Not Disordered. Just Disciplined : A Multimodal Analysis of the Construction of Skinniness as an Identity on the Instagram Page of @theskinnisociete
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This thesis is a study of the most frequent linguistic and visual features found on the Instagram page of The Skinni Société. The focus of analysis is on how these features are used to construct a lifestyle identity around skinniness, and what the discourse implications of such construction are. The research material consisted of 36 posts made by The Skinni Société that included 1390 clauses used for linguistic analysis and 325 images used for visual analysis.
The theoretical framework was built upon Functional Grammar (Halliday and Matthiessen) and Visual Grammar (Kress and van Leeuwen). Linguistic analysis focused on the six Ideational clause types, Relational, Material, Mental, Behavioural, Verbal, and Existential, as well as their Processes and Participants. Visual analysis was done from the angles of Contact, Social Distance, and Power. Additionally, Critical Discourse Analysis was used to discuss the wider implications of the identity
construction.
During linguistic analysis it was found that the most frequent Ideational clause types were Relational, Material, and Mental clauses. The most common primary Participants in all these clause types were either personal pronouns, including you, “implicit you”, and I, or skinniness-related actors, such as The Skinni Société, Skinni girls, and living a Skinni lifestyle. The Processes and other Participants revolved around aspects of a skinny lifestyle, such as eating, exercise, discipline, structure, and transformation. They were used to characterise how a skinny lifestyle can be achieved and maintained through the guidance given by The Skinni Société. Visual analysis revealed that the images were nearly as frequently Offers as Demands from the perspective of Contact. The most common Social Distance used was Personal, followed by Social, Impersonal, and Highly Personal. Power was most frequently Equal, with Participant Power being the next most common and Viewer Power being the most uncommon.
Using the linguistic and visual features, The Skinni Société constructed a skinny lifestyle identity by creating a sense of community, establishing authority, and defining what a skinny lifestyle is. The identity constructed presented skinniness as a healthy, moral, and meaningful way to live. This supported pre-established societal ideas about skinniness as an ideal body-type and quality. It was found that supporting such ideas can potentially lead to people internalising them and trying to achieve a skinny body in extreme ways. This can lead to disordered eating, which adolescents are particularly vulnerable to. It was also discussed how the skinny ideal is expected more of women, leading to inequality in the time and resources required for societal acceptance.