You've Got to Be Real: Authenticity, Performativity and Micro-Celebrity in South Africa

Abstract

For many young black South African women, the competitive arena of social media offers access to significant social and cultural capital, which can be invaluable in the unequal context in which they live. In order to succeed in this high stakes environment young women carefully construct the identities and idealised selves that they present on platforms like Instagram. They display a lifestyle of glamorous consumption, showcasing exclusive brands and fashionable items and modifying and modelling themselves to fit a beauty ideal that emphasises youth, light skin, slender bodies and straight hair. As well as these physical features, young women on Instagram are also hyper-aware of the need to appear “authentic”: to have their online lives and selves appear natural, easy and free of artifice in order to further enhance their status as role models to other women. This article draws from in-depth interviews with 10 black South African “micro-celebrities.” It reveals the central role of authenticity in these young women's online performances of self, and considers the contradictory impulses that require them to both “feel” and “appear” real. Within the framework of existing hegemonic structures, these women appear to be exercising their freedom as neoliberal citizens within a post-feminist setting. Despite the promises of freedom, however, this article reveals the way in which their performances of selfhood are powerfully constrained by normative ideas about aspiration and success.

“Protecting my Positivity”: Emerging Adults as Social Media Actors, Agents, and Authors

“…Just as their peers across the world, South African emerging adults use social media as a central stage for their personal and social development. It became clear how social media engagements permeates the everyday lives of this group of participants, echoing the findings of many previous research studies in this field (Bosch, 2020; Coyne et al, 2013; 2016; Dunn & Falkof, 2021; Hagedorn, 2016; Ohannessian et al, 2017; Ross et al, 2021; Vannucci et al, 2019). Participants agreed with the description of social media as a ‘super peer’ (Strasburger, 2012) and appreciated the fluid, flexible, and emergent nature of online groups and platforms (as mentioned by Noveck et al, 2021), which enabled a comfortable interconnectedness between their online and offline selves (Subrahmanyam et al, 2006).…”

“…Participants also referred to the negativity associated with extensive exposure to negative messages in particular and the dangers of social comparison, especially considering the inauthenticity of messages portrayed on social media, as also mentioned in the Facebook Influence Model of Moreno and Whitehill (2014). In South Africa, these dangers of social comparison are exacerbated by the economic inequalities, sociopolitical concerns, and social complexity of the society (Dunn & Falkof, 2021; Hendricks & Kanjiri, 2021; Oyedemi, 2021; Van Lill & Bakker, 2020). This also confirms the research of Vannucci et al (2019) who explain how Twitter’s emphasis on sharing news, opinions, and updates can increase anxiety and how engaging excessively with Facebook may provide opportunities for experiencing negative emotions, avoiding real-world problems, and encountering difficulty in facing developmental tasks.…”

“…South African emerging adults, like many of their peers across the world, are increasingly exposed to social media (Bosch, 2020; Dunn & Falkof, 2021; Hendricks & Kanjiri, 2021). Social media permeates the everyday lives of South Africans, shapes key aspects of contemporary sociality, and serves as a space for self-reflection and self-creation (Bosch, 2020).…”

“…Hendricks and Kanjiri (2021) warn that, especially in rural areas where there are large discrepancies between the expectations created on social media and reality, the use of social media can hamper the psychosocial well-being of the youth. In addition to this, Dunn and Falkof (2021) explain that, while social media can be a source of social and cultural capital where identities and idealised selves are constructed, these freedoms of expressions are constrained by normative ideas, existing power structures, and the unequal context in which many South Africans live.…”

Redes sociales digitales y violencia simbólica. Instagram y la imagen de la mujer

“…En ese sentido, el objetivo del análisis es la imagen, y como mostraremos, la imagen de lo femenino. Ciertamente el análisis de la imagen de lo femenino se ha realizado desde distintos derroteros (Firestone, 2012;Goffman, 1991;Illouz, 2014;Hochschild, 2008), además se ha analizado su impacto en la autopercepción de mujeres (Brown y Tiggeman, 2016; Lowe-Calverly y Grieve, 2021) o en cómo la imagen de lo femenino en Instagram tiene un componente central de performatividad (Dunn y Falkof, 2021), de suavidad (Schwartz, 2020) o de vergüenza corporal (Salomon y Spears, 2018). En este sentido, la propuesta de Pierre Bourdieu (1998Bourdieu ( , 2005 permite analizar el fenómeno que nos interesa: la imagen femenina en Instagram como parte de la violencia simbólica; violencia que se produce y se reproduce a través de la propia red social.…”