Reading the Black Woman’s Body Via Instagram Fame

Abstract

Social media is a point where the discursive meets the material; where meanings are articulated and re-articulated and bodies that are physically/materially/actually oppressed within a sexist/racist society may be interpreted in multiple ways. Yet, we believe that because the world is neither post-racial nor post-sexist, there are limits to how Black female bodies are articulated and re-articulated, despite post-feminist assertions of women’s liberation. To illustrate this point, we offer a viral Instagram photo of a fourth-grade teacher as a case study. The photo serves as a cultural artifact evidencing the complexity of Black women’s self-representation on social media. This paper shows how Instagram offers opportunities for women to compose liberated conceptions of self, while simultaneously serving as a powerful mediator of domination.

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