SOCIAL MEDIA, BEDROOM CULTURES AND FEMININITY: EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION OF CULTURE, POLITICS AND IDENTITY IN THE DIGITAL MEDIA PRACTICES OF GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN IN ENGLAND By FRANCES ROGAN A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Political Science and International Studies School of Government and Society College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham September 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract In recent years, the position of (post-)millennial girls and young women within the digital landscape of social media has proven to be a topic of much interest to a number of feminists, journalists and cultural commentators. On the one hand, girls’ (social) media practices are presented as a key site of concern, wherein new digital technologies are said to have produced an intensification of individualized, neoliberal and post-feminist identities. At the same time, others have championed access to social media for young people as a revolutionary political tool, wherein previously marginalised political subjects (such as girls) can access and participate within new and exciting political cultures. This thesis offers an original contribution to these debates by locating itself at the intersection of these two approaches and examining the role of social media in the production of girls’ cultural and political identities. I present my findings from focus groups carried out with girls (aged 12-18) in three urban locations in England. This data is organised around the three overriding themes of space, surveillance and visibility. Ultimately, my thesis argues that social media should be conceptualised as an important terrain upon which neoliberal and postfeminist subjectivities can be both reproduced and subverted. 1 Dedication To my mum and dad, for proving Philip Larkin wrong. Thank you for everything. 2 Acknowledgements Firstly, thank you to the University of Birmingham POLSIS department for the funding that made this work possible. It has been a privilege to spend the last four years researching the things that I am passionate about, and (now that it’s finished!) I am so grateful for the opportunity to have done it. The biggest thanks must undoubtedly go to my supervisor, Dr. Emma Foster. It is no understatement to say that this thesis would not have been finished without her relentless support and encouragement. Throughout the entire four-year process, I was in the incredibly lucky position of looking forward to my supervisions and every single month I felt happier, more motivated and less overwhelmed as a result of her unwavering patience and reassurance. I also owe a massive debt of gratitude to Professor Isabelle Szmigin, who gave me my first research opportunity outside of my PhD in March 2015, and has continued to provide such incredible amounts of inspiration, support and advice since. I am grateful to the schools and colleges that supported my data collection and introduced me to the incredible girls and young women who participated in my research and made me think harder than I’ve ever had to think before. I owe the whole project to them. On a similar note, I would also like to thank my own students, who have often been the best part of my week and have helped shape my work through their passion towards, commitment to and interest in the topics I love. Completing this thesis would have been much less enjoyable without my PhD partner in crime. Milly, you’ve made the last few years bearable. Thanks for all the encouragement and support but, most of all, for all the chats about TOWIE. It’s my turn to see you over the finish line now. The last four years would have been impossible without the love and support of my friends and family who, thankfully, exist outside of academia and never make me talk about my work. I have somehow managed to end this thesis with the same best friends I started it with, despite quite a few years of being at my most stressed and insufferable: Jo, Rosie, Charlotte, Gabi, Laura, Vicky, Dora, Suzie, and Lois. Thanks for all the support, laughs and phone calls you’ve given me during this process. I’m looking forward to seeing more of you all, and to saying yes to more parties. To the new best friend I picked up on the way: Roisin, hopefully less work and more Actress for us both now. And, of course, to my family. My mum and dad, my brother Dom, sister Billie and brother-in- law Jonny. And, finally, to my two nephews, Oscar and Oakley, for never failing to remind me there’s more to life. 3 Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...8 What does this thesis do? ............................................................................11 Framework, rationale and research questions ……………………….........12 Thesis structure……………………………………………………………15 Literature Review Part 1: (Post-)Millennial Girls and Women: youth, femininity and culture in a digital age………………………………………………………22 1.0 Introduction: the ever-present backdrops of postfeminism, neoliberalism and reflexive projects of the self ………………………………………………22 1.1 (Post)-Millennials: cultural, constructions of youth in a digital age…..25 1.2 (Post)-Millennials: social media’s contemporary relationship to youth culture and why it matters …………………………………………………29 1.3 Reflective projects of the self(ie): new (neoliberal) femininities in a digital age……………………………………………………………………….....34 1.4 The (fe)male gaze: visibility, social surveillance, and femininity online………………………………………………………………...……..41 1.5 Bedrooms: Youth (sub)cultures, gender, and spatial politics………......47 Literature Review Part 2: (Post-)Millennial Girls and Women: youth, femininity and politics in a digital age……………………………………………………….55 2.0 Introduction: Generation Apathetic or Generation Snowflake? Revisiting narcissism in the context of the political.……………………………….....55 2.1 “Politics”: What does it mean to be political?................................……58 2.2 Bedroom Cultures, Border Space(s) and Subaltern Counterpublics: Girls’ activism, engagement and participation….………………………………..66 4 2.3 Alternative Engagements? Silence, non-participation and anti- politics……………………………………………………………...............73 Chapter 3 Methodology: Feminist framework, epistemologies and ethics……...78 3.1 Introduction: “doing (which?) feminism” in social science research…….80 3.1.1 Methodological approach and framework(s): feminist epistemologies and the subject(ivity) of objectivity..……………………………………………...83 3.2 Methods and methodological approach(es): Focus groups, critical discourse analysis and online ethnography……………………………………………..89 3.2.1 Focus Groups……………………………………………………...........91 3.2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis……………………………………………102 3.3.3 Online (auto)ethnography: the self-reflexive researcher………………106 3.3 Ethics and Limitations: Reflexivity, concerns and the future……………108 Chapter 4 Bedrooms, Bodies and Beauty: Exploring the gendered politics of space, surveillance and visibility in a digital age……………………………….………..113 4.1 A phone of one’s own: (new) bedroom cultures and the reconfiguration of space in digital contexts……...…………………………..………………….114 4.2 Men Act, Women Appear? Surveillance, visibility and the politics of looking in contemporary digital contexts……………….……………….….132 4.3 “Digitally Doing Looks”: femininity, visibility and spectrums of beautification in contemporary digital cultures……………………….....….143 4.3.1 Big Sister is Watching You: “surveillant sisterhood” and the feminisation of the gaze in digital contexts…………………………………………….…149 Chapter 5 New femininities in a digital world: Aesthetic labour and (micro)celebrity in postfeminist and neoliberal contexts ………………………158 5.1 Selfies, likes and comments: gendered symbolic capital on visual social media platform ……………………………………………..........................159 5 5.2 Self(ie)-Branding: Aesthetic labour, celebrity culture and social media…………………………………………………………………...167 5.3 #Goals: Consumerism, micro-celebrity and theories of “democratization”………………………………………………….…...180 5.3.1 Changing the world one body project at a time: constructions of neoliberal femininity within Instagram’s female fitness community………………185 5.3.2 “Get ready with me”: bedrooms and self-branding in the beauty vlogger community………………………………………………………….…..193 Chapter 6 “It’s a man’s job”: Investigating understandings of and attitudes towards political people and political space amongst girls and young women in England……………….……………………………………………….……......204 6.1 Kardashians or Camerons: Binary discourses in discussions of political interest and aspiration amongst girls and England………………………206 6.2 “What are you shouting at each other for?!” exploring understandings of and attitudes towards “political space” amongst girls and young women in England…………………………………………………………..............212 6.2.1 “Whenever you see them on the news it’s always men”: exploring understandings of and attitudes towards “political people” amongst girls and young women in England…………………………………….………….218