Abstract

ANTELO GUTIERREZ, Mariana. Expression of the subculture of alternative physical beauty on Instagram: The role of influencers. Rev. aportes de la comunicación [online]. 2017, n.23, pp.09-22. ISSN 2306-8671.

The visibility and acceptance towards people that do not fit with the stereotype of physical beauty that prevails in the current capitalist system, has grown significantly in the last decade, which is mainly due to social networks like Instagram, where these identities were previously repressed, they can express themselves without censorship and show themselves as real personal, until they become influential people (influencers) with respect to the lifestyle they promote. The objective of this research is to identify what kind of visual, linguistic and management strategies these users have used to construct their discourse, in order to know how they have arrived to have that level of influence in a social network whose nature is to show lifestyles aligned to the capitalist and consumerist system. The research was carried out through a morphological and structural-semiological analysis of the content of five Instagram profiles of alternative beauty influencers around the world. The results show that the five profiles explicitly express their partial opposition to the consumer culture, all handle visual, linguistic and management strategies to convey their message, while the common strategy of the five profiles is to use their own body as the main object of alternative physical beauty discourse through photography and moving image, in orderto generate empathy with its followers.

Keywords : Alternative physical beauty; Dominant system; Instagram; Influencers; Strategie.

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