Women's discursive performances of wellness on social media: a feminist critical discourse analysis

My doctoral research examines constructions of feminine
identity within female discursive performances of
wellness on Instagram. Wellness can be understood as a
contemporary health culture, encompassing a collection of
lifestyle beliefs and practices to promote mind and body
purification and optimisation. Both as producers and
consumers, women are more likely than men to engage
with wellness, often taking to social media to enact
performances of lifestyle correctness online. At the time
of writing, 43.2 million posts on Instagram appear under the
hashtag wellness, signposting content that enacts a visual
documentation of women's wellness journeys. Utilising
critical discourse analysis (CDA) through the lens of
feminist theory (Fairclough et al, 2011; Lazar 2005), this
research aims to understand and elucidate the ways
through which wellness discourses produce an idealised
'healthy' feminine identity, and how this relates to and
reinforces the ideological gendering of health and body
consciousness. Findings will offer insight into the socio political nature of women's health anxieties and their
relationship to wider structures of gender-based
oppression.