Representations of Femininity and Cyberfeminism on Instagram: Aesthetic Narratives, Digital Resistance and Reconstruction of Identity

This study aims to examine how femininity is constructed through the content of female influencers on Instagram and how these representations can be interpreted within a cyberfeminist framework. The central research question focuses on the aesthetic, consumerist, and identity-based strategies used to produce narratives of femininity on digital platforms, and whether these strategies carry potential for digital resistance. The research is structured using a qualitative method, specifically thematic analysis. In this context, the public visual and textual posts of 10 female influencers who appeal to various audiences and are rich in terms of visual and textual content over the last year were anonymized and thematically analyzed. The data were grouped under five main themes: (1) visibility of bodily reality, (2) critique of normative beauty, (3) exposure of digital aesthetic manipulation, (4) consumerism and the beauty industry, normative perception of beauty, (5) digital resistance and cyberfeminist performance. The findings were interpreted through Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity and the cyberfeminist perspectives of Donna Haraway and Sadie Plant. The findings show that female influencers largely reproduce normative notions of beauty, but in some of their other content, they develop methods of digital resistance against these norms. Practices such as body positivity, approval of normative female portrayals, and critiques of algorithmic visibility reveal the digital sphere as a space of both control and resistance. Therefore, representations of femininity on Instagram are not merely personal expressions, but also critical and potentially transformative articulations situated at the intersection of digital resistance and the reproduction of gender norms.