Thematic Analysis

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Platforms Used

Content Analyzed

#fitspiration

#fashion

Header Photo Credits (1,2,4): Retha Ferguson

Header Photo Credits (3): Natural Woman Collection

The Research Question Behind The Analysis

"What is the ideal woman's body often portrayed on social media? And how do users respond to this image?"

The Process

- View the 5 "top" posts categorized by each social media platform by female users and posts that are relative to the hashtag

- Make sure the posts were in english or able to be translated

- Record the user's social media handle, number of followers, number post likes, post title and the first 5 hashtags used and record visual and textual codes for each post

- Record the first 10 textual comments under post from users that appear to be female based on profile picture and/or that user's posts

- Consider and record consistent themes within visual and textual codes

Disclaimer!

Posts used on this page are publicly viewable on all social media platfroms used; TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest

The Content

There Were Changes

- Reduced the number of posts analyzed per hashtag and social media platform

- Changed criteria for comments

- Added additional social media platform

- Analyzed #fashion instead of #lifestyleblogger

Why?

- It was easier to narrow down 5 posts per hashtag and social media platform instead of 10

- Because this project is studying the influence on women, it was appropriate and preferred to analyze comments from a female audience on female-oriented posts

- Added Pinterest because Instagram wasn’t enough; the algorithm was showing posts that didn’t have the views to support effective analyzing

- #lifestyleblogger did not convey effective data/posts and had varied data that didn't relate to intended hashtag

What Does The Data Say?

What Does It All Mean?

The purpose of this thematic analysis was to analyze the message social media sends to female viewers about the ideal perception of one's body. What's a common theme between the most favorable posts? What do these users look like?

When going through Tiktok, Pinterest, and Instagram, a vast majority of posts looked the same across both hashtags; fitspiration and fashion.

Let's break it down!

Visually Speaking . . .

A Few Codes Used: athletic, ad, skinny figure, thin figure, smile, outfit, makeup, athletic attire, model, styling, editing, filter, posing

Final Visual Themes: skinny/thin figure, smiling, ad, outfit

Now themes like skinny/thin figure tell me and showed me that a continuous amount of platform-categorized "top" posts were of users with a skinny/thin figure, especially fitspiration posts.

Many post analyzed had users who were smiling and/or obviously posing into the camera. I questioned how viewers might perceive a post with codes such as skinny/thin and smiling. Could they correlate being skinny with happiness? Could they think being thinner in general would lead to an increase in happiness?

A few posts that were clearly ads (exclusively analyzed on Pinterest) modeled skinny/thin women for both fitspiration and fashion hashtags. What kind of interpretation does this give viewers? Even with an increase in inclusive ads for fashion, there are still a grand amount of ads who use women with thinner figures.

Code "outfit" was for posts were users were purposively showing off their outfit(s). There is nothing wrong with this, but a lot alike the analyzed fashion ads using thin models to model their clothes, these coded "outfit" posts relate the same message. Because a majority of posts coded "outfit" were also posts coded with a "skinny/thin figure".

Digging Into The Comment Section . . .

A Few Comments Coded: "GIRL I AM ACTUALLY CRYING U LOOK SO GOOD...", "I wish I was skinny", "Ma’am can you share your beauty please", "I eat two pretzels and somehow I still gain weight", "Girl you look amazing"

Final Themes: positive/supportive comments, bitterness, insecurity, self-dissatisfaction

The comments coded positive/supportive comments were just that positive comments from women supporting other women.

Viewer comments that exhibited bitterness were those like "Step one : be skinny"; comments that mocked posts because the viewer may have felt envious.

Comments that were coded as "insecurity" were those like "I'd look like a linebacker [in reference to poster's outfit]"; comments were viewers compared their appearance to the person in the post.

Comments that came from viewers that appeared self-dissatisfied were those like "I wish I was skinny"; comments that started with "I wish" and themes of unhappiness among appearance.

Overall, themes between visually analyzed posts and viewer comments, while having a positive turn out as well, proved that there is a common "ideal" among what's valued or most favorable in social media and how this perception can be negatively internalized among viewers.