Abstract
This thesis examines the effect of self-presentation as part of a feminist message. We are interest-ed in this because the group Girl Squad utilizes self-presentation as a part of their feminist mes-sage. The major part of Girl Squad’s self-presentation consists of pictures where they pose un-dressed which they have received massive critique for. Moreover, they are criticized for not being feminists and not including everybody. The criticism suggests that there is a disconnect between Girl Squad’s beautified and undressed self-presentation and feminism. Therefore, this thesis ex-amines how Girl Squad linguistically and visually arranges their feminist message, and how this message is conveyed through their self-representation.
The thesis comprises three different parts. In the first part we examine Girl Squads book Ludermanifestet (2017). This examination includes three different approaches to discourse: dis-course analysis by Laclau and Mouffe, critical discourse by Fairclough, and multimodal discourse by Kress and Leeuwen. Furthermore, we employ Butler’s notions and concepts on sex and gender to investigate Girl Squad’s feminist message, but also to be critical towards their self-representation. Secondly, we include a focus on Girl Squad’s Instagram profiles. For this examina-tion, we include Goffman’s concepts frontstage and backstage, and Meyrowitz’s further develop-ment of these concepts. Additionally, we include an analytic perspective with theory of Kress and Leeuwen and Butlers understanding of gender. Thirdly, we examine young media users’ recep-tions of Girl Squad’s pictures through focus group interviews. We base the analysis on a multidi-mensional model of Kim Schrøder focusing on the young media user’s motivation, construction awareness, position and understanding.
On the basis on our analysis we find common characteristics between Ludermanifestet in the first part and the Instagram profiles in the second part. The first analysis shows that Girl Squad’s discourses contradict their fundamental issues. We argue this is the case for the discourses in Lu-dermanifestet and the content on Girl Squad’s Instagram profiles, because Girl Squad uses exist-ing discourses to communicate a change for the perception of women. The analysis of the young people’s receptions shows that the young people understand Girl Squad’s body positivity as a fem-inistic discourse, but still characterizes the women in Girl Squad as trying to achieve acknowl-edgment and receive attention from the users. Furthermore, we discuss our understanding of Girl Squad and conclude three characteristics for the group that concerns their fluid message, their reproduction of beauty ideals, and their participation in online communities. Moreover, we in-clude the notion of Ove Kaj Pedersen on the competitive state to discuss the potential reason for Girl Squad’s behaviour as a part of the post-modern society.