Browsing by Author "Luyt, Robyn"

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    ‘#Strenght’: A critical investigation of the contemporary representations of men and women in fitness communities on Instagram
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Luyt, Robyn; Bernard, Taryn; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Contemporary linguists seek to describe and analyse all manifestations of language, including those occurring on the Internet (see Crystal 2011:1). Investigating visual and linguistic representations on the Internet can offer insights into the ways in which individuals view and participate in particular social practices. It can also highlight dominant ideologies about a particular social practice, ideologies which can limit participation amongst particular groups of people (van Dijk 2003:96). In light of this, this thesis explores the visual and textual representations of one aspect of social life (sport) on one Internet genre (Instagram). The analysis is limited to representations which include the hashtag ‘#strength’. Limiting the analysis in this way necessarily means that the data is representative of ideologies related to gender, strength and power in a sporting context. In line with more contemporary research into language and discourse, this thesis adopts the view that the visual and linguistic features of a text are not removed from the social context but can offer researchers a deeper understanding of the context in which the text is produced, circulated and read (Breeze 2011:521). By drawing on Fairclough’s (2003) method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), genre studies (Jones 2012), Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) framework for multimodality as well as feminist theory (Bordo 2004), the researcher ensures that the text is analysed and understood on multiple levels. An initial thematic analysis of one hundred Instagram posts with the hashtag ‘strength’ reveals that male and female users are still limited to traditional gender binaries that separate sport types as appropriately ‘male’ or appropriately ‘female’. This initial analysis also reveals that online representations of sport are still restricted by masculine hegemonic norms, as female users are overwhelmingly represented in individual, non-contact or aesthetic sport types. A detailed CDA and multimodal analysis of twenty purposively selected Instagram posts reveals the presence of shared visual and linguistic markers that perpetuate male dominance and female subservience. By drawing on social theoretical understandings of contemporary life, this thesis eventually argues that the narrow representations of masculinity and femininity present in the data set work to limit or even exclude both men and women from participating in certain aspects of social life.