The body and the city. Perceptions of an urban space in body positive blogs on Instagram

Abstract

The present study is dealing with a discourse of the corporeity in Russian body positive blogs in Instagram. “Body Positivity” it is a growing social movement and the media trend spreading the idea of a tolerant attitude to your appearance and body and to bodies and appearance of others. The present article is concerned with the comprehension of a body and urban spaces (particularly the city space) interactions in blog posts and commentaries to them. The comprehension is made within theoretical conceptualizations of body socialization in works of Rolan Bart and Jean Baudrillard, as well as of Michel Foucault’s concepts of body policy and Richard Sennet’s one of passive body. The present study provides a discourse and content analysis of body positive posts on Instagram by that the author figures out a list of the most common places/spaces where a body becomes actual or actualized what means the body perception causes psychological discomfort and deprivation. As a result, people often feel like they need an action or manipulation with their bodies to be taken against their will. Usually, it happens in food services, public beaches, and swimming pools, shopping centers, in public transport and in the city streets.