Female bodybuilders on Instagram: Negotiating an empowered femininity. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Marshall, Kayla; Chamberlain, Kerry; Hodgetts, Darrin
• Is Part Of: Feminism & psychology. Volume 29:Number 1(2019:Feb.)
• Page Start: 96
• Page End: 119
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: female -- bodybuilding -- Instagram -- social media -- objectification -- surveillance -- femininity; Women -- Psychology -- Periodicals; Feminist psychology -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Periodicals; 150.82
• DOI: 10.1177/0959353518808319
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-3535

Abstract

Strength and femininity have in many ways been culturally constructed as two mutually exclusive phenomena. This paper considers how Instagram facilitates female body objectification and surveillance through an examination of female bodybuilders whose muscular bodies represent both resistance against and conformity to dominant cultural notions around women as fragile, weak, and subservient. We reveal how surveillance over the bodies of female bodybuilders on Instagram functions to reposition them as more (hetero)normatively feminine by encouraging them to present bodies which are ornamented, sexualized, and passive. We also reveal how female bodybuilders practise self-surveillance on Instagram by simultaneously resisting and conforming to this surveillance. In the process, these women manage to redefine femininity for themselves in ways which problematize dualistic notions around strength and femininity.