through poetry and connect with other users through shared emotions due to the combination of relatable content, the seemingly simplistic style, hashtags, the aesthetic drawings alongside the texts which all contributes to the shareability of poems on Instagram.
Shareability is one of the factors in the appeal of poetry, next to relatability and aesthetic appreciation. These factors have proven to be intertwined with each other and cannot be measured on their own since relatability influences shareability and both are also influenced by the aesthetic appreciation. These factors are important to establish as they constitute the appeal of Instapoetry, which must be understood to define the role of Instapoetry on
Instagram and thereby answer the first part of the research question.
Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur is now one of the most popular Instapoets, she has over three million
Instagram followers and has published two poetry collections, the first spent more than a year on the New York Best Seller list (Kaur “FAQ”). Kaur has written poetry and made drawings since a young age in order to express and understand her emotions (Kaur “FAQ”). In 2010 or
2011, during her first year of university, she started to use anonymous blogs to publish her poetry and drawings. Two years and many different blogs later, she started using her own name on a Tumblr blog. She posted her older work she wrote during High School, but also newer writings and drawings. In 2014, she switched to the more publicly available Instagram which made her work more widely accessible and allowed her to build a readership
(Mzezema). Kaur is not only one of the most popular female Instapoets, she is also publicly Assink 21 feminist and actively attempting to rid the world of inequality, which makes her the best example of how Instapoets fight gender inequality with their poetry and thus the best case study for this thesis.
Kaur was born in Northern India and at age four, she emigrated to Canada with her family where she still currently resides. Her Indian roots and heritage strongly influence her poetry, not only her style but also the themes she addresses. She writes about relatable themes of love, relationships, emotional abuse, racism, sexual assault, gender hierarchy and heritage.
To be more precise, she writes about having immigrant parents, speaking English with an
Indian accent, about gender roles in Indian society and how that influences her and her mother, who grew up and lived the majority of her life in India. that Her style is characterised by minimalistic drawings, lower case lettering, short lines and a strong portrayal of emotions as will be shown in the close reading later in this section. She only writes in lowercase letters because her mother tongue is Punjabi which uses the Gurmukhi script that has no distinction between lower- and uppercase letters (Kaur “FAQ”). Her reasons for using this script is not to break the rules of English, but “more about tying [her] own history and heritage within
[her] work” and to let her work be a visual representation of what she wants “to see more of within the world: equalness” (Kaur “FAQ”). This wish to see more equality in the world is an example of the activism that Kaur’s poetry addresses, this will be further discussed in the third chapter. A close reading of one of her poems will now further illustrate Kaur’s style.
On the 18th of April 2014, Kaur posted this poem for the first time on her Instagram account without a title, text or hashtags alongside it (see fig. 4). She reposted it on the 9th of
August 2018 with the title “a throwback. page 165 from #milkandhoney” (see fig. 5). Assink 22
Fig. 4. Poem of Rupi Kaur posted on her Fig. 5. Poem of Rupi Kaur reposted on her Instagram account on 18 April 2014, screen Instagram account on 9 August 2018, shot taken on 1 April 2019. screenshot taken on 1 April 2019. This poem mainly addresses the pressure many women feel to conform to the ideals of feminine appearance of their time; to have a hairless body. This is depicted in the lines “the / hair on your legs is / growing back” (see fig.4). These lines also evoke the objectification of the female body in the sense that a woman is not treated as a person but as an object of sexual desire. The objectification of women in patriarchal societies is explained by Sandra Bartky through the use of Marx’s theory of alienation (qtd. in Papadaki). She argues that women undergo fragmentation of the human person since all focus of the objectifier is placed on the body of a woman, without acknowledging her mind or personality (qtd. in Papadaki).
Objectification always involves someone who objectifies and someone who is objectified, yet this does not mean that there are always two persons involved (Papadaki). According to
Bartky, women also objectify themselves by trying to “look sensually pleasing to men” (qtd. in Papadaki). Bartky argues that in this process of women trying to attract the gaze, women only “learn to see themselves as though from the outside” (qtd. in Papadaki). Assink 23
Kaur plays with multiple levels of address through the word “you” illustrating the different perspectives concerning objectification portrayed in this poem (see fig. 4). The first six lines draw attention to the objectification of bodies from the perspective of the objectified person whereas the last five lines emphasise the perspective of the objectifier. In the first six lines, “he” points out that the hair on the body of “you” is growing back, signifying the widely held expectation that female bodies are hairless in the current beauty ideal for women.
The denigrating connotation of the “he” pointing out that the hair is growing back is generated by this pressure to conform to the beauty ideal (Papadaki). Because the “he” who notices the hair growing back and deciding to say something about it stems from this beauty ideal: were it not that female bodies have to be hairless, there would be no reason to say anything about the hair. The choice of “point out” is emphasising the denigration as it connotes literally pointing at the hairs on the body, thus looking at the body from the outside.
“remind / that boy your body / is not his home” evokes that many women try to “look sensually pleasing to men” and thereby objectify themselves : a process in which they might forget that they are the only ones who can decide the appearance of their body (qtd. in
Papadaki). However, this tendency of women to objectify themselves does not always lead to an acceptance of the objectification and this instance, the idea that a body is less pleasing when it has hairs. Namely, the word “home” depicts that the body of “you” is not the property of “he” thus the only one to decide on the looks of the body is “you”. The shift in address of the last five lines of this poem emphasises the authority of “you”. This is further emphasised in the line “he is a guest” signifying the authority and possibility of “you” to send
“he” away. The imperative in the next line “warn him” not only intensifies this authority of
“you” but it is also a call to not remain silent about objectification whereas “outstep / his welcome” hints at setting up boundaries regarding one’s body. “again” at the end strengthens the call to speak up about objectification since it signifies the repetitiveness of it. This word Assink 24 signifies an explicit instance of the relatability of Kaur’s poetry, since she poses this objectification as a shared experience that many women undergo and have undergone all over the world.
The drawing underneath Kaur’s poem further illustrates the objectification of female bodies. It depicts a naked woman lying comfortably, she has leaves growing all over her legs representing the growth of hair (see fig. 4). The drawing not only illustrates an objectification of the female body, but it also facilitates objectification since it lies in an erotic pose which emphasises not only the woman’s breasts but also the hairs growing on her body in the forms of flowers and leaves. The woman lies with her nose in the air which has connotations of arrogance and/or disregard; evoking her carelessness for the natural growth of hairs on her body nor the objectification of her body. The drawing is simplistic, depicting thin lines in a sketch-like manner emphasising the ordinariness of body hair, the repetitiveness of objectification and the ease with which Kaur addresses the pressure of society’s beauty standards.
Lastly, the textual strategy of using second person perspective “you” encourages the reader to identify with and read the poem in a relatable style of reading. Not only does the use of “you” facilitates a conversation between reader and speaker. But it also presupposes identification from the speaker towards the reader as it signifies a common experience of both reader and narrator, strengthening the relatability of the poem.
The relatability of this poem thus lies in the first place in the resistance against the beauty standard of a hairless female body, but also more general in the acknowledgement of the expectations and the pressure to adhere to society’s beauty standards and change one’s appearance. The objectification of the female body is another relatable subject for many women. Objectification means that the body is treated as a desirable object rather than as a person. The remark that the hair is growing back has the denigrating connotation that the Assink 25 body is not desirable when it has hair. These relatable topics create the relatability of the poem, as users might be able to express their feelings regarding female beauty standards and body objectification through this image. The drawing underneath the poem not only strengthens the message of the poem, it also generates an aesthetic appeal, keeping the focus on the visual of Instagram in mind, of the poem which leads to a greater shareability of the poem.
Nikita Gill
Unlike Rupi Kaur, Nikita Gill does not have her own website including an extensive biography or frequently asked questions section, meaning that the following information is compiled from multiple interviews and opinion pieces concerning her poetry and status as
Instapoet. The information from these sources should be critically engaged with. Gill is a thirty-one year old London based writer and visual artist. She was born in Belfast but moved to New Delhi when she was a few months old (Sanderson). She grew up in India and started writing stories at a young age. When she was twelve years old she published her first non- fiction story in a local newspaper (Iyer; Sanderson). Since then, she continued writing and in
2015, she started a Tumblr blog on which she posted the poems she wrote on napkins or old receipts (Iyer; Sanderson). A few months later she turned to Instagram, which caused a rise in fame as she benefitted from the increasing popularity of Instagram and quickly gained many celebrity followers (Iyer; Lazarus). Only a year later, she published her first poetry collection
Your Soul is a River after it was rejected by over 130 publishers. Gill explains in an interview that she sees those rejections “as fuel to better [her] writing” and realises “how important the constant evolution of a writer truly is” (qtd. in Lazarus). Since then, she has published three more collections: Wild Embers, Fierce Fairy Tales and Your Heart is the Sea. In an interview for the Hindu Times concerning her third book of poetry Fierce Fairy Tales, Gill argues that she finds the term Instapoet limiting, as she publishes her work not only on Instagram, but Assink 26 also uses Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Moreover, she states that the term has become a derogatory as poets have surpassed gatekeepers by posting their work directly on social media and this has caused all poetry to be visible, even that of lower quality (qtd. in Lazarus).
Yet, she also states that “poetry means different things for different people” and that the genre is extremely diverse and has never fit in a boundary (qtd. in Lazarus). On the other hand, she understands how Instapoetry is able to “give people a shot of positivity that is quick and easy to drink down” and compares Instapoetry to works of Sylvia Plath: the former is easier to understand and the latter requires a right state of mind due to the many different connotations of the work (qtd. in Sanderson).
Gill writes about things she has endured in her life and imagines addressing her younger self when writing which facilitates many young women to relate with her poetry
(Sanderson). Her ability to write about her own experiences from the world and describe them in a relatable manner in her poetry creates the relatability of her poetry. Gill writes about her experiences growing up in India where “men would strip [her] bare with their eyes and comment on [her] body” (qtd. in Sanderson). This objectification of her body caused much anger in Gill; she states in an interview with The Bookseller that this anger could only be released by writing about these experiences and the negative emotions associated with them (qtd. in Sanderson). Her works open discussions about mental health, but they also discuss transnational womanhood, “confront the concept of good and evil inside every human being” and retell classical myths and fairy tales (Iyer; qtd. in Lazarus; Sanderson). With her poetry she aims to help people that have gone or are going through similar experiences as she did and she believes that Instagram empowers that message as it is a public platform on which people are easily approachable (Lazarus).
Her prose and poetry collection Fierce Fairy Tales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your
Soul was inspired by gender stereotypes and “happily ever after” and “once upon a time” Assink 27 tropes that are deeply ingrained in society (Gill Fierce Fairy Tales). These tropes connote the idea that princesses will be happy once they have found their prince and that they need to be saved (Gill Fierce Fairy Tales). In this collection, there are no clearly defined heroes nor damsels in distress, rather the characters exist in a grey area where their good and bad actions are combined and those actions compose who they are as human beings (Lazarus). The clichés of “beautiful, silent princesses; ugly, jealous, and bitter villainesses; girls who need rescuing; and men who take all the glory” are removed and rewritten in this collection in order to give classical fairy tales a modern makeover (Gill Fierce Fairy Tales).
Gill posted this poem on her Instagram account on 1 October 2018 alongside a text explaining how the expectation of moral perfection of princesses has always bothered her
(see fig. 6; see fig. 7). The first two stanzas of the poem address the flaws and silenced anger
Fig. 6 Poem of Nikita Gill posted on her Fig. 7 Description under the poem called Instagram account on 1 October 2018, “Fairytales” by Nikita Gill posted on her screenshot taken on 27 March 2019. Instagram account on 1 October 2018, screenshot taken on 3 April 2019 Assink 28 of the princesses in a few of the most famous fairy tales (see fig. 6). “They” in the first line refers to the common retelling of the fairy tales and society’s reluctance to see the princesses as imperfect humans.
The first two lines depict flaws by stating that Red Riding Hood might have been a villain herself by comparing her to the wolf, and anger by explaining how Snow White killed the queen who was so jealous of Snow White’s beauty that she almost killed her. The third and fourth line also illustrate anger and revenge as they portray how Cinderella murdered her step family who has humiliated and degraded her during her childhood. The second stanza depicts mental illness and traumas caused by sexual assault. Namely, Aurora was kissed by a stranger after being induced to a long sleep by a spinning wheel’s spindle which was cursed by a revengeful and evil fairy called Maleficent who was mad because she was not invited to
Aurora’s christening. The last two stanzas depict a different ending to Hans Christian
Andersen’s tale of The Little Mermaid; in the original, Ariel was a mermaid who loved the prince so much that she became human for him, but her legs gave her excruciating pain until the prince would marry her. The prince chooses another woman over her and Ariel’s heart breaks but the Sea Witch gives her a magic knife with which she should kill the prince in order to become a mermaid once more. Ariel is so selfless that she cannot kill the prince, throws herself into the sea and becomes a daughter of the air. Gill’s poem puts bravery and strength over selflessness through the character of Ariel and this leads to Ariel being able to become a mermaid once more as was her wish (see fig. 6). The third and fourth stanza of the poem explicitly refer to rewriting and retelling old-fashioned clichés of fairy tales and incorporating more realistic and flawed characters. These imperfect characters are a significant factor in the relatability of this poem as they depict a more realistic image of women. The fourth stanza emphasises the strength of women rather than their passivity as many traditional fairy tales do. The focus on imperfections and strength of women counters Assink 29 traditional tropes and clichés of fairy tales that depict princesses as flawless, passive and selfless. This poem illustrates their anger, pain and flaws, facilitating relatability as these emotions are not unfamiliar for many women. The depiction of these emotions and flaws opens the conversation about female anger and imperfections, rather than silencing them as was often the case in traditional fairytales. Moreover, the poem encourages the retelling of fairy tales in a more realistic manner with flawed characters and emphasising the strengths of those characters through the lines: “the fairy tales we should tell / our daughters should be about strong women with real flaws and incredible qualities” (see fig. 6). Female characters that are depicted more realistically lead to women who look up to them and relate to them, to sooner accept their own flaws as they see that those characters are not perfect either.
Furthermore, Gill refuses to use the “damsel in distress” trope in her fairy tales, which states that women are helpless and need to be saved by strong and masculine men. By depicting strong, imperfect women and men who do not conform to the masculine hero of traditional fairy tales, she places men and women closer together, leading to less inequality between men and women in her poetry.
The relatability of this poem lies in the rewriting and retelling of famous fairy tales which ingrained in the Western literary tradition. Gill underscores flaws of the characters alongside their anger and pain, creating more awareness of flaws and of emotions in her characters to which her readers might relate. She thereby removes the idea of traditional fairy tales that women have to be perfect and helped by a strong masculine man, lessening the inequality between her characters and the wish to be perfect by the readers of her fairy tales.
She recognises the flaws, not only in the sense of noticing them, but she facilitates the flaws to be valued and positive in her characters: thus turning a flaw, which is usually something negative, into a positive aspect of a character. This is in line with Felski’s argument concerning the reaction of women against a history in which they continued to be Assink 30 marginalised (47). She argues that women seek to affirm their own distinctiveness themselves but also search for affirmation by others. Gill’s flawed characters facilitate and portray this affirmation that one does not have to be perfect, leading to many women relating to the characters and finding affirmation not only in themselves but also in the characters. By not depicting princesses as perfect, Gill attempts to remove the ingrained tropes of fairy tales to be perfect, be selfless and sacrifice oneself in order to receive a happily ever after. Moreover, she connects the princesses with each other through their flaws and imperfections creating a community of imperfect female protagonists of the fairy tales to whom women can relate; the effects of this building of community building will be further discussed in the third chapter.
The distinct typography and background and the countering of the status quo concerning fairy tales in this poem lead to the relatability of the poem. The relatability of the poem also contributes to the shareability as users are able to express feelings of, for example, perfectionism, anger, pain, jealousy through this poem as these themes are all addressed in the poem through the use of famous fairy tales.
The shareability and relatability of the poetry of Kaur and Gill
This chapter has defined the term relatability as the reader’s emotional identification with parts or themes of poem created by poets who take their own experiences from within the world and describe those as familiar to a reader who comes from a similar world. The term shareability has been defined as the ability of poems to connect users through similar interpretations of relatable poetry to express emotions, in combination with the aesthetic appreciation of the poetry. The relatability and shareability of these two poems have been defined according to the worldliness of the themes and topics discussed. Kaur mentions the resistance against the current beauty standards and against body objectification, highlighting the pressure many women feel due to these phenomena and thereby contributing to the relatability and shareability of the poem. Gill adapts tropes and gender stereotypes taken from Assink 31 fairy tales that are ingrained in Western literary tradition; these tropes and stereotypes are relatable by itself but the countering of these tropes and stereotypes focuses on the unrealistic portrayal of characters in these stories. Gill makes her poetry relatable by creating more realistic, imperfect and flawed characters that contribute to the shareability of the poem.
Moreover, she connects the princesses and heroines of the fairy tales with each other, forming a community of these princesses, illustrating that one stands stronger when united with others that think likewise.
Assink 32
Chapter 3: Community Building and Activism
This chapter focuses on the emergence of online communities on Instagram around
Instapoetry and the transnational activism that seems to simultaneously arise alongside those communities. This will be done in order to answer part of the research question, namely the analysis of the construction of (online) communities and transnational online activism against gender inequality. Transnational activism is defined as the (political) solidarity of people across the globe that encompasses race, class, nationality and sexuality (Mendoza 296). In this thesis, gender inequality has been defined as the silencing, violating, objectifying and oppressing of women in the (literary) world (David 5-6). Firstly, contemporary transnational feminism will be analysed with an explicit focus on the 2010s, on females born in the 1980s-
1990s (millennials) and on online space, since the 2010s is the period in which Instapoetry is created and its main audience are female between 14 and 24 of age (Byager; Miller).
Secondly, online community building around Instapoetry will be examined; its emergence, processes and structure of the activism associated with the community, so that the role of
Instapoetry on Instagram in the activism against gender inequality can be analysed. Lastly, the criticism on the Instapoetry of Kaur and Gill will be investigated. This chapter will argue that Kaur and Gill are able to facilitate online transnational communities based on shared interests and dissatisfaction of those communities. Consequently, they have become significant players in transnational online activism against gender inequality.
Feminism
Contemporary 2010s feminism has to be analysed with attention to the context in which it emerged after other waves of feminism through the years, therefore feminism of the
2000s has to be examined before a conclusion can be made about contemporary feminism.
Angela McRobbie has analysed feminism and youth cultures in Britain from the 1970s onwards. She argues against some researchers who claim that the 2000s are characterised by Assink 33 post-feminism— which connotes some sort of end of feminism due to its use of the prefix
“post” (157). Miriam David adds to this counterargument that the fight against gender inequality is “ridiculed as old-fashioned and out-of-date” (5). McRobbie claims that there is
“neither a narrative of progress nor one of backlash” but rather a form of “fluidity about what femininity means and how exactly it is anchored in social reality” (157). She argues that questions about what it means to be a woman and issues of gender inequality have become part of the British political agenda “in both the private sphere of the home and in domestic relations, and in the more public world of work” (157). McRobbie has written this in 2005, a time in which Instagram did not exist yet. Nowadays, the open public space of Instagram and social media in general have led to more frequent contact between people from different nationalities. The contact on social media, and Instagram in particular, leads to the questions of what it means to be a woman and issues of gender inequality becoming transnational.
The heightened attention in the 2000s to questions around gender has caused a greater degree of uncertainty about what femininity is, according to McRobbie (157). This work of
McRobbie has been published in 2005 and since then, many more researchers have tried to define and analyse contemporary feminism, which has taken on new forms as a consequence of the emergence of social media (David 5-6). The uncertainty about what it means to be young a woman has not been erased in more recent years, the attention and publicity has increased surrounding the issues due to the use of digital and social media. Some researchers, including McRobbie, argue that in the last decade, women’s bodies, life paths and their choices are increasingly monitored and evaluated (Kanai 61). David argues that 21th century feminism is the fourth, or even the fifth, wave of feminism in which the digital is more apparent and there is an increase of everyday sexism (1; 6). She explains that social media
“provides new opportunities for forms of sexism, patriarchy and the marketisation of old power relations” (6). Furthermore, she argues that “old systems of male power and Assink 34 dominance – patriarchy—continue to hold sway, and women continue to be invisible or belittled within political and business systems” (6). Thus, contemporary 2010s feminism is characterised by an increased attention to questions of gender and femininity, but also an increase in sexism. Amy Shields Dobson articulates four conditions of the current cultural context in which young women have to continuously navigate:
1) continued and prominent objectification of female bodies in Western visual culture,
now framed as ‘chosen/agentic’; 2) the prominence of ‘new femininities’ in culture
and representations that construct and address girls and young women as strong,
confident, capable, and fun-loving subjects in contrast to earlier models of weaker
femininity; 3) highly publicised debates about the sexualisation of girls and young
women in Western cultures, which have positioned girls and young women in need of
protection, surveillance, and regulation; and 4) the psychopathologisation of
femininity and the institutionalisation of ‘gender melancholia’ McRobbie (2009)
describes (29).
These issues to which feminism has to respond in the current social and political climate is to some extent an overgeneralisation and simplification of the historical, cultural, social and political circumstances and developments of feminism and gender relations. It is an overgeneralization because a definition of feminism can in no way address all feminists nor to all persons who might or might not identify themselves as feminist. Yet, following the concept of worldliness and poems being reflections of the world in which they are created, these four conditions describe the world in which Gill and Kaur find themselves and in which they create their poetry. Moreover, Dobson’s characterisation is accurate in terms of a shared social reality of the readers of Kaur and Gill. Thus, these four conditions will prove helpful in examining the emergence of community building of Instapoetry.
Community Building Assink 35
Community building on Instagram operates quite similarly as community building in meme culture. Both forms rely on anonymity of their users, the opportunities for normally marginalised voices to express themselves and social interactions which are often based on relatability. Ask and Abidin have researched collective identities and relatability of memes and argue that in recent years, there is an increase to air grievances and build online communities that provide support for its members on social media (834-5). They have analysed several meme genres such as the ‘no make-up selfie’, ‘what should we call me’ and
‘girl pain’ and state that memes display relatable occurrences in real life that affirm affective spaces in which “alternative desires and forms of mobility may be imagined and enacted” in the online space (qtd. in Ask and Abidin 837). Likewise, they argue that memes lead to
“affective affinities” among users that increase the feeling of being connected and the freedom to express emotions rooting in their daily, offline life in online spaces (qtd. in Ask and Abidin 837). These memes are thus not only “online presentations of offline pain”, they also open up space to address topics and conversations that generally would not be granted public attention (837). The framing of memes emphasises their relatability in the sense that they give clear instructions how to relate to the meme while simultaneously showing that experiences expressed in the meme are not unique and that it is acceptable to be open about these experiences in online spaces (844). These clear instructions is the placement of texts above a picture such as: “me trying to” or “currently me” in combination with appropriate emojis (see fig. 8).
Fig. 8 Example of a meme with explicit instructions of its relatability (Ask and Abidin 843).
Assink 36
This makes the relatability of memes not something that is inherent in the posts or the community but rather a consequence of explicit social interactions. The community building around Instapoetry and around memes differs, since memes emphasise social interactions without further political agenda whereas Instapoetry seems to actively criticise conversations concerning gender inequality that are often silenced or ridiculed in the offline world such as the example of female body objectification displayed with the close reading of Kaur’s poem.
Community Building on Instagram
Instagram is a platform that has over 800 million global users, who all play a more or less significant role in influencing perceived social norms (Cohen et al 2). The content is user-generated, facilitates more opportunities for self-representation and social interactions to exist even for voices that are normally marginalised in society. These marginalised voices can use the public space of Instagram to connect with each other, often by using hashtags since those are able to connect users with the same interests. The public space of Instagram also facilitates users to explore self-identification and activism more freely than in their offline lives, this is partly due to the fragmented presentation of lives on Instagram (Holowka
183). The anonymity of social media accounts, the freedom to choose what to show and what not and what kind of persona users adhere on their accounts, leads to feelings of freedom in some communities of users (Cohen et al 3; Lup et al 248). According to Holowka, Instagram users come in contact with each other through their shared interests and use of hashtags without realising that they are part of a community or collective (183). Posts and hashtags that connect these users are then essentially addressed to communities of strangers established by their common interests and sense of relatability (Kanai 65). Baker and Walsh state that community hashtags are designed to increase the reach of a post among users who share similar interests (4559). These hashtags function to create online communities that emerge as a consequence of the intersection of technology, people and practice; for example Assink 37
#instapoetry connects people interested in poetry on Instagram (4559). Hashtags thus not only connect content on Instagram, but also “signify community membership” (4559). These communities on Instagram are able to stand together as “an undeniably powerful collection of feeling, experience, sadness and resistance” (Holowka 183). Moreover, the community can provide non-judgemental support, feelings of inclusion and belonging among like-minded individuals (Ging and Garvey 1183). The collection of voices or community is an essential part of online activism, this will be further discussed later in this chapter (Holowka 183).
Since there is no one definitive way to articulate or define a community of voices on
Instagram, it is more important to analyse the manner of use of the online space as well as the experiences of the people navigating in said online space: thus, the effect of the affect, rather than the affect itself (Holowka 185). The community building around Instapoetry will thus be examined by the emergence of the community and the activism that the community produces to analyse the role of Instapoetry on Instagram and its activism against gender inequality.
Instapoetry and Community Building
The community building around the Instapoetry of Kaur and Gill is based on the contemporary 2010s feminism their poetry addresses. Specifically, it is based on questions of gender, femininity, relationships and gender inequality. These questions seem to be the connection between many Instagram users who follow the accounts of Kaur and Gill. Other connection points could possibly be the aesthetic appreciation of the poetry and, less often, pictures1 that is based less on the meaning and affect of the poetry. Since there is no single correct manner to define the community of voices around the poetry of Kaur and Gill and since the internal features of a text “tell us little about how it is received and understood, let alone its impact, if any, on a larger social field” (Felski 9); the power and influence of their
1 Rupi Kaur often posts pictures of herself at meetings, speeches, interviews and other events relating to her poetry. Assink 38 community will be analysed in this subsection by examining the emergence, workings and power of the community. This explains how Kaur and Gill have become significant players in the transnational online activism against gender inequality.
First, the emergence of the community of Kaur and Gill’s poetry needs to be examined. As stated in the first chapter, poets can be understood as analysing the world around them and turning their interpretation of that world into art. Any reader who find themselves in similar circumstances might see themselves reflected in the poem and consequently, relate to the poem. This kind of reading presupposes the emotional response of a reader to a text, rather than a more academic view of what a text is and who or what it is able to represent. The relatability and shareability of the poetry are what leads to the popularity and visibility of Instapoetry. Through the use of hashtags and sharing of posts, users are able to connect with each other and form a community, whether they are aware that they are part of a community or not. The analysis of community building of Instapoetry, however, relies not only on the emotional response of readers but also what and who the poetry is able to represent because this will prove who will relate to the poetry. The poetry of
Kaur and Gill represent contemporary 2010s feminism and by addressing that topic in an accessible and relatable manner. Moreover, they allow for an emotional response from their readers which strengthens the community, interested in contemporary 2010s feminism, around their poetry.
Secondly, the workings of the community building of Instapoetry needs to be analysed. Since Kaur and Gill address contemporary 2010s feminism, or as Dobson has articulated the four conditions women constantly need to navigate in this current cultural context, they are able to reach many young women who also struggle with questions of femininity, gender, objectification, sexism and silencing. The fact that they are young, Assink 39 minority women2 themselves who struggle with similar problems as their readers strengthens their authenticity, relatability, shareability and accessibility as they translate their own experiences into poetry. The manner in which Kaur and Gill address these problems with which many young women struggle acknowledge, similarly to memes, affective online spaces in which users have the freedom to express their offline emotions in online spaces and thereby, give attention to conversations and topics that would normally not be given attention in the mainstream media (Ask and Abidin 837). This form of relatability is in line with
Felski’s idea of recognition, those theorists namely mean acknowledgement with recognition
(29). The claim for recognition is the wish to be accepted and included in social life. It is a
“call for justice rather than a claim to truth” (29-30). Felski differentiates two forms of recognition, namely the one of the political theorists as stated above, and recognition in reading which “revolves around a moment of personal illumination and heightened self- understanding” (30). This form of recognition “refers to a cognitive insight, a moment of knowing or knowing again” (29). Instapoets seem to be able to combine these two forms of recognition in their relatability, which relies firstly on the individual user recognising themselves in a poem and thus, relate to it on a personal level leading to a moment of personal illumination and heightened self-understanding, or a moment in which they come to know (again) that their situation is not unique. Secondly, the public character of Instagram makes the community accessible in which that individual user finds others who go through the same struggles, facilitating feelings of validation and public acceptance (Felski 29-30).
Thirdly, the power of community building of Instapoetry needs to be evaluated. Gill and Kaur show in their poetry that their experiences are not unique and advocate that women should let their voices be heard as proven in the close reading of their poems in the previous
2 Both Kaur and Gill are first generation immigrants from South-Asian descent, respectively moved to Canada and the United Kingdom. Assink 40 chapter. They actively address feminist issues which are often silenced or ridiculed in the offline world and that is the essence of the activism of Instapoetry. Both Gill and Kaur are outspokenly feminist, which is in itself already an activist strategy as it makes feminism public and visible to people who might normally not come into contact with feminism
(Holowka 190-1). The popularity, following, visibility and success of printed books of Kaur and Gill lead to their poetry to gain attention in mainstream media such as The Interview, The
Rolling Stone and more (Carlin; Szkutak). This is in line with Holowka’s argument concerning communities on Instagram and the mainstream media. She states that the representation of marginalised bodies through selfies and Instagram photos creates an archive of images and feelings that are widely available within the community in contrast to the female beauty ideal that is normally depicted in mainstream media (191). The popularization of marginalised bodies that are not normally depicted in popular culture, through the circulation and celebration on Instagram leads to a shift from the smaller circles in which these pictures originated to conversations and attention outside the community (191).
Similarly, both Kaur and Gill have started their poetry within smaller circles of Tumblr before moving to Instagram and (self-)publishing their books after multiple rejections by the publishing industry. Both poets have dealt with rejections and have used their Instagram readership as a platform to (self-)publish and promote their work. The self-publication that followed the rejections can be seen as a form of rebellion by the poets themselves against the literary world. Kaur’s self-published collection milk and honey is an example of this form of rebellion. When she was searching for a publisher for her poetry collection, she was told that
“there was no market for poetry” and that “poetry basically never got published” (Kaur
“FAQ”). Moreover, she was told that self-publishing was impossible as she would “surpass the gatekeeper” and then she “would be looked down upon by [her] literary peers” (Kaur
“FAQ”). Nevertheless, she went against the rejection of the literary world and self-published Assink 41 her first collection using her Instagram readership as a platform for marketing and selling.
The attention, readership and visibility she gained on Instagram can be seen as social capital following Bourdieu’s definition of the literary field, which is analysed as a distribution of capital in which every position is relative to another position (30). Kaur gained cultural capital on Instagram which enabled her to successfully self-publish her collection to an audience who was already familiar with her and her work. Thus, the power of community allowed Kaur and Gill to publish their work, as they gained cultural capital through
Instagram, even though they were at first rejected, arguably silenced, by the established publishing houses and thereby, they are going against the status quo of the literary world.
Another factor of community building and its power is the influence, activism and strength of the community and users themselves. The topics and conversations addressed by
Kaur’s and Gill’s poetry first circulate within their community of Instapoetry, however when there is an increase in attention, these conversations and topics are able to reach a wider audience and start conversations in mainstream media (Holowka 191). The relatability and shareability of the poetry are significant factors in this process, since presenting relatable topics such as questions about gender and femininity, but also sexism and objectification in the accessible and relatable manner discussed in the previous chapters leads to more shares and increased attention to the poetry (Holowka 191). The poetry and its relatable topics are arguably what connects the users within the community as these users are not only interested in the aesthetics of the poetry itself but also the message of the poems, such as the call to speak up against objectification by Kaur’s poem, which is what partly causes the relatability of the poetry. Holowka argues that communities are a significant factor in online activism since a community is able to express a powerful collection of “feeling, experience, sadness and resistance” (183). Moreover, communities provide non-judgemental support, feelings of belonging and inclusion among like-minded individuals which all reinforce the common aims Assink 42 and anger within the community (183). As stated before, Gill’s and Kaur’s poetry addresses contemporary 2010s feminism by discussing topics such as sexism, objectification, and thus advocates against gender inequality and sexism and it questions gender and femininity. Petra
Collins argues that “if the internet mimics real life, then there is no doubt that real life can mimic [the internet]. That if we allow ourselves to be silenced or censored, it can happen in real life too. That if an online society of people can censor your body, what stops them from doing so in real life?” (qtd. in Holowka 191). This is what is happening due to the popularity of their poetry, the conversations within the community about these topics are able to reach more mainstream media, for example the numerous articles on their poetry on The Guardian, which lead to even more attention as it might reach people that would normally not come into contact with their poetry (Crown). The attention in the mainstream media, such as the New
York Times Bestseller List which features both Kaur and Gill’s poetry collections for months, leads to more attention to their works and the message they try to convey, which facilitates more transnationality in their audience and more people who can relate to their poetry and thereby, be a part of the activism of the community. This attention can only increase their accessibility and coverage of the topics that they address, such as objectification, silencing of women and sexism. It is too soon to speak of a change in the way gender inequality and women are treated in the cultural context, but Kaur and Gill slowly open up space to address these issues nowadays.
Critique on Instapoetry
The main points of critique that Kaur and Gill receive is that their poetry is not real literature, that their audience mainly consists of teenage girls, that they are too focused on likes on Instagram and that their style is too simplistic (Watts). Yet, the simplicity of
Instapoetry could be one of the main factors of its popularity. However, there has been no research into this factor so far. Felski argues that the value of a text lies in its use, “as Assink 43 measured by its role in either obscuring or accentuating social antagonisms” (7). She states, alluding to Bertold Brecht’s stance on the politics of art, that seeing art as “apolitical or purposeless is simply […] to ally oneself with the status quo” (7). As analysed before, the poetry of Gill and Kaur is valued in communities on Instagram for their relatability and power to open up conversations that would normally be silenced. Felski calls this mode of reading “ordinary” and states that such modes “are either overlooked or undervalued in literary scholarship” (14). Moreover, she argues that recognising oneself in a text is “hedged round with prohibitions and taboos” and it is seen by literary scholars and critics as
“shameful” and “unprofessional naivete” or even “the ultimate form of narcissism” (26).
Scholarly critic and poet Rebecca Watts conforms to this literary approach and argues in her essay for PNReview “The Cult of the Noble Amateur” that the work of “young female poets” who use Instagram is characterised by “open denigration of intellectual engagement and rejection of the craft” (13). Watts makes a distinction between female and male Instapoets which is significant in her argument and can be interpreted as an instance of the male glance.
The term male glance is not literally a manner of looking performed by men and thus, not limited to the male sex. Lili Loofbourow has defined the term male glance as follows: the dismissal of female art and art about females (4-5). This glance is not always or necessarily incorrect, yet it “looks, assumes, and moves on” and “it points and classifies” rather than investigate and discover (5). Watts criticises female Instapoets for being “products of a cult of personality, which demands from its heroes only that they be ‘honest’ and ‘accessible’”
(14). The honesty and accessibility are respectively defined as “the constant expression of what one feels” and “the complete rejection of complexity, subtlety, eloquence and the aspiration to do anything well” (14). Watts states that honesty has become the main requirement for poetry and that reviews of Instapoets’ work cite that feature as its main selling point. She then doubts the judgement of reviewers and art editors in the sense that Assink 44 they “do not know that poems are deliberately created works, not naturally occurring phenomena” (14). These two viewpoints, both that of Watts’ judgement of Instapoetry being a rejection of the craft of poetry, as the reviewers lauding female Instapoets for their honesty and accessibility are instances of the male glance. Both viewpoints fail to “expect female texts have universal things to say” nor do they “expect them to be experimental” or “expect them to be great” (Loofbourow 5). Here, Watts fails to see that the use of Instagram is deliberate to gain cultural capital with Instapoetry that would normally be rejected by the literary field and fail to reach a place in the canon3. Namely, she argues that McNish, a female British Instapoet, understands how social media works: “once you care about a person you’ll consume anything they produce– especially if it makes you feel better about your own lack of talent” (16). Watts deems this understanding to be “a twisted sort of vanity that leads a person to crave applause” yet, as Loofbourow argues, the male glance causes women to be judged for performative intentionality, such as the use of Instagram to gain a platform, as either “manipulative” or as an “attention-whore” (9-10). Watts states that Instapoets wish to
“redefine poetry as whatever the poetic establishment claims it isn’t” (16). Moreover, she claims that Instapoets judge themselves to be taboo breakers, as if no one before them had ever written about the topics they address, such as “sex or motherhood, highlighted inequality or deployed obscenities” (16).
The use of Instagram by poets is a new phenomenon which leads to uncertainty and uncomfortable sensations (Loofbourow 18). There is no consensus on how to approach
Instapoetry, nor how to judge Instapoetry in the literary field yet. However, that discomfort can be relieved by seeing the possibilities and affect of Instapoetry rather than dismissing it for not being ‘real’ poetry (18). The dismissal of female work and work by females is so
3 The rejection to the canon can itself also be seen as an instance of the male glance, as the canon might dismiss the Instapoets’ female-driven work as the male glance assumes there is nothing worthy in the work made by females or about females (Loofbourow 19-20). Assink 45 internalised in the literary field that it is hard to see anything else but “a ‘chick flick’ in a female-centric story” (18-9). Watts and Loofbourow agree with the tendency of reviewers to subordinate the work of art in favour of focussing on the creator of the work of art (Watts
17). Even though Watts is also guilty of this tendency by discussing Instapoets’ use of
Instagram and their online personalities more extensively than their work, she makes a valid point. Loofbourow discusses this emphasis on the creator by using a quote from writer
Eleanor Catton: “[…] women writers, all of the question coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are – about luck and identity and how the idea struck them” (qtd. in Loofbourow 7). The trope of the “idea that struck” is another instance of male glance, next to the focus on the creator, as it implies that female creators create their art by chance or accident and they are not seen as “serious thinkers”, or persons
“with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime” (7). Loofbourow proposes two steps to rid the male glance out of judgments of female work. First, the male glance and its influence must be acknowledged. Second, the possibility of seeing something worth seeing in female art has to be acknowledged (19). This does not mean that all female work deserves a place in the literary canon, as some work will indeed prove to be “dull and flat” (20). Concluding, following both Watts and Loofbourow, the tendency to focus on the creator by reviewers has to be reduced in order to judge the art of Instapoets, regardless of their gender, for what it is, to whom it can relate and what or who it is able to represent.
Assink 46
Analysis and Conclusion
This thesis has analysed the of poetry on Instagram in the construction of (online) communities and transnational activism against gender inequality. Gender inequality has been defined as the silencing, violating, objectifying and oppressing of women in the
(literary) world (David 5-6). The first chapter has examined the poetry genre, the social media platform Instagram and the combination between those two, called Instapoetry. The second chapter has analysed the aesthetic appreciation, the relatability and shareability of
Instapoetry. The third chapter has given an overview of the emergence of online communities around Instapoetry, the transnational activism that arises simultaneously alongside those communities and the critique received by Instapoets. This chapter will conclude and analyse these three previous chapters in order to answer the research question: what is the role of poetry on Instagram in the construction of (online) communities and transnational activism against gender inequality?
Poetry as a genre is difficult to define, however with the help of Bourdieu’s “The
Field of Cultural Production” the following definition has been proposed: an ever-evolving genre in which new sub-genres appear since the ways in which words, style and visual art of a poem intensify the expression of a poem are unlimited. Instagram is a social media platform that emphasises the visual, facilitating a new genre of poetry, namely that of Instapoetry which can be understood as short, fitting within the standard Instagram format of a picture, often simple with the typography and visual art being an aesthetic extension of the poem. The appeal of Instapoetry has been distinguished according to its relatability, shareability and visual appreciation. The last two factors have proven to be almost indistinguishable, with the only difference being that the visual appreciation is purely visual, thus how the poem appears on the feed without paying attention to the meaning, in order to stand out on Instagram Assink 47 among millions of other pictures, whereas shareability also relies on the meaning and relatability of the poem, thus on the textual.
The second chapter focused in greater detail on the relatability and shareability of
Instapoetry through the close reading of two poems; one of Kaur and one of Gill. Relatability has been defined as a reader’s emotional identification with (parts or themes of) worldly poems caused by the ability of the poet to describe (universal) experiences from the world and portray them as shared cultural experience in their poetry. Shareability consists of the combination between relatable content and aesthetic visual character of the poems. The close reading of Kaur’s poem led to an understanding of the manner in which Kaur uses relatability and shareability in her poetry. Themes of bodily objectification and conforming to the current beauty standard are centralised in this poem, causing relatability and shareability in the first place. Kaur’s use of the word “you” encourages the reader to identify themselves with the poem and read it in a relatable style of reading. Furthermore, the choice of using second person perspective “you” facilitates a conversation between narrator and reader. “again” signifies the repetitiveness of bodily objectification and unites persons that have undergone this experience, that is posed as a shared experience through this poem by Kaur, leading to one aspect of the shareability of the poem since users of Instagram might share this poem as a reminder to stand and speak up against objectification and beauty standards. The close reading of Gill’s poem established the manner in which she used her own anger against the expectation of moral perfection of princesses, and in more general women, and created imperfect princesses with silenced anger, mental illnesses and traumas caused by sexual assault. She counters traditional fairy tale tropes by the creation of more realistic characters that are flawed, not passive nor selfless, angry and emotional in such a way that these characteristics of the characters are not only noticed but seen as valuable and positive. The connection between the princesses, making them stand together in this poem, emphasises the Assink 48 strength of a community and thereby, the relatability of the poem. It explicitly calls women all over the world to stand together and fight the ingrained fairy tale tropes. Both Kaur and
Gill address normally silenced topics in the current cultural context and thereby open up conversations about these topics in online spaces and consequently, if they have gained enough popularity, offline too.
The third chapter focused on the emergence of (online) communities around
Instapoetry and the transnational activism that arises simultaneously. It argued that Kaur and
Gill are able to facilitate online transnational communities based on shared dissatisfactions they address in their poetry. Important to note here is that even though Gill and Kaur are outspoken feminists themselves, that being an activist practice, they do not control the reception, affect and activism of their poetry. Yet, they have become significant players in the transnational online activism against gender inequality due to the community building surrounding their Instapoetry. The community building around the Instapoetry of Gill and
Kaur is based on questions of gender, femininity, relationships and gender inequality. They combine two forms of recognition, defined by Felski, namely the political theorists’ and the form in reading, leading to individual feelings of relatability and then finding that same relatability among others within the community. The power of this community is also split in two, namely the power that Kaur and Gill themselves have acquired due to their cultural capital on Instagram which allowed them to publish their poetry, and secondly, the individual users themselves that stand together as a community leading to conversations started on
Instagram finding their way to mainstream media. The critique on Instapoetry has proven often to be sexist in nature and disregarding the modes of reading that emphasise individual, emotional response. Moreover, the simplicity of Instapoetry is another factor to critique, yet the close reading of the two poems of Gill and Kaur has proven that the little amount of words conveys much implicit or more explicit themes and meaning. Watts is a significant Assink 49 player in the critique on female Instapoets, which mainly consists of the male glance: the dismissal of female art and art about females. Once this male glance has been evaporated from criticism on Instapoets like Gill and Kaur, they can be criticised for their work and the content of their work.
Instapoetry relies on the visual character of Instagram and the tendency of users to compare oneself to others on the platform. Through this comparing and recognition of oneself in others, relatability, Instapoetry is able to create an online, public space in which readers are able to find other who are experiencing the same struggles in nowadays society.
Of course, Instapoetry is not the only means of connecting with others on Instagram since the platform offers a lot of other communities such as fitness, clean eating, music and its fans.
Yet, since Kaur and Gill addresses topic that are often silenced in the current cultural context such as rape and body objectification, people who are searching for support regarding those issues are able to find others who have gone through similar experiences through their poetry.
Gill and Kaur thus succeed in attracting the attention of users and stand out in the midst of an endless stream of pictures. They successfully modified a platform that is focused on the visual by having readers who attentively read poetry and think about what they are reading.
Future research could focus on the criticism on Instapoetry, and criticise the poetry for what it truly is, namely on the textual content and thus removing the male glance. Other research could possibly follow up on the modes of recognition stated by Felski and the idea of relatability of Instapoetry. This thesis has strayed away from the social factors accompanying community building and focused instead on the media and textual factors. It would be interesting to look at Instapoetry from a social sciences perspective, which emphasises the (groups of) people that constitute the community rather than the building itself. The psychological aspects of why these women look for comfort and affirmation in the communities on Instagram is another aspect not discussed in this thesis, but would prove Assink 50 interesting. The workings of Instagram in terms of its algorithms, its economy and as a capitalist venture have also been overlooked, since this thesis has emphasised the users of the platform rather than the platform and its workings itself. This addition to the current research might be able to explain the popularity of Instapoetry in a totally different manner.
Assink 51
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