Slideshow activism on Instagram: Constructing the political activist subject

An emerging activist tactic on visual-based social media such as Instagram, slideshow activism adapts the production and consumption of political information to the logic of the platform. In so doing, slideshow activism provides followers with an ideal subject position for civic engagement. By examining a popular slideshow activist Instagram account, we outline the features of this activist tactic and its mobilizing appeal. The qualitative content analysis of a sample of 50 posts reveals that slideshow activism addresses its followers as individuals who are actively staying well-informed on the social justice dimension of a wide range of political issues and are constantly engaged in self-transformation in order to become better citizens. This ideal, we argue, entrenches social justice as a core political value for civic engagement, and recommends a mix of argumentation and personal transformation as the everyday means for individuals to bring about political change. We further explore the consequences of this subject position for citizen engagement with politics

Women, exercise and eating disorder recovery: The normal and the pathological

The appropriate form, regularity, and intensity of exercise for individuals recovering from eating disorders is not agreed upon among health care professionals or researchers. When exercise is permitted, it is that which is mindful, embodied, and non-competitive that is considered normative. Using Canguilhem’s concepts of “the normal and the pathological” as a theoretical frame, we examine the gendered assumptions that shape medical understandings of “healthy” and “dysfunctional” exercise in the context of recovery. The data set for this article comes from longitudinal semi-structured interviews with 19 women in the United Kingdom who engaged in weightlifting during their eating disorder recovery. We argue that women in recovery navigate multiple and conflicting value systems regarding exercise. Faced with aspects of exercise that are pathologized within the eating disorder literature (such as structure/routine, body transformations, and affect regulation), women re-inscribe positive value to these experiences, thus establishing exercise practices that serve them

The politics of #diversifyyourfeed in the context of Black Lives Matter

In the past decade, the idiom “diversify your feed” (DYF) has emerged concurrently with the rise of social media and communicates the idea that “following” accounts presenting a range of bodies and identities online creates inclusive digital environments and enhances wellbeing. In May of 2020, the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minnesota police has led to a surge of momentum for the Black Lives Matter movement, which has been highly visible on social media as well as in public life. As online communities grapple with how best to engage with anti-racism via the digital, a number of strategies have taken hold as methods through which individuals can actively challenge racism in their own lives and in the lives of others. Among the various strategies advocated is the idea that social media users “diversify their feed” by following Black influencers, activists, businesses, and creatives. In this short essay, we move beyond prevailing understandings of DYF as a practice to improve body image, to critically examine the ethics associated with this social media practice as a method of engagement with anti-racism

‘Shy girl workouts’ aren’t just a great way to get fit – they may also help women gain confidence in the gym

Social media is full of fitness trends. While some of these are outlandish or verging on dangerous, others are actually helpful.Take the “shy girl workout” trend. While this has been floating around the internet since late 2022, it continues to be popular online.The premise of shy girl workouts is simple. They are designed to use minimal space in the gym and only a couple of pieces of equipment – such as a pair of dumbbells.They’re targeted at women who may be beginners or who have anxiety about going to the gym, but still want to get a good resistance workout in without having to move around the gym floor or use complicated weight machines.While the initial benefit of these workouts is that they can help you get over your fear of going to the gym, they may also have the more long-term benefit of empowering users and helping them feel more confident about being in the gym

Moving Beyond the Image: Theorising 'Extreme' Female Bodies

Since their entry onto the competitive scene in 1977, female bodybuilders have been the subject of sustained debate among scholars from a range of disciplines. Within this body of literature, discourses are polarised and offer two opposing representations of the female bodybuilder; one of resistance and one of compliance. This bifurcation of discourse, we argue, is symptomatic of a more general occularcentric tradition within theorising on ‘extreme’ or transgressive female bodies. In this article, we unpack these disparate perspectives and by drawing on research relating to anorexia and fat studies we advocate for an alternative theoretical space, premised on the affectual relationality/co-constitution of materiality and representation, from which to approach female bodybuilding as a corporeal practice. Moreover, we propose that by developing an interdisciplinary approach to female corporeality (muscularity, thinness, fatness etc.), we can dismantle unproductive and ontologically redundant divisions which segregate and silo feminist writing on embodiment

#gainingweightiscool: The use of transformation photos on Instagram among female weightlifters in recovery from eating disorders

In this article, we explore transformation photos on Instagram as ‘digital artefacts’ that can inform understandings of eating disorder recovery in the context of sport, exercise and health. Transformation photos are two images (from different time points) set alongside one another to represent the changing of bodies in look, shape or size. These images are prevalent within eating disorder recovery and fitness spaces on Instagram and typically display an individual’s recovery journey through a before (thin) and after (more muscular) image comparison. By triangulating interview, photo elicitation and netnography data from research on female weightlifting as a tool for recovery from eating disorders, we explore transformation photos in relation to three intersecting themes; 1) new modes of ‘becoming’, 2) representation and ‘mediated memories’, and finally, 3) survivorship and identity. Our findings demonstrate that transformation photos are integral to the process and practice of recovery for women who use weightlifting as a tool for recovery from eating disorders. Moreover, we suggest that by engaging with a popular mimetic device (transformation photos), we were able to ‘meet participants where they are’ and offer a novel qualitative approach to understanding how digitally mediated lives are lived