Our submission for Digital Culture 2022 is a multidimensional research project on gender stereotypes and representation on social media, specifically on the platform of Instagram. We looked into the verified accounts followed by a random sample of students from Sciences Po, the campus of Menton, to examine the gender and category distribution. Briefly, we asked ourselves the following question: to what extent does social media reinforce gender stereotypes already attributed to professions and interests? Our hypothesis was that on social media, and more specifically, on Instagram, users, and in the majority, users identifying as male, choose to engage more with content and accounts that conform to and perpetuate traditional, stereotypical gender roles that emphasise athleticism and achievements in men and sexuality/appearance in women.
Although our findings from looking at the accounts that our peers follow were very telling and gave us an analytical picture of the issues surrounding gender representation and attention on a content-based platform like Instagram, it was interesting seeing people's opinions when asked about this topic. We talked to some of our peers and we are presenting here some notable answers, preserving their anonymity by randomly assigning numbers to each subject of our research, while F stands for female and M for male. We will refer to them with these numbers throughout this article, and if you're curious about all data collected about this subject, feel free to head to the "Raw Data" section of the website where you can find anonymous data corresponding to each numbered subject. In order to extract answers that would reflect our peers’ views on gender representation on social media, and to test our hypothesis for the impact of gender socialisation on social media consumption, we asked our peers the following questions:
1. Briefly describe yourself, your hobbies and your interests.
2. What do you think about the current representation of men versus women in social media?
3. Is there a gender disparity on engagement and attention that verified Instagram accounts get? And if you think so, what type of male versus female accounts have you noticed tend to get more attention and engagement on Instagram?
4. Do you think that the accounts you follow on Instagram accurately reflect:
a. your personality and interests?b. your opinion on gender roles?
M3, interested in sports, financial markets, reading and socialising, mentioned that he thinks accounts of women on social media get more attention for their physical appearance, while for men, the most popular content they can make revolves around freelance, and activities, less on their physical appearance. It is interesting to see how this person conforms exactly to our hypothesis, as he follows more than 30 verified accounts of men in sports and only two women, one being under the category of Model/Personality/Influencer. However, M3 states that he finds Instagram is more of a product market for celebrities nowadays, and he argues that his followings do not represent his interests.
In an exceptional case, F23, interested in painting, studying, cooking, reading, languages, and public health, follows zero male verified accounts. She says she chooses to follow female accounts that are ‘positive, relationship goals’, such as women athletes and lesbian couples. However, she also stated that her Instagram followings do not represent her interests and personality, as she chooses not to follow accounts so that people don’t see who she follows.
In another opinion, M10 says his followings are an amalgam of a few years of followings on Instagram and he does not attach much importance to them. In his words, ‘Instagram has become more and more of a trashcan, especially with reels’ thus the content he consumes on the platform is not something he aligns himself or his beliefs with. He mentions that on social media, looks are extremely important, which he particularly notices in women that try to follow the latest trends and strive for relevancy. In general, he says that both male and female accounts promote extremely unrealistic standards, however, men’s accounts get attention for ‘doing incredible, extreme and often dangerous things’, whereas women will get attention for appearance related content, like showing their bodies.
F25, when asked whether her Instagram followings align with her view on gender roles, said ‘I didn't make any effort to make it a good representation of what I think about gender roles’, further explaining that unless something isn’t alarming or extreme, she does not give negative reactions and will just skip what she is not interested in, so the algorithm never develops into a true representation of her and her opinions. What we found interesting in what she shares is the fact that despite her being mainly interested in crime podcasts, EDM, attending concerts, socialising and food, the female accounts that she follows are ‘mostly about makeup or about the female reproductive system and cooking or parenting content’.
Although we did have cases like F4, who said that indeed she curates her Instagram feed to only include people that bring inspiration, education or entertainment. Interested in arts, humanities, stories, dance and gym, she says that she gives her attention to accounts that she feels ‘have a story to share’. She says that on social media she often sees people promoting stereotypes of men and women, like for example ‘male politicians and athletes only post about how great and strong they are, while women post more things related to their appearance, or motherhood, which is something that gets a lot of attention’.
M12, interested in politics, travel, languages and photography also said that the accounts he follows on Instagram are mostly aligned with his interests and opinions. When asked about the representation and treatment of men versus women on platforms like Instagram, he believes that there is an evident difference when it comes to male and female accounts. He finds that men ‘are definitely overrepresented’ and that there are strict expectations of the content that is acceptable from men versus from women. He says ‘men can’t show emotion’ and women are expected to produce content that is ‘more sensitive and shows their caring, emotional nature’.
If most of our peers say that their followings do not align with their opinions, their interests, or their personality, this begs the question: what are Instagram followings indicative of? What does this choice we make, of seeing some accounts on our feed, on a daily basis, say about us? From our literature, research, and interviews we can see that people follow and engage more with accounts that conform in the traditional representation of men versus women on social media. From the interviews we conducted, we also found that most people are aware that this is a common phenomenon, yet they have not made an effort to actively engage and follow accounts that promote more of equal standards. What is more, we strongly believe that this phenomenon of conforming to gender standardized stereotypes is unlikely to go away as long as people continue to engage with the stereotypical content.