Kvinnor sexualiseras för ditt nöje En multimodal kritisk diskursanalys om sexualiseringen och objektifieringen av kvinnor i publicerade Instagram-bilder

The objective of this study is to observe how women and their bodies are being objectified and sexualized through famous designer companies’ Instagram accounts. More specifically, this study is interested in defining which certain aspects of an image contribute to a dehumanizing and degrading view of the female sex, but also how women are being cognitively affected by this. To be able to specify which parts of an image confirm this specific viewpoint the study used a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MDCA) in combination with elements of a feminist critical discourse analysis. The two methods are considered useful for these types of studies due to their semiotic and feministic approaches that focus on depicting which connotative characteristics are present in images. In order to confirm the problematic aspects of the material in this study, results from previous scientific articles and theories were used in order to confirm or contradict this study’s research questions. In the end the analytical results confirm that the women present in the images that were selected for this study were being objectified and sexualized. The women in the pictures often wore tightly fitting clothes, underwear or were naked, which presented their bodies in a way which made them easily objectified by the observer and/or the male gaze, which means that the observer in fact could gain a sexual satisfaction through watching the women that were being portrayed. The results of this demonstrates the problematic aspects of female portrayal in media and why it could potentially be harmfu