Digital Femininities: The Gendered Construction of Cultural and Political Identities Online

209 Pages·2022·3.338 MB·English

by  Frankie Rogan

Digital Femininities
Digital Femininities: The Gendered Construction of Cultural and Political
Identities Online examines the role of new media technologies in the production
of girls’ cultural and political identities. The book argues that the varied and
complex spaces which make up our ‘social media’ should be conceptualised as
important terrains upon which neoliberal and postfeminist subjectivities can be
both reproduced and subverted. In doing so, the book explores many key issues
underpinning current debates around gender politics and digital media, including
gendered spatial politics, visibility, surveillance and regulation, beauty politics,
and civic and political engagement and activism.
Over the last decade, the position of girls and young women within the digital
landscape of social media has been a topic of much debate. On the one hand,
girls’ social media practices are presented as a key site of concern, wherein new
digital technologies are said to have produced an intensification of individualised,
neoliberal and postfeminist identities. Conversely, others have championed access
to social media for young people as a potentially useful political tool, enabling
previously marginalised political subjects (such as girls) to access and participate
within new and exciting political cultures. Locating itself at the intersection of
these two approaches, this book offers a fresh contribution to these debates. Based
upon the findings from focus groups with girls and young women aged between
12 and 18 in England, the book offers an in-depth analysis of the digital cultures
that emerged from the study.
This timely book will be essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary
femininity and feminism and the role of digital media in the production of cultural,
political and gendered identities.
Frankie Rogan is a Lecturer in Sociology and the current Deputy Head of the
Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology at the University of
Birmingham, UK, where she teaches on both undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes. Her primary research interests include gender/feminist theory, cul-
tural politics, new media and the impact of social and economic change on self-
hood and identity.
Sociological Futures
Sociological Futures aims to be a flagship for new and innovative theories, methods
and approaches to sociological issues and debates, and ‘the social’ in the 21st century.
This series of monographs and edited collections was inspired by vibrant wealth of BSA
symposia on a wide variety of sociological themes. Edited by a team of experienced
sociological researchers, and supported by the BSA, it covers a wide range of topics related
to sociology and sociological research and features contemporary work that is theoretically
and methodologically innovative, has local or global reach, as well as work that engages
or reengages with classic debates in sociology bringing new perspectives to important and
relevant topics.
The BSA is the professional association for sociologists and sociological research in
the United Kingdom, with its extensive network of members, study groups and forums,
and its dynamic programme of events. The Association engages with topics ranging from
auto/biography to youth, climate change to violence against women, alcohol to sport,
and Bourdieu to Weber. This book series represents the fruits of sociological enquiry,
reaching a global audience, and offering a publication outlet for sociologists at all career
and publishing stages, from the well-established to emerging sociologists, BSA or non-
BSA members, from all parts of the world.
Series Editors:
Eileen Green Professor Emerita, Teeside University, UK
John Horne Professor of Sport Science, Waseda University, Japan
Caroline Oliver A ssociate Professor of Sociology, UCL Institute of
Education, UK
Louise Ryan Professor of Sociology, London Metropolitan University, and Vice
Chair of the BSA
Populism in Sport, Leisure, and Popular Culture
Edited by Bryan C. Clift and Alan Tomlinson
Negotiating Families and Personal Lives in the 21st Century
Exploring Diversity, Social Change and Inequalities
Edited by Sheila Quaid, Catriona Hugman and Angela Wilcock
Digital Femininities
The Gendered Construction of Cultural and Political Identities Online
Frankie Rogan
For more information about this series, please visit: www .routledge .com /Sociological
-Futures /book -series /SOCFUT
Digital Femininities
The Gendered Construction of Cultural and
Political Identities Online
Frankie Rogan
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2023 Frankie Rogan
The right of Frankie Rogan to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rogan, Frankie, author.
Title: Digital femininities: the gendered construction of cultural and
political identities online / Frankie Rogan.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. | Series:
Sociological futures | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2021062091 (print) | LCCN 2021062092 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367404307 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032268552 (paperback) | ISBN
9780429356117 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Internet and women. | Online identities. | Femininity. |
Feminist theory.
Classification: LCC HQ1178.R64 2022 (print) | LCC HQ1178 (ebook) | DDC
004.67/8082--dc23/eng/20220121
LC record available at https://lccn. loc .gov /2021062091
LC ebook record available at https://lccn. loc .gov /2021062092
ISBN: 9780367404307 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032268552 (pbk)
ISBN: 9780429356117 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429356117
Typeset in Times new roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
1 Digital femininities: An introduction 1
PART I
Theories and context 17
2 Backdrops: Neoliberalism, (post-)postfeminism and the
transforming femininities of late modernity 19
3 Youth, femininity and culture in a digital age 43
4 Youth, femininity and politics in a digital age 67
PART II
Digital cultures: New research 95
5 Bedrooms, bodies and beauty: Exploring the gendered politics of
space, surveillance and visibility in a digital age 97
6 Selfies, likes and comments: Aesthetic entrepreneurship in digital
cultures 118
7 #Goals: Consumption, influencers and new femininities within
digital cultures 140
8 Gendering the youthquake?: Shifting notions of participation and
activism in the digital age 161
9 Conclusion: Discussing the dichotomies 185
Index 197
Acknowledgements
What a time to write a book! Thank you, first of all, to Diana Ciobotea, Chris
Parry, Rebecca Brennan and their colleagues at Routledge who were very under-
standing when I required a short extension due to strike action in February and
March 2020. Little did we know that a global pandemic was just around the cor-
ner and a month quickly turned into a year. The last few years have demanded
an enormous amount of patience and understanding from Routledge and I am
extremely grateful to them for this.
I’d like to thank the series editors of Sociological Futures: Eileen Green, John
Horne, Caroline Oliver and Louise Ryan (and the BSA!) for believing in this book
and allowing it to be part of this wonderful series. Thank you to the reviewers for
their thoughtful feedback. Thanks, also, to Alison Danforth for her help in the
early stages of this process.
As the cliché goes, writing a book is never a solo journey. Although it is my
name on the cover, every aspect of this book has been influenced and shaped by
discussions and conversations with colleagues, friends and students over the last
eight years and I owe a great deal to them all.
I am forever grateful to Emma Foster, who has been a wonderful confidante
and advisor since the beginning of this project, and to everyone else who has
helped me and given me feedback over the years. Particular thanks are due to
Shelley Budgeon and Alison Phipps for being generous examiners of the thesis
that came before the book and for producing work that inspires and challenges
me. A special thanks, also, to Milly Morris who has been on this journey with me
since the beginning and has read various snippets and chapters over the years. I
am always grateful for our wildly detailed and passionate discussions of pop cul-
ture, which always find a way into my work.
I am lucky to work alongside some wonderful colleagues and friends in the
Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology at the University of
Birmingham – thank you to all of them. Particular thanks to my friend and office-
mate Emily Ball for making work more enjoyable than it should be.
Thank you to the gatekeepers in various schools and colleges who made this
research possible and, most importantly, thank you to the participants of this study
for giving up their time and insights. This work is for you.
Acknowledgements vii
To my parents, family and friends – thank you for your continuous and unwa-
vering love, support and laughter, which sustains me through everything. A big
thank you to my two nephews for being the light at the end of every long tunnel.
To everyone who has listened to me moan about this book over a drink – I,
obviously, would have finished much sooner had you simply refused to let me, but
I appreciate you all the same.
And, finally, to all of the students I’ve taught and worked with over the years –
you have always managed to remind me why I do what I do, even when it gets
particularly hard. I am proud of you all. I tried to write a book that I think you’d
enjoy reading. I hope I succeeded.

10.4324/9780429356117-1
1
1 Digital femininities
An introduction
In January 2020, Dolly Parton kickstarted the viral ‘LinkedIn, Facebook,
Instagram, Tinder’ challenge: a tongue-in-cheek comment on the various presen-
tations of self that take place across different social media sites (Young 2020). The
‘joke’ of the meme, of course, was that a picture one might post on LinkedIn (a
professional networking platform) would not be the same picture one might want
to share on Tinder (a dating platform) or Facebook (where you have connections
to numerous ‘friends’ and acquaintances). This nod towards the various and often
quite distinct productions of self and identity that take place across various social
media platforms sums up much of the research I have been carrying out into girls’
and young women’s digital cultures over the last eight years. As my research into
girls’ relationships with social media developed across the 2010s, I became more
and more aware that ‘social media’ was becoming increasingly nebulous as a term
and, more specifically, as an analytical category for the purpose of sociological
research. What does it mean to research ‘social media’ (and our relationship to
it) when the sites and platforms available to us have become increasingly varied
and are taken up for a variety of reasons (cultural, social, political) within differ-
ent contexts? Examining the production of selves within different digital contexts
is a central part of this book, and formed an integral part of my discussions with
girls and young women in the research I conducted in England in the mid-2010s.
As will be discussed shortly, the research I conducted demonstrated the highly
complex and often contradictory nature of the relationship that people can have
to ‘social media’ and, for my own research participants, the conflicting nature of
their attitudes towards ‘social media’ can often be explained through the variety
of apps, sites, behaviours and feelings the term encompasses for them.
Despite the term being increasingly vague, it is certainly true that, over the last
decade, the position of young millennial and an emerging generation of ‘Gen Z’
girls and young women within the digital landscape of social media has proven
to be a topic of much interest to a number of feminist academics, journalists
and cultural commentators. On the one hand, girls’ social media practices are
presented as a key site of concern, wherein new digital technologies are said to
have produced an intensification of individualised, neoliberal and postfeminist
identities (Duffy and Hund 2015). At the same time, others have championed
access to social media for young women as a potentially useful political tool,
DOI: 10.4324/9780429356117-1