Between the Mundane and the Political: Women’s Self-Representations on Instagram

Abstract

Women’s self-representation on Instagram is often discussed in popular media in polarizing terms, as either an empowering practice or as boring and mundane. However, the political and the mundane are inevitably interwoven. This article grounds the discussions on how “the political” can be expressed through mundane Instagram practices on the analysis of individual self-representations of “ordinary” Instagram users (i.e., not celebrities or Insta-famous users). This research is based on a qualitative textual analysis of a sample of 77 randomly selected female Instagram users, ages 18–35, analyzing their photographic self-representations and its surrounding textual context—captions, comments, and likes. It explores how Instagram can broaden the scope of who and what is considered photographable, allowing for the representation of a wider variety of women and femininities underrepresented in popular media, and how this has the potential to upend hegemonic hierarchies of visibility. Following an Instagrammable aesthetic, these self-representations often take place in mundane contexts, as the photographable becomes extended to overlooked, yet essential, aspects of everyday life. It is in the context of these everyday self-representation practices that tangentially political themes become embedded, appearing in brief and often passing mentions that express self-worth, celebrate marginalized identities, or proclaim personal agency.