”Vad är det som är power i detta?” : En kvalitativ studie om gruppers sociala interaktion i samtal om feministiska budskap i modeföretags marknadsföring

Sammanfattning: In society there are several structural norms that appear taken for granted and should be discussed to be recognized. Furthermore, institutions such as corporations often incorporate stereotypical gender beliefs into their structuring such as in marketing. On the other hand, many companies nowadays aim to change their structural discourses into more feminist ones. This becomes evident in their marketing behaviors, where companies try to overcome stereotypical gender norms. The aim of this study is to investigate the meaning of social interaction in a group of young, female university students who discuss feminist messages in marketing. Previous research has, for example, shown that beauty industries use empowering messages in their marketing and campaigns to encourage women to be confident, while they continue to mainly focus on women’s external looks, therefore still objectifying them. This study uses the theories of the social construction of reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1991), and post-feminism (Gill, 2016). The data is collected from two focus group interviews with female university students in between ages 20 and 30. The results from the study show that the participants relate to some including and self-empowering messages in the marketing of the fashion companies, but the marketing mainly exclude different types of women by only using those with an ideal appearance such as thin looking women. These conclusions are mutually and critically formed among the participants because of the social interaction in a group. To broaden the horizons