WRRH 333: Digital Rhetoric and Writing with New Technologies

Professor Ristow

May 5, 2018

Instagram for Agency

In “An Introduction to New Media and Cybercultures,” Pramod K. Nayar poses the

question, “if identities can be reinvented in cyberspace, what consequences does this facility

have for gender?” (Nayar 17). As social networking sites have become increasingly ubiquitous in

today’s society, the potential to reinvent oneself on a public digital profile has become ever more

realistic. Female users in particular can not only reinvent themselves, but can use social media as

an outlet to promote equality and social justice or to break conventional social norms that

otherwise confine women to strict notions of femininity. In using social media to construct

digital identities, women have transformed cyberspace into a gendered space. Within this space,

there exists a private realm of Finstagrams, or fake-Instagrams, as well as a public realm of

Instagrams, or accounts where both men and women recreate and reproduce their gendered

identities. As rhetors, both men and women create digital artifacts that communicate something

about themselves and their lives, and this research attempts to unpack the tight-knit relationship

between identity and Instagram and to understand how men and women are communicating and

representing themselves similarly and differently in a digital space.

In much of the existing literature surrounding the use of social media sites by college-

aged students, females tend to use it more than males. (Eggermont & Frison 183) More females,

however, also tend to use social media more “actively” and “privately” than males, as they are

more involved on Facebook but use their accounts privately, among a group of other Facebook

users, rather than publicly promoting themselves. Females are also more likely to be judged on
the basis of public profiles and yet, girls from a young age begin using social media more

actively than boys. (Bailey et al. 91) Cyberfeminists on social media, more specifically,

appropriate social platforms for their use. Cyberfeminists “disturb” or “interrupt” conventional

social norms in the digital world to bring light to gender inequalities and injustices and

breakdown traditional power hierarchies. (Nayar 18) Based on feminist criticism, cyberfeminists

want to “eradicate the ideology of domination that permeates our culture” (Foss 142) and seek to

transform culture and social norms by doing so. Based on this ideology, we used surveys as a

methodology to unpack how male and female college-aged students use social media and

understand why more females than males use social media and portray their platforms with

particular “aesthetics” on Instagrams and Finstagrams. Of the 277 respondents with diverse

backgrounds in terms of age, class, race, and gender, about 70.97% identified as females, while

only 26.88% identified as male. 0.72% identified as transgender, and 1.08% preferred not to say

their gender. Consequently, the results were female-heavy, making it difficult to generalize about

the male and transgender college population. Nonetheless, the use of feminist criticism provides

an understanding of why more females use Instagrams and arguably do so to gain agency

because the societal constraints of the real, face-to-face world prevent them from having control

over the ways they are perceived.

The data collated by the survey alluded to various differences in the way in which male

and female college aged-students make use of their regular Instagram accounts to suggest that

females are more aware of the consequences of their online presence, and thus invest more effort

into ensuring they portray their best selves. Participants in the survey were posed the question,

“for your personal/regular account, how would you describe your aesthetic?”. The responses to

this particular prompt varied significantly, but generally indicated that women are more aware
and in charge of their online aesthetic than men. Female participants provided detail regarding

the style that their Instagrams attempt to convey, implying that they are interested in creating a

persona for themselves through the use of this platform. Male respondents, however, gave

answers that tended to describe the more literal aspects of their posts, apparently using Instagram

as a means by which to document their lives rather than establish an aesthetic. Although these

conclusions are regarding the purely social aspects of Instagram use, there are a plethora of other

online activities that reflect similar ideas about how women use Instagram. These activities

emphasize the extent to which women, and specifically women who belong to minority groups,

are subjected to oppressive societal rules and expectations that deny them their ability to express

themselves. This could explain why, as opposed to merely using the platform as a means of

documentation, college-aged women are generally more invested in using Instagram to create an

aesthetic and thereby establish a desired persona.

Instagram is a platform through which various trends and social movements that focus

upon female liberation have flourished, and this is because of the unique opportunity it provides

for self-expression. The Body Positivity Movement, for example, was initiated by cyberfeminists

in order to advocate for the normalization and acceptance of marginalized bodies (Tonic, par. 3).

Although all are encouraged to participate in, the movement especially seeks to draw attention to

the oppression faced by fat women, women with disabilities, women of color and transgendered

individuals. Members of the body positive community will often post photos of themselves in

poses and clothing that are usually reserved for conventional body types, or share videos that

seek to unapologetically display that which generally goes unseen. (Tonic, par. 1) By disrupting

social norms and publicly expressing pride in and acceptance of their bodies, these individuals

are able to transcend the inevitable expectations and judgments placed upon their bodies in
spaces outside of Instagram. The Free the Nipple Movement achieved something similar, with

cyberfeminists doing work to de-sexualize and normalize their breasts through the photo-

shopping of male nipples over their own interchangeable ones and the posting of nude images in

general. (Pittman, par. 1) Although restricted by the rules implemented by Instagram, the

platform nevertheless provides a safe and controlled way in which women can overtly practice

this form of resistance, and women who share nude images of themselves for personal rather

than political reasons also benefit from this space. In an article by that explores this trend, one

woman articulated that she posts naked photos because she “wants to feel in control of the sexual

attention (she) receives”. (Cox, par. 8) This alludes to the nature of other social spaces, in which

women are subjected to unwanted hyper-sexualisation that often makes them feel unsafe rather

than desirable.

In each of these instances, women have made use of Instagram to fight against the

societal rules that determine how they are perceived. The success of these online movements is

largely due to the existence of Instagram as a safe space where women can voice their opinions,

form communities and make decisions about how they wish to represent themselves. While

women in other social realms are inundated with societal pressures such as those that, in the

instances described above, seek to alter or hyper-sexualize their bodies, women that have a

presence on Instagram are able to decide for themselves the persona they want to express. It is

therefore likely that college-aged females are more aware and concerned with Instagram

aesthetics than males because of the lack of opportunity usually afforded to them to control the

way in which they are represented and perceived.

Another factor that reveals how college-aged females use Instagram differently than

males as a way to promote themselves and control the ways in which the public eye perceives
them is the time that they put into preparing and posting a picture compared to men, as proven by

the results from our study. Kairos, meaning “a time when conditions are right for the

accomplishment of a crucial action,” is a key term to use while analyzing the deciding factors

that women consider before posting a picture, seemingly to prioritize the amount of likes they

receive and the amount of control they have over how the public will see them. (Merriam-

Webster, nd) In the survey conducted by our peers, it became evident that roughly 60% of female

respondents take up to 20 minutes to prepare their posts, while over 60% of male respondents

take fewer than five minutes, and only 30% take up to 20 minutes. Further, roughly 15% of

female respondents admitted to taking up to an hour of their time to prepare their posts, while

only 5% of men claimed to do so. In addition to the time spent preparing posts, 76.76% of

females claimed that their actual picture was the most significant factor that they use to optimize

the likes they get, while only 23.24% of males agreed. Ultimately, our data can be analyzed to

make a claim that females are seemingly investing more time into their posting and activity on

Instagram because they are more aware of the consequences and impact that their posts have on

them beyond the realm of social media. In other words, it can be argued that females are

investing the time to develop themselves on social media because they feel as if validation on

Instagram will translate into further development of their social status and validation in the

physical world. The amount of time that women, or cyberfeminists, put into preparing their posts

validates the aforementioned claim in the discussion about aesthetics that prove women are more

concerned with their public profiles than men because it gives them a sense of control over how

they are perceived beyond social media – a type of control they are not usually allowed in reality.

The Guardian article that reveals the relationship between “Young Women on Instagram and

Self Esteem,” includes a quote from 22 year old female Instagram user, Lindsay Correia, that
refers to the exact “control” that we argue Instagram provides women: “I use Instagram just to

give people a glimpse into my life. And I like that I can show the parts that I want them to see

and make them think I have a cooler life than I do. I like having that kind of control.” (The

Guardian 1) Of course, time and effort must go into achieving the control Correia refers to here,

considering that she admits that she must work to convince her followers that her life is perhaps

“cooler” than it really is. Ultimately, then, the time spent preparing posts and considering various

components of Kairos before sharing a photo on the site is often times rewarding to women, as

they are given personal agency and control over how viewers see them. Of course, the time they

invest into posting their photos and gaining online validation will hopefully translate into

validation and agency beyond the media platform, which they probably consider to make the

efforts worth their while.

In continuation, given the prominent nature of the public and private spheres spanning

gender expression, women have made use of Finstagram accounts to act as yet another strong

journaling outlet for their validation and agency. According to an informal article posted by The

Guardian, one common perception of Finstagrams comes with the idea that Finstagram accounts

are used to post ugly photos of one’s self in an effort to combat the social pressures young

women face that force them to appear presentable and appealing in all facets of life, even in

personal documentation. However, similarly to Virginia Woolf’s journaling present in her work

A Room of One’s Own, fake instagram accounts that young women post on tend to, “post ugly

selfies, private jokes, personal rants, pictures of outfits you’re genuinely seeking advice on,

screenshots of funny family group texts, pictures of yourself in the middle of a good cry, that sort

of thing, to a relatively sympathetic audience” (The Guardian). This sympathetic audience comes

in the form of close friends, similar in age and interests, to the original poster. Of the 274
respondents that answered this question, 74 were male, while 195 were female. Of the 74 male

respondents, only 8 stated that they did in fact have a finstagram. Of the 195 female respondents,

93 stated that they did have a finstagram, while the other 102 respondents stated they did not. So,

what is the main impulse behind the idea of the Finstagram? One respondent stated that she, “had

it since before it was a big trend, I use it like a silly diary” (SurveyMonkey) However, with such

a vast number of women between the ages of eighteen through twenty-four using Finstagrams,

they do not appear to be a series of “silly diary” entries. Rather, as it pertains to our study, we

argue that Finstagrams serve as a position for important emotional documentation for women

outside of the judgemental, heavily patriarchal public sphere. Thus, in conversation with the

previous paragraphs, Finstagrams are yet another platform that women utilize to seek agency and

control over their shared persona - even if Finstagrams usually have a smaller audience. By being

able “to express [one’s] true feelings and [their] true self”, young women have a subsection of

cyberculture where they have a privatized space. (SurveyMonkey) This space provides agency

for them to articulate their emotions and convey their thoughts on topics such as the state of the

world, the issues affecting the communities they reside in and their social lives. Finstagrams

additionally provide a location through which women can reveal serious aspects of their lives to

those in a close inner circle of comrades that is not necessarily, at this point in time, deemed

appropriate for the more public sphere of a ‘real’ Instagram account.

Ultimately, upon reflection of our data and analysis of sources, it can be concluded that

women invest more effort into developing their presence because they are aware of the

consequences that come with their activity online and use Instagram as a platform to seek agency

that the physical world often-times short-hands them. We have sought out to answer how

college-aged females navigate Instagram differently than their male counterparts, and have
concluded that their utilization of the platform for increased agency and control over how the

public eye perceives them is the main reason that they are more present and invested into the

platform. We were driven to make this conclusion upon analysis of a survey conducted by our

peers that depicted the differences between how men and women feel about aspects of Instagram

such as aesthetics, time spent preparing posts, and activity on Finstagram acco c cunts. In

closing, it is important to note that previous literature has confirmed what we already know about

male and female presence on Instagram, and that our study used feminist rhetorical criticism to

add new depths to current conversation. Revealing that females are seemingly investing more

time into their presence on Instagram as a way to seek agency and gain control over how they are

perceived speaks volumes to how the physical world still short-hands the female population,

despite progress that has been made to achieve gender equality. Thus, Instagrams and

Finstagrams are seemingly allowing women to compensate for decades of having their voice

stripped from them, but it undoubtedly requires effort and time for females to reap the benefits of

the agency they can gain from this platform.

Works Cited

Bailey, Jane, Steeves, Valerie, Burkell, Jacquelyn, Regan, Priscilla. “Negotiating With Gender
Stereotypes on Social Networking Sites.” Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 37, no.
2, 2013, pp. 91–112., doi:10.1177/0196859912473777.

Cox, B. “16 Women Explain Why They Post Nudes On The Internet And Social Media”. 14
Dec, 2016. https://thoughtcatalog.com/brittany-cox/2016/12/16-girls-explain-why-they-
post-nudes-on-the-internet-and-social-media/

Eggermont, Steven & Frison, Eline. "Gender and Facebook Motives as Predictors of Specifi
Types of Facebook Use: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis in Adolescence." Journal
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Foss, Sonja K. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice. Waveland Press, 2018.

Gajanan, M. “Young women on Instagram and self-esteem: 'I absolutely feel insecure'”. 4 Nov
2015. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/04/instagram-young-women-self-
esteem-essena-oneill

"Kairos." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 1 May 2018.

Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to New Media and Cybercultures. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Pittman, T. “Women Take On Body Censorship with Help from Male Nipples and Photoshop”. 8
July, 2015.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/07/women-fight-nipple-censorship-
with-photoshop_n_7735738.html

Tonic, G. “'Don't Hate the Shake' Is The Body Positive Video Campaign You Need To Know
About”. 8 Jan, 2016.