Tracing networked images of gendered entrepreneurship online

Abstract

This paper explores the importance of visualization online and the gendering of entrepreneurship in contemporary neoliberal times. We investigate how understandings of entrepreneurship are shaped by online imagery. Applying visual critical methodology, we trace and analyze 248 commercial images. Our analytic work explicates the visual construction of male and female entrepreneurs, leading us to further examine appearance, (in)action, and interaction aesthetics. Through detailed visual analysis, we unpack masculinities and femininities to theorize the resulting gendering of entrepreneurial aesthetics. In doing so, we consider the role of image networks in the reproduction of neoliberal ideals.