Strategic self(ie)-presentation : a case study of the female fitness selfies on WeChat Moments
(2021) MKVM13 20211Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- Developments in mobile technologies and social networks promote the mushrooming of self-presentation practices in virtual space, stimulating individuals to create idealized self-images and maintain desired social impressions. Posting fitness selfies is a popular mode of selectively constructing visual self-presentation in the fitness culture and digital age. Previous studies have demonstrated that young women are more critical about their physical appearances and more likely to receive body-related judgments. Hence, young women have become a vital social group utilizing fitness selfies to present their good-looking bodies and active lifestyles strategically. Based on this, the thesis aims to get insight into how young women employ... (More)
- Developments in mobile technologies and social networks promote the mushrooming of self-presentation practices in virtual space, stimulating individuals to create idealized self-images and maintain desired social impressions. Posting fitness selfies is a popular mode of selectively constructing visual self-presentation in the fitness culture and digital age. Previous studies have demonstrated that young women are more critical about their physical appearances and more likely to receive body-related judgments. Hence, young women have become a vital social group utilizing fitness selfies to present their good-looking bodies and active lifestyles strategically. Based on this, the thesis aims to get insight into how young women employ intellectual knowledge and creative work to construct their idealized self-images through engaging in fitness selfie practices.
This case study focuses on the young Chinese women's fitness selfies posted on WeChat Moments. By conducting critical visual analysis on the fitness selfies and qualitative semi-structured interviews with their producers, this thesis explores how visual signs generate cultural meanings, as well as how selfie-makers use their subjectivity and creativity to establish their distinctive fit and feminine identities. In general, the thesis indicates that female fitness selfies are distinctive cultural artifacts offering the idealized narrative of selves grounded in visual culture and social media practices. The fitness girls strategically utilize various techniques from photography, post-processing, social media fields to create a beautiful, attractive, self-regulated, and passionate self-image via their fitness posts. The discussion on the interrelationship of selfie phenomenon and fitness culture also leads us to rethink the product of their combination—the fitness selfie, so as to understand how fitness selfie practices provide new possibilities to Chinese female fitness culture from the technological, cultural, and social perspectives. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9044247
- author
- Gao, Ruoling LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Female fitness selfie, Self-presentation, Selfie phenomenon, Fitness culture, Visual culture, WeChat Moments
- language
- English
- id
- 9044247
- date added to LUP
- 2021-06-15 07:09:45
- date last changed
- 2021-06-15 07:09:45
@misc{9044247,
abstract = {{Developments in mobile technologies and social networks promote the mushrooming of self-presentation practices in virtual space, stimulating individuals to create idealized self-images and maintain desired social impressions. Posting fitness selfies is a popular mode of selectively constructing visual self-presentation in the fitness culture and digital age. Previous studies have demonstrated that young women are more critical about their physical appearances and more likely to receive body-related judgments. Hence, young women have become a vital social group utilizing fitness selfies to present their good-looking bodies and active lifestyles strategically. Based on this, the thesis aims to get insight into how young women employ intellectual knowledge and creative work to construct their idealized self-images through engaging in fitness selfie practices.
This case study focuses on the young Chinese women's fitness selfies posted on WeChat Moments. By conducting critical visual analysis on the fitness selfies and qualitative semi-structured interviews with their producers, this thesis explores how visual signs generate cultural meanings, as well as how selfie-makers use their subjectivity and creativity to establish their distinctive fit and feminine identities. In general, the thesis indicates that female fitness selfies are distinctive cultural artifacts offering the idealized narrative of selves grounded in visual culture and social media practices. The fitness girls strategically utilize various techniques from photography, post-processing, social media fields to create a beautiful, attractive, self-regulated, and passionate self-image via their fitness posts. The discussion on the interrelationship of selfie phenomenon and fitness culture also leads us to rethink the product of their combination—the fitness selfie, so as to understand how fitness selfie practices provide new possibilities to Chinese female fitness culture from the technological, cultural, and social perspectives.}},
author = {{Gao, Ruoling}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Strategic self(ie)-presentation : a case study of the female fitness selfies on WeChat Moments}},
year = {{2021}},
}