School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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The female body on Instagram: Is fit the new it?

Reade, Josie ( 2014)

This thesis examines how the female body is represented on Instagram, an online photo and video sharing mobile phone application. With a specific focus on portrayals of women in images posted to the #fitspiration hashtag, this thesis considers whether representations of the ‘fit’ female body in this space mirror and/or transgress contemporary notions of an ‘ideal’ body as slender, youthful, white and feminine. Based on the results of this research, I argue that representations of the female body on Instagram’s #fitspiration hashtag present ‘fit’ as the new ‘it’ ideal bodily standard for women. By arguing that fit female bodies can be considered as both replicating and extending contemporary notions of an ideal body, this thesis makes a significant and timely contribution to accounts of women’s representations on social media and the field of sociology of the body more broadly.