Negotiating heteronormativity to challenge gender inequality : what's happening on Instagram?
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Date
2019
DOI
Open Access Location
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Publisher
Massey University
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Abstract
Gender is performative and embodied. Heteronormative performances and embodiments
(re)produce gender inequality in part by maintaining the cultural stigmatization of femaleness
and femininity, and the hegemonic function of maleness and masculinity. Those who choose to
transgress heteronormativity threaten its cultural legitimacy as the only ‘natural’, ‘normal’ and
‘correct’ way to do gender. In doing so, they also challenge broader processes of gender
inequality. In this thesis – through a critical, feminist, and social constructionist lens – I present a
visual narrative inquiry into the ways in which female bodybuilders, male bodybuilders, and
transgender men perform gender through representations of their bodies on the social media
website, Instagram. Female bodybuilders, through representations of their muscular bodies on
Instagram, present narratives around female strength, independence, and empowerment that
challenge feminine expectations around female weakness, passivity, and subservience. Male
bodybuilders, by objectifying their bodies, by being emotionally expressive, and by being
emotionally intimate with other men on Instagram, present inclusive masculinities that challenge
hegemonic masculine expectations around dominance, stoicism, and rationality. Through their
visibility and advocacy on Instagram, trans men present gendered narratives that challenge the
heteronormative assumption that all men are born with stereotypically male bodies. These trans
men also challenge male hegemony through relatively soft expressions of masculinity. However,
I also reveal how the gender-transgressive narratives presented by these groups remain heavily
constrained by heteronormative surveillance, through which others heavily police their bodies
and encourage them to limit their transgressions through various heteronormative bodily
conformities. I argue that these bodily conformities function in part to negotiate, or preserve, the
transgressive identities of female and male bodybuilders and trans men on Instagram. Through their exposure to heteronormative surveillance on Instagram, these individuals learn that, in order
to have their transgressive identities recognized and validated by others, they must maintain
some degree of heteronormative bodily intelligibility; otherwise, their transgressions are
dismissed. This is counter to past assertions made by many gender scholars, who have claimed
that the gender-conformities of these groups negate or outweigh their resistance. My conclusions
take into account the relational and negotiated nature of gender; how our experiences of gender
depend on, and manifest through, our interactions with others. Ultimately, I reveal contemporary
ways in which cultural understandings of gender are diversifying through online social practices,
while also revealing how bodily expectations in particular remain heavily involved in the
(re)production of gender inequality. This thesis has important implications for the feminist quest
towards eradicating dualistic understandings of gender and the power differentials that exist
between the cultural categories of ‘men’ and ‘women’; ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’.
Description
Images re-used with permission.
Keywords
Gender identity, Bodybuilders, Psychology, Instagram (Firm), Sex discrimination