Kingsley

1 Meghan Kingsley Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin WR 13300 9 November 2012 Girl Power? Femininity on Facebook How far have we truly come? Every day we hear about how today women are achieving more than they ever have, attending colleges in higher frequencies than ever before, and breaking out of the little box that society has historically placed them. Gender is a learned trait that is acquired through socialization (Goffman 32). Ever since birth, girls are expected to behave a certain way, as are boys. Whether we realize it or not, much of what we do is based on our perception of gender. Therefore, young women in society have to grapple with the freedom to pursue lives that werent seen in the past, and their traditional societal roles. With this in mind, I decided to explore how young women enrolled at US News Report top thirty universities portray femininity. Traits typically considered feminine include emphasis on appearances, emphasis on the body, dependence on others, and display of emotions(Rose et. al 603). I chose to study this group because they represent high-achieving women because theyve managed to get into highly exclusive institutions. Facebook served as a lens through which to observe the manifestation of female gender roles in intelligent young women. Since its inception in 2004, Facebook has had a distinct influence on American society. Its allowed for people to reconnect, discover whats going on in the world, and to share their photos and experiences with others (Newsroom). There are approximately one billion active users as of October 2012, and approximately 552 million people who log onto Facebook daily (Newsroom). Facebook allows users to comment on their friends timelines, provide statuses, like certain

Kingsley 2 things, and most importantly, upload photos. Motivations for using Facebook include gaining social capital by initiating and maintaining friendships and to create and enhance a self-image (Hum et. al 1829). Facebook allows the user to control what information about them goes online and is visible to other users, and this feature allows for the presentation of the ideal self. A main part of Facebook is engaging in identity management and controlling who you are online. According to Noelle J. Hum et. al in, A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, Seventy-four percent of college students reported that their Facebook profiles were accurate representations of themselves(1829). Therefore, college students actively engage in managing their identities online to match them with their true identity. Since Facebook profiles are thought to match the users true identity, the analysis of Facebook pages was a good way for me to observe how feminism played into young womens identities. To conduct my study of young women at top tier universities, I randomly selected twenty freshmen girls from the US News top thirty universities in the United States by using University affiliated Facebook groups and choosing the first name I recognized as a female. I proceeded to Facebook message them asking if I could use their profiles for my analysis and gave them extensive detail about my paper, how I randomly selected them, and that I wouldnt disclose their real names or identities. Of those twenty, I heard back from seven college freshmen women granting me permission to use their profiles. I observed their profiles extensively including profile pictures, posts on their timeline, cover photos, photos theyre tagged in, and more. Ultimately, my study concludes the way in which young women attending top 30 universities represent themselves online is mostly consistent with traditional views of femininity.

Kingsley 3 In our society, the appearances of women are seen as extremely important for social success. We see this portrayed in the media with high emphasis on womens appearances, more specifically their bodies, and how women can go about improving their bodies through dieting, exercise, and even cosmetic surgery. In A picture is worth a thousand words: A content analysis of Facebook profile photographs, Hum et. al state, gender stereotypes assume the focus of males is on his face and head, whereas females bodies are more central in photographs(1830). This focus on the female body adheres to our long-held societal views of womens bodies being objectified and that the body is the first thing noticed about a woman. This idea of body or face focus in photos made me wonder whether the self-selected profile pictures of my sample of young women would reflect this societal force. In order to evaluate this, I observed the first ten profile pictures of each young woman and determined whether the body or face was the primary emphasis of the profile picture. I determined this by whether or not it was a full-length, or faceshot, and the body posture in the photo if it was from the waist up. I found that sixty-two percent of the photos were, in fact, body focused. So why would young women center the majority of their photos on their bodies? According to Jill Denner and Jacob Martinez in Girl Wide Web 2.0, behaviors are chosen because they define for others who we are, or at least how we would like to be identified in the situation(204). Therefore, the pictures chosen to be profile pictures are body-focused because the young women, perhaps unknowingly, are trying to draw attention to their bodies so others, often men, identify them as attractive. However, its important to note that while many of the profile pictures were body focused, some of the young women had almost all face-focused photos. For example, Joan*, had only two out of ten profile pictures that I identified as body-focused. Therefore, Joans manifestation of feminism could more reflect her desire to be noticed for her facial beauty, not on her body. Its important to note that all of

Kingsley 4 Not only is the appearance of the female body viewed as important in our society, but also the way women present their appearances in general. Women are traditionally expected to look put-together and this expectation is even more pronounced on Facebook. In everyday life, a woman is bound to have an off-day where she puts no effort into her appearance, but those are almost certainly not the days shell be taking photos and uploading them to Facebook. Many of the Facebook profile pictures that I observed, included photos of the young women during special occasions, such as prom. Therefore, it can be deduced that an important part of being a woman on Facebook is looking physically attractive and put-together. Males were not observed in my study; however, from my Facebook experience I think they still try to portray themselves as attractive, but not to the almost obsessive degree in which many women do. This is a deeprooted societal norm in which women are expected to care deeply about their appearances. Showing the validity of this aspect of feminism, I observed young womens profile pictures displaying nice clothes, high heels, and excessive make-up. Also, I observed the classic smiling pictures present in almost all of the profile pictures. Typically males are known to show joke images on their profiles, while women try to portray more serious, classic poses (Rose et. al 597). However, there was an interesting deviation from this with Rachel*. In four of Rachels ten most recent profile pictures are clearly meant to be funny based on her goofy facial expressions or atypical clothes. Rachel refutes the typical stereotype that humor online is reserved for men, and that women are supposed to be more concerned with their appearance. In Denner and Martinezs chapter of Girl Wide Web 2.0 it states, online spaces are used to understand, negotiate, and resist cultural expectations about what it means to be a girl (214). Using her online identity, Rachel resists cultural expectations in regards to the usage of humor. Not only

Kingsley 5 does Rachels Facebook refute the idea of needing to appear attractive in all photos, but she also refutes many of the other typical female gender roles. According to Laura Buffardi and W. Keith Campbell in Narcissism and Social Networking Sites, Women display self-promoting and vain images to appear physically attractive and wear minimal clothing to appear sexy (1310). Traditionally, society and the media have told us that in order to attract others, women should post photos in which theyre scantily clad. Therefore, in my observations of the Facebook profiles I paid special attention to whether or not the young women wore minimal clothing to appear sexy and found overwhelmingly that they did not. The only photos in which I observed the presence of minimal clothing were two of the profiles in pictures of their Halloween costumes. Also, these were simply photos they were tagged in, not profile pictures, so even when there is a presence of minimal clothing, it is less pronounced. This deviation from the traditional view of femininity is most likely because wearing alluring outfits would not be seen as sexy, but as promiscuous and lacking moral fiber (Rose et. al 604). From my own personal experience on Facebook, girls who do post photos scantily clad are often gossiped about. Did you see that picture of her on Facebook? or Did you see what she was wearing?! are common conversations regarding the breaking of the social norm to not appear promiscuous on Facebook through attire. As stated in Girl Wide Web, like offline communities, there are rules of interaction online (Denner and Martinez 206). On Facebook, an unspoken rule is to dress in a relatively appropriate way. Young women realize that if they choose to put up those kinds of photos, it could actually worsen others impressions of them. Since one of the motivations for selective self-presentation as exists on Facebook is to enhance the self (Hum et. al 1830), the fear of forming negative impressions

Kingsley 6 prevents many girls from posting racy photos. Facebook is certainly not a judge-free zone, and arguably, many are judged harsher based on their Facebook pages than in their offline lives. Typically, women are displayed as dependent on others, and more communally minded. This comes from long-held stereotypes of women needing a man to provide for her and to take care of her (Hum et. al 1830). The media champions the independent man, and has historically left the woman to be the one saved by these incredible independent men. Oftentimes, independent women are actually viewed negatively because it seems to go against societal norms of interdependence as a vital part of femininity. Not only are women traditionally viewed as dependent on men, but also on each other. I evaluated dependence of my seven intelligent young women; again, viewing their last ten profile pictures. The picture was deemed dependent if the profile picture was with them and other people, and independent if it solely contained the individual. I loosely based this evaluation of dependence on the method taken by Jessica Rose et al. in the article Face it: The Impact of Gender on Social Media Images (603). After observance, I found that ninety-one percent of the profile pictures analyzed showed dependence through the presence of at least one other person. Consistent with the articles findings, the results for womens dependence were the most pronounced of any of the categories I chose to observe (Rose et. al 603). Not only were they not the only ones present in the photograph, but they sometimes werent even the focus of the photo. Initially, I thought that these young women would portray themselves as independent because theyre certainly capable of independence based on their prior achievement of admittance to a top thirty university. However, it may not be the capability for independence thats affecting this, but the societal norms present on Facebook. The young women may see it as vain to constantly show individual pictures, or they may want to advertise to the rest of the world the importance of relationships in their lives. Relationships I

Kingsley 7 observed in extremely high frequency in the Facebook profile pictures were those with men. Often times, these men were the focus of the young womens Facebook profile picture. For example, one of the young women, Brittney*, has her current profile picture of her, another girl and a boy. Brittney and the other girl are on either side of the boy and their bodies are oriented around him. He is clearly the focus of this photo, yet its the most important image of her page. Does this male-centralized photo represent female acceptance of male-centralized thinking? A possible explanation for this choice of photo is simply that this boy is important in her life and she wants him to be seen as so, or another possibility is the effort to make it known to others that she frequently interacts with boys in an effort to make herself more approachable in regards to men in general. Since theres another girl present in the photo, it can be inferred that this is probably a friend relationship as opposed to a romantic relationship. Therefore, this choice of profile picture could simply be trying to portray her as fun and friendly. Another noteworthy presence of male-dominance in profile pictures was Naomi*. In her past ten profile pictures, her boyfriend was present in every single one, oftentimes the focus of the photo. If her Facebook profile didnt bear her name, I couldve mistaken it for his profile. Clearly, based off her profile pictures, she is extremely dependent on this one particular male. Based off her profile pictures, it could be said that her primary identity in life that she wants to present to others is a girlfriend. Is this truly her identity? Or is she displaying her relationship online for the approval of others? Often in my study, I observed that the profile pictures displaying boyfriend and girlfriend received more likes than those pictures showing friends together. Also, many of the boyfriend and girlfriend photos had compliments such as You two are the most adorable couple! or How cute! Therefore, within the Facebook community it is seen as favorable for young women to showcase their romantic relationships. The young women learn what types of behaviors are

Kingsley 8 expected, or favored, online and control their identities online accordingly (Denner and Martinez 206). In reality, its possible that Naomi values her relationships with friends and family, and her independence just as highly as her romantic relationship, however, this is not the identity she presents online. Classically, sentimentality and emotionality are perceived as more feminine traits. In our society it is more socially acceptable for women to be in touch with their emotions and display them in public (Rose et. al 603). The same holds true online. In my observance of the seven profiles, I found sentimental photo captions, childhood pictures, family photos, statuses, and emotional timeline posts. Since all the young women I studied are college freshmen, there was great frequency of posts from friends or family saying things like Miss you! or Cant wait to see you over thanksgiving! Also, I found a very high presence of photos containing embraces of family or friends. One of the young women, Joan*, clearly placed a high value on her family because her family appeared in four of her last ten profile pictures. One of her photos contained her being carried by her father while she was wearing a prom dress. This clearly shows that she wants to portray her relationship with her family to others and stressed that importance in multiple instances. In two of the young womens profiles, their cover photos displayed family photos from childhood. This stresses their emphasis on family and on the value they put in their childhood. All of the profiles observed displayed at least some evidence of emotional relationships with friends and family and the primary reason these relationships were expressed is because expression of emotion in public by women is accepted and even encouraged by society. Recently, there has been an immense emphasis put on self-censoring Facebook pages because employers and higher education could see profiles and judge accordingly. There are

Kingsley 9 constant warnings about not to have any evidence of alcohol, drugs, or anything else employers wouldnt want to see. The dangers of posting these types of photos are stressed in schools and the media very extensively. Therefore, I expected there to be little, if any, presence of alcohol because the seven girls I was analyzing were most likely aware of potential repercussions. However, in three of the seven the profiles I analyzed, the young women were recently tagged in pictures holding alcoholic beverages. In most of the profiles, alcohol was only evident in some of the pictures they were tagged in, not their profile or cover photos. However, Brittneys* cover photo consists of her and about twenty other students from her top-ranked university drinking beers. She is probably aware of the consequences of alcohol on Facebook profiles in regards to employment because of the media, yet these photos are clearly present on her profile. She does have a closed profile, but the last post on her timeline was from her mother, so her mother has access to the fact that her daughters cover photos focus is on beer. This was an exception, because all the others I analyzed had very subtle, if any, reference to alcohol. However, this could be attributed to the fact that these seven gave me their approval to analyze their profiles. If they had incriminating photos on their profiles, young women might be less willing to give permission to have it viewed. Therefore, my results may not be representative of the entire group of freshmen girls at top tier universities. My results were typical of what I see throughout my usage of Facebook, however, my findings may not be entirely representative of my target group because of limitations of my study. The group of young women I analyzed all gave me permission to do so. This could have given me a different type of person because if willing to participate in the study, theyre clearly interested in my research, and open to sharing their profiles. Also, I only analyzed seven profiles, which could have skewed my results because it was such a small number. If I had

Kingsley 10 analyzed more profiles, it would have given me more confidence in the validity of my results. Future studies of feminism and Facebook should evaluate the ways intelligent young men portray themselves on Facebook and to compare the differences between the two. Also, the differences in self-esteem relative to gender on Facebook should be explored. The way in which young women portray themselves online is important because it reflects greater societal forces of the present. Young women should be conscious of gender stereotypes and how those manifest themselves on Facebook and other social networking sites so theyre aware of the way they present themselves and femininity as a whole. The women of today should be progressing, not at a stand still, like my research showed. Young women need to be aware of how they can bring about the change they want to see, including the way they present themselves online. Engaging in this case study really made me consider the ways that I portray myself online and how the way that I portray femininity. I realized that I too show many of the traditional views of femininity, but in realizing this fact its the first step forward.

Kingsley 11 Works Cited Buffardi, Laura E., and W. Keith Campbell. "Narcissism and Social Networking Sites." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2008): 1303-314. Sage Journals. Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 3 Sept. 2008. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. Denner, Jill, and Jacob Martinez. "Whyville versus MySpace: How Girls Negotiate Identities Online." Girl Wide Web 2.0: Revisiting Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity. By Sharon R. Mazzarella. New York: Peter Lang, 2010. 203-21. Print. Goffman, Erving. Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Print. Hum, Noelle J., Perrin E. Chamberlein, Anne C. Portwood, Amanda C. Schat, and Jennifer L. Bevan. "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: A Content Analysis Of Facebook Profile Photographs." Computers In Human Behavior27.5 (2011): 1828- 1833. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. "Newsroom." Facebook's Latest News, Announcements and Media Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Rose, Jessica, Susan Mackey-Kallis, Len Shyles, Kelly Barry, Danielle Biagini, Colleen Hart, and Lauren Jack. "Face It: The Impact Of Gender On Social Media Images."Communication Quarterly 60.5 (2012): 588-607. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.