Virtual Disclosures and Self-emancipations: The Female Body and Self-identity on Online Platforms in Phuthaditjhaba

Abstract

AbstractOnline social sites have become popular platforms for reimagining the self and (re)constructing identities. In a consumer-orientated neoliberal global order where bodies have become products to be branded, packaged and marketed, social networks have become ideal platforms for the representation and identification of bodies. Although some studies have examined the discursive construction of identities online, few have focused on the representation of the female body on social media and none has done so in the context of semi-urban spaces with a history of systemic underdevelopment such as the former Bantustan capital, Phuthaditjhaba. Thus, there is a clear dearth of knowledge about how we can read the impact of new technologies on the ever-shifting notions and perceptions of identity construction in such places. In line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal five, which envisages gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by 2030, this chapter investigates how women in Phuthaditjhaba have appropriated social networks to instrumentalise the female body as a site and mechanic of female emancipation. We used netnography as instrument to collect data from 30 women users of Facebook and visual/textual analysis as an analytical framework to interrogate how the participants constructed identity and represented the female body on the selected social networking sites in the context of emerging and historical dimensions and dynamics of Phuthaditjhaba. Results of the study show that social media networks provide women in remote areas with an opportunity to discursively challenge limiting cultural traditions and formulate empowering and experiential new identities.