Redefining Femininity Through Discourses of Health, Beauty, and Gender in Body Positivity
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Are All Bodies Good Bodies?: Redefining Femininity Through Discourses of Health, Beauty, and Gender in Body Positivity Rayanne Connie Streeter Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Sociology Christine Labuski, Co-Chair Toni Calasanti, Co-Chair Neal M. King Rebecca J. Hester May 10, 2019 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: Body Positivity, Gender, Beauty, Health, Social Media, Instagram, Fat Studies Copyright, Rayanne Connie Streeter Are All Bodies Good Bodies?: Redefining Femininity Through Discourses of Health, Beauty, and Gender in Body Positivity Rayanne Connie Streeter ABSTRACT Previous research has explored the ways in which health, beauty, and gender discourses are used to promote and regulate an ideal of thinness. Further, research has explored how the fat acceptance movement and fitspiration has fought to resist such narratives. However, in the age of hashtag feminism a new group on social media, body positivity, has become the buzzword among celebrities, news conglomerates, and fashion companies. This study draws on interviews with 12 body positive influencers and an examination of 210 Instagram posts tagged #bodypositive or #fitspiration to examine the extent to which body positive influencers and users modify understandings of normative feminine body ideals and to what extent they resist and accommodate traditional discourses of gender, health, and beauty. Findings suggest that body positivity is understood by influencers as a conglomeration of five contentious tenets: (1) a connection to the fat acceptance movement; (2) an opposition to diet culture; (3) the belief that all bodies are good bodies; (4) celebrating self-love; and (5) proclaiming that all people have a freedom to be beautiful. In addition, my examination of Instagram posts shows that although a greater variety of body sizes appear in posts tagged #bodypositive than those tagged #fitspiration, both center hyper-feminized and sexualized white women who transgress norms of femininity in one dimension, fatness or muscularity. As such, Instagram influencers and users struggle to negotiate an adherence to the traditional discourses of femininity, beauty, and health at the same time as they seek to expand them. Are All Bodies Good Bodies?: Redefining Femininity Through Discourses of Health, Beauty, and Gender in Body Positivity Rayanne Connie Streeter GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT In that last 5 years body positivity has gone “mainstream”—gaining the attention of women across the United States, circulating across a variety of mass media sources, being viral content on social media, and becoming the buzzword among celebrities, news conglomerates, and fashion companies. But what is body positivity and its impact? This dissertation sought to explore that question as it relates to gender, health, and beauty in the context of social media. Drawing on interviews with 12 body positive influencers and an examination of 210 Instagram posts tagged #bodypositive or #fitspiration I examine the extent to which body positive influencers and users modify stereotypical understandings of femininity, particularly the idea that the healthiest, most attractive, and most feminine body is a thin body. Findings suggest that body positivity is understood by influencers as made up of five aspects: (1) a connection to the fat acceptance movement; (2) an opposition to diet culture; (3) the belief that all bodies are good bodies; (4) celebrating self-love; and (5) proclaiming that all people have a freedom to be beautiful. In addition, my examination of Instagram posts shows that although a greater variety of body sizes appear in posts tagged #bodypositive than those tagged #fitspiration, both center hyper-feminized and sexualized white women who transgress stereotypes of femininity in one dimension, fatness or muscularity. As such, Instagram influencers and users struggle to negotiate an adherence to the traditional understandings of femininity, beauty, and health at the same time as they seek to expand them. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii General Audience Abstract ............................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...........................................................................................................8 Gendering Bodies.................................................................................................................8 Medicalizing Fat Bodies ....................................................................................................11 Beautifying Fat Bodies ......................................................................................................16 Disciplining Fat Bodies......................................................................................................24 Resisting Narratives of Normative Bodies: Fat Acceptance and Fitspiration ...................29 The Fat Acceptance Movement .............................................................................30 Fitspiration .............................................................................................................34 Social Media ......................................................................................................................39 Research Problem: Body Positivity ...................................................................................48 Chapter 3: Methods ........................................................................................................................55 Interviews ...........................................................................................................................56 Content Analysis ................................................................................................................59 Analysis..............................................................................................................................64 Chapter 4: What is Body Positivity? ..............................................................................................67 Sources of Uncertainty .......................................................................................................67 A Watered-down Fat Acceptance Movement ....................................................................72 In Opposition to Diet Culture ............................................................................................76 All Bodies are Good Bodies ..............................................................................................80 Self-Love............................................................................................................................82 Anti-Self Love: An Individual Unrealistic Pursuit ................................................86 Love is Unrealistic .....................................................................................86 Commercializing Self-love ........................................................................89 Individual vs. Structural Reforms ..............................................................92 Freedom To Be Beautiful...................................................................................................96 Freedom From Beauty .........................................................................................102 The Dance of Negotiation & Accessibility of Body Positivity ........................................104 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................107 Chapter 5: Are All Bodies Good Bodies (on Instagram)? ...........................................................110 Inclusive of All? ...............................................................................................................111 Who is Represented?........................................................................................................113 Race......................................................................................................................114 Men ......................................................................................................................117 LGBTQ ................................................................................................................120 Age .......................................................................................................................123 Disability ..............................................................................................................124 Body Size and Shape ...........................................................................................127 Are All Bodies Beautiful Bodies? Discourses of Femininity and Beauty .......................131 Hyper-femininity and Sexuality of Instagram .....................................................137 Racialized and Feminized “Belfie” ......................................................................142 iv