‘Beauty is in the eye of the Instagrammer’: a walk-through approach exploring narratives of female beauty on Instagram among Durban higher education students.

Abstract

In the twenty-first century female beauty is increasingly perceived as a social construct that intersects identity and femininity. Social media platforms have evolved into participatory spaces for women to negotiate and perform their identities, share information about their daily lives, engage with user-generated content, and explore modes of self-expression. South Africa's media landscape has witnessed a shift towards social media platforms, with millions of active users in the country. The literature revealed the need for research on African perspectives in the context of media, and revealed gaps in the intricate connection between feminism, femininity, and social media's influence on women's self-presentation and identity. This study aimed to address the gap in research in focusing on the unique narratives of young female higher education students in actively engaging in the construction of feminine beauty on Instagram. It sought to explore how this construction of feminine beauty on Instagram shaped the articulation of a feminine gendered identity through gender performances. This study also explored how young female students negotiated concepts of feminism and femininity through their engagement in the construction and negotiation of female beauty on Instagram. To ensure that the goals of this study would be achieved, a qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted. The main data collection method employed in this study was a form of walk-through known as the media go-along method that were conducted with 13 young female higher education students. The participants were selected by means of purposive sampling and a reflexive thematic data analysis was performed. The themes ‘Digital Craftsmanship’, ‘Instagram Performativity’, and ‘Dialectics of Empowerment’ ultimately generated insightful findings pertaining to young South African women's contributions to constructing female beauty on Instagram, the platform's role in shaping gender performativity, and the intricate interplay of feminism and femininity in this digital space. This study's findings revealed that young female students on Instagram engage in diverse modes of active curation to shape their beauty ideals in alignment with personal preferences and values. Instagram played a role in constructing future career aspirations by interplaying beauty, professionalism, and identity. Instagram’s unique features further encouraged participants to become content co-creators, fostering creative expression and digital discourse. An insightful finding was that young women’s self-representation balanced beauty norms with playfulness and authenticity. Cultural and social influences were evident in beauty practices, and these young women navigated a complex negotiation between conforming to and challenging beauty norms while engaging in feminist discussions on Instagram.