Locating disability within online body positivity discourses: an analysis of #DisabledAndCute

Abstract

This article situates disability within online body positivity discourses through an analysis of disabled young women’s self-representation practices via the Twitter hashtag #DisabledAndCute. Body positivity seeks to challenge conventional beauty standards by incorporating previously marginalized groups, such as disabled women, into broader “economies of visibility” that includes visibility through social media hashtags. The selfie plays a vital role and is seen as a tool through which to acquire the visibility, “empowerment” and confidence required by postfeminism. Through discursive textual analysis of 133 tweets posted by young women, this article identifies the key themes and characteristics within #DisabledAndCute such as “Love your body” (LYB) discourses and body positivity; the complex relationship between feeling cute and feeling hot; and temporality and futurity. It analyzes how #DisabledAndCute upholds postfeminist LYB discourses but also exposes the limits of LYB discourses through expressions of ambivalence that offer important insights into how gender and disability intersect within body positivity discourses. This article also explores how the tweets both conform to and subvert the temporal logics of the selfie to make the disabled self legible and produce more normative self-representations.

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