University of Cambridge
In and Against: Becoming and Living as Women Food Influencers on Instagram and Red (Xiaohongshu)
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThe recent proliferation of academic interest in the influencer industry is often marked by a homogenized and Western-centric focus on precarity. In response to the need to contest and complicate existing understandings and to explore nuanced lived experiences, this thesis draws on fieldwork with women food influencers from Instagram and Red (“小红书” Xiaohongshu) to examine the hopes, frustrations, strategies, and resistances embedded in specific social, cultural, and political contexts and technological interactions. I ask: What motivates women to pursue careers in the influencer industry? How do they navigate daily interactions with platforms, brands, and audiences? What types of content do they produce, and what insights does this offer into their subjectivity and agency? Through semi-structured interviews with influencers from both platforms and digital ethnography of influencers’ content, this thesis documents shared experiences of gendered precariousness on three levels: motherhood, work, and body images. The first two are largely driven by the ideals of neoliberal feminism (Rottenberg, 2014), which portrays an idealized work-life balance, while the third reflects influencers’ reflexive awareness of the disciplinary side of neoliberal ideals. In their search for control and agency, they turn to influence as a response to these gendered constraints, which challenges an economically driven perspective on the influencer industry. However, by examining their interactions with brands and platforms with a focus on content creation, I reveal that influencers are often positioned within gendered power relations and engage in continuous negotiations of emotional labour, which I term an “emotional contract.” This contract situates them within a gendered neoliberal paradigm that holds them accountable for content performance while devaluing their creative contributions. Specifically, Red’s interventionist approach, reflecting governmental oversight, burdens influencers with balancing platform and brand interests. In contrast, Instagram influencers, who report less platform supervision, are more attuned to gendered expectations from brands. Despite these pressures, in striving to survive within the industry and managing the neoliberal imperatives embedded in their work, these influencers demonstrate a reflexive awareness that informs their subtle acts of resistance. To remain active in the influencer economy, they adopt a dual positionality- what I describe as being ‘in and against the platform’- enabling them to create content that both aligns with and subverts platform expectations. This struggle of aligning with and resisting neoliberal power is reflected in their content, which promotes a discourse of freedom from restrictive, gendered norms around food and beauty, resonating with the gendered precariousness they experience. Yet, in another sense, their content reinforces a neoliberal normative structure that influences consumption behaviours around food and wellness, leading to their own critique of these contradictions. In this thesis, I show that women food influencers on Instagram and Red are drawn to the influencer industry in response to precariousness rooted in class and gender. They inhabit a dual positionality of being both ‘in and against’ the platform to navigate this precariousness, platform cultures, and brand partnerships. I argue that they comply with but also reflexively resist and critique neoliberal culture and ideals. In doing so, they articulate a form of agency that is both ignited and constrained by neoliberal imperatives, while exercising reflexive opposition to its disciplinary aspects.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Cambridge
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2025
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Fan, Jiali
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Lane, Christel
Subjects
dc:subject × 7Rights
dc:rightsIdentifiers
dc:identifier.*- DOI dc:identifier.doi
- https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.121995
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/390445