In recent times, African brands have been featured heavily in global landscape fashion events, with brands from Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya leading the way. Although such recognition could be traced to their expertise, the unique approach of African brands involves putting out unique designs that easily stand out in the global fashion market. However, their uniqueness goes beyond the designs they put out, as it is also strongly expressed in their media messaging and, consequentially, their marketing strategy. This study provides a content analysis of the most important characteristics of eight brands from different regions of the African continent. It examines 20 photos each from their Instagram account, analyzing a total of 160 photos. Results point out the distinct market penetration approach of the different brands from each region and how it reflects in their media brand voice as a whole.

This thesis explores how racialized and gendered power dynamics are reflected in public discourse on digital replicas and the personal narratives of models. Using the lenses of digital capital and objectification theory, it examines how these power relations impact models' agency and ownership over their images and digital bodies. Employing a combination of critical discourse analysis and autoethnography, the research provides macro and micro perspectives on power relations in the fashion industry. The findings highlight how digital capital impacts who gets to shape the narrative on digital replicas and who reaps the benefits of these technologies. It sheds light on how racialized and gendered power relations intersect with objectification and digital capital, impacting who can benefit from digital replicas. The study highlights models' significant challenges in maintaining autonomy and control over their careers and public image. It suggests that new technologies, such as digital replicas, can further exacerbate existing inequalities. The findings also highlight how power dynamics on both a societal and interpersonal level shape the potential for digital replicas to enhance agents' control over models and intensify their experiences of commodification. By aligning with previous research on models' marginalization and research on how new technologies can intensify existing inequalities, this thesis contributes to the broader conversation on how existing power relations, labor, and technological developments shape one another.

The thought behind this bachelor essay regarding gender and rhetorical feminist criticism developed years ago out of the fact that I read just a little too many dirty chick lit-pockets as a teen. Those chick lit-pockets were my first introduction to sex, to gender roles, to how men and women react and are supposed to react to each other and, in some sense, even to feminism. Those chick lit-pockets, later turning into hardcore Harlequin-books, became my benchmark when I started to contemplate the fact that this is a man’s world, produced and reproduced by a male gaze which influences everything from sex, porn, advertising, gender roles, jobs and payment to dirty pockets for teenage girls. The essays aims to show how the male gaze-phenomenon could be to use for the rhetoric discipline: first combined with other rhetorical theories as a way to analyze and understand gender and objectification. The main question asked; How to put the male gaze on a rhetorical leash? This bachelor essay consists of a qualitative literature study focusing on four articles and one book in which five different male gaze-perspective appears. Every article presented will be followed by an explicative chapter in which the articles, specific male gaze- perspective will be combined with relevant rhetorical theories and applied to pop cultural example cases in order to demonstrate its academic potential. The conclusion of this essay establishes that the rhetorical discipline indeed could have great use of the male gaze-perspective while analyzing different kinds of artifacts, if combined with different kinds of methods. It confirms that it is possible to put the male gaze on a rhetorical leash and explains five specific ways to do so.

Objektifiering är en av de vanligaste formerna av diskriminering mot kvinnor. Befintlig forskning inom ämnet är övervägande kvantitativ och har i huvudsak genomförts på vita kvinnor i en nordamerikansk kontext. Syftet med föreliggande studie var därför att undersöka svarta kvinnors upplevelser av objektifiering i Sverige. Sju semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och analyserades genom tematisk analys. Resultatet utmynnade i tre teman: Objektifierad – hur, var, av vem?, Att vara ett objekt och Motståndskraft. Studiens resultat visade att deltagarnas erfarenheter har skett mot bakgrund av patriarkala samhälleliga strukturer i kombination med stereotypa föreställningar och fördomar om svarta kvinnor. Den vanligast förekommande formen av objektifiering var att få utseendet granskat och utvärderat genom blickar, kommentarer eller fysisk beröring utifrån fysiska attribut som är stereotypt kännetecknande för svarta kvinnor. Deltagarna beskrev att deras erfarenheter bland annat har resulterat i en ökad vaksamhet, kroppsupptagenhet samt påverkade och förändrade relationer. Slutligen nämndes strategier för hur deltagarna hanterade de påfrestningar som objektifiering innebar. Studien understryker vikten av ökad kunskap i samhället avseende vilka faktorer som möjliggör objektifiering av svarta kvinnor. / Objectification is one of the most common forms of discrimination towards women. Contemporary research in the subject is predominantly quantitative and has mostly been done on white women in a North American context. The aim of this study was therefore to examine black women’s experiences of objectification in Sweden. Seven semi-structured interviews were performed and analyzed through thematic analysis. The result ensued in three themes: Objectification – how, where, by whom?, To be an object and Resistance. The study’s result showed that the participants’ experiences have occurred as a consequence of patriarchal societal structures, combined with stereotypical conceptions and prejudice about black women. The most common form of objectification was having one’s appearance scrutinized and valuated through looks, comments or physical touches of those physical attributes which are stereotypical features of black women. Participants expressed that their experiences have, among other things, resulted in increased watchfulness, bodily consciousness and affected and changed relations. Lastly, the participants described strategies applied to handle the strain caused by objectification. The study emphasizes the importance of increased societal knowledge in regards of which factors enable the objectification of black women.

ABSTRACTObjectification of especially women have often been mentioned in connection to discussions concerning negative body image wherein individuals have been claimed to evaluate their body and look based on standardized societal ideals (Nash:2015, Hodgkinson, Wittkowski & Smith:2014). Studies have also shown that newspapers, magazines, and movies routinely present post-pregnancy bodies as something temporarily that women should strive to improve (Breda et al.:2015, Roth et al.:2012, Williams et al.:2017). Although, it has been stated that social media can work as a supportive and inspirational tool for this specific group of women (Baker & Yang:2017, Jarvis:2017) as well as platform of expression where users can shape and spread their own beauty standards (Cwynar-Horton:2016a, Guha:2014, Earl & Rohlinger:2018). Women’s thoughts of their post-pregnancy bodies in connection to the motivations behind their bodily exposure on social media platforms have not yet been examined, even though it has been claimed that this group is particularly vulnerable to body image concerns due to social media representations (Coyne et al.:2017). As a contribution to the field of post-pregnant body advocates affordances of Instagram, this paper has focused on Swedish post-pregnant women that have posted images of their bodies under the hashtags #mammamage (mum tummy) and/or #mammakropp (mum body). By applying affordance theory’s suggestion that environments afford different affordances for individuals, this paper has asked 94 post-pregnant women how they feel about their bodies and what they think of societal body ideals, as well as examined their motivations behind their use of Instagram with the aim to identify prominent emotional affordances. Here, objectification theory, comparison theory, postmodern feminism, and feminist reflexivity were used as supporting theories in the analysis of the data which was conducted through a mixed methods survey.The main findings have been that Instagram is seen as a platform that enables its users to experience emotional affordances of 1) criticism and comparisons, 2) inspiration and support and 3) acceptance, where post-pregnant body advocates are using the affordances primarily to visualize average post-pregnancy bodies, challenge standardized body ideals and get inspired or inspire other women into re-thinking the notion(s) of their post-pregnancy bodies. What this paper further has contributed with is a greater understanding of post-pregnant body advocates experiences of their own bodies, a broader perspective on post-pregnant body advocates thoughts of societal ideals, a more profound comprehension behind post-pregnant body advocates motivation(s) behind their use of Instagram, and new knowledge to the field of emotional affordances among Instagram users.Keywords: post-pregnant women, body advocates, Instagram, affordances, affordance theory, emotional affordances, objectification theory, feminist reflexivity, comparison theory, postmodern feminism, survey, mixed method

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(In English): This master's thesis examines the type and frequency of activities on social networks and video games with an emphasis on activities that support the objectification of one's own body or are in direct connection with it. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of these activities on the Czech national-wide sample, focusing on respondents who show signs of eating disorders. The evaluation was based on a questionnaire survey of more than 1000 respondents and the results were analyzed mainly by using contingency tables. Based on the results of this research, it is not possible to confirm a direct relationship between self-objectification and ways of new media usage, but some activities correlate directly with people who show an unhealthy relationship with their own bodies. In conclusion, specific steps are proposed for a more suitable survey of self-objectification and recommendations for further research.

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