Det viktigaste är att vara snygg : En kvalitativ studie av feminism i sociala medier och hur unga kvinnor påverkas av att följa skönhets-inriktade influencers

Sammanfattning: Influencers are the new opinion leaders, especially for young people in today's mediated society. Young women tend to follow beauty-oriented influencers, who are often using feminist messages in their content. The aim of this study is to investigate how young women, aged 16-19 years, feel that they are influenced by following beauty-oriented influencers and how they perceive the relationship between influencers, feminism and beauty. The study is also aimed to investigate the possible paradox that may arise in the relationship between beauty focus and feminism. This leads up to the following two research questions, RQ1: How do young women feel they are influenced by following beauty-oriented influencers in social media? RQ2: How do young women perceive the relationship between influencers, feminism and beauty in social media? The theoretical framework is based on a constructionist paradigm and consists more specifically of feminist media theory and theories about postfeminism, combined with theories about personal influence and representation. To conduct the material we are interviewing four focus groups. The material is analyzed through a thematic analysis. The results show that these young women are more positively affected by content they perceive as genuinely feminist, such as norm-breaking content, and more negatively affected by content they perceive as less feminist, such as norm setting content. The focus group participants also see a paradox in using feminist messages in beauty-related marketing. These insights can contribute to an increased awareness of what content in social media is more or less developmental for young women, and underlines the importance that influencers talk about feminism in a way that does not diminish the word.