GENDER IN SOCIAL MEDIA: SEMIOTIC STUDY OF GENDER CONSTRUCTION OF WOMEN IN INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT @MODUSKERAS POSTINGS

Abstract

nstagram is one kind of social media that allows users to share photos to others. But not onlyregular photosthatdistributed byusers, sometimes the photo contains sexuality.Instagram @moduskeras account generally displays women as its object. This research with qualitative method aims to find out how gender constructions occur in social media Instagram by tracing the semiotic elements onimages uploaded by @moduskeras account. Using theories about Instagram as social media, gender constructions, genderbias in online media, and semiotics. Using Peirce's semiotic analysis that carries three elements:signs, objects, and interpretations. The sign will then be categorized into icon, index, and symbol. There are 10 images which become the object of studyinghow gender is constructed. Researcher saw that 10 pictures have several aspects of the sign that can show how women's gender is formed. The 10 images then insertedinto four types of categorization: Objectivication of women's bodies, commercialization of women, women becomeobjects of fetishism and being passive, and women have limits and imprisonmentfrom the world. The result of this research is Instagram @moduskeras account constructswomen’s gender based on patriarchal system which women can not be separated from sexuality and become the object of men