‘We belong to something beautiful’: Julie Vu’s and Madeline Stuart’s use of minority identity as a popular feminist self-branding strategy on Instagram

Tobias Raun, Maria Bee Christensen-Strynø*

*Corresponding author

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

Abstract

This article analyses the use of minority identity as a popular feminist self-branding strategy on Instagram. Zooming in on the internet celebrities, Julie Vu, a Canadian transgender model, beauty queen and makeup artist, and Madeline Stuart, an Australian photo/runway model with Down syndrome, we explore the ways in which they both engage in building and strengthening their self-branding practices by actively drawing on their own self-representational identity work as minorities. We situate Vu and Stuart within a framework of contemporary branding culture and popular feminism, and map their journeys as users of different social media platforms, as well as their locations within online celebrity categories, leading to an analysis of their current engagements with Instagram as their main self-branding platform. The article argues that minority identity, as it is expressed in the cases of Vu and Stuart, has become a significant, if not essential, element in the broader landscape of self-branding practices and strategies on social media.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftInformation Communication and Society
Vol/bind25
Udgave nummer12
Sider (fra-til)1790-1807
Antal sider18
ISSN1369-118X
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Important note from the Publisher regarding the attached version of the article: “This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Information, Communication & Society. Tobias Raun & Maria Bee Christensen-Strynø (2021) ‘We belong to something beautiful’: Julie Vu’s and Madeline Stuart’s use of minority identity as a popular feminist self-branding strategy on Instagram, Information, Communication & Society, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2021.1889638 . It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.”

Emneord

  • Instagram
  • Minority identity
  • popular feminism
  • self-branding
  • social media celebrity

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