Madison, Eliza, Julia, Makayla

WRRH 333: Digital Rhetoric and Writing With New Technologies

Professor Ristow

May 1, 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 evermore 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 accounts.

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.
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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 Specific
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Gajanan, M. “Young women on Instagram and self-esteem: 'I absolutely feel insecure'”. 4 Nov 2015.
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"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.